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Man turns up at his own funeral

A Brazilian man surprised his friends and family by turning up at his own funeral.

Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, a bricklayer, had identified him as the victim of a car crash in Parana state.

Police told O Globo newspaper that relatives had trouble identifying the body because it was badly disfigured.

It emerged that Mr Goncalves had spent the night drinking a rum-like liquor called ‘pinga’ with his friends. He did not get word of his funeral until it was already happening, according to his niece Rosa Sampaio.

She said some family members - including herself and the man’s mother - had doubts, but an aunt and four friends had positively identified the body.

“What were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral,” she told O Globo.

A police spokesman welcomed the happy ending: “Before long, the walking dead appeared at the funeral. It was a relief,” he said.

The body was correctly identified later, he said, and buried in another state.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .