"Till death do us apart" has just found a whole new meaning in the case of Bill Standley who got buried astride his beloved Harley Davidson motorcyle.
Bill's burial is not a common one. It took him 18 years to prepare for his own burial so that his wish could be fulfilled - being the only man to be buried astride his prized Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Bill, of Champaign County, Ohio, died of lung cancer at 82. For many years he loved his custom-painted1967 Electra Glide cruiser. His family actually thought he was joking 18 years ago when he said he wanted to be buried astride it. But then, with the help of his sons Pete and Roy, he started building a steel-and-wood-reinforced Plexiglas casket around his Harley, which was being kept in the garage. Bill would bring his friends to the garage and show off his motorcycle, encased in the Plexiglas, and he would tell them that he wanted to be buried astride that very motorcycle inside that very casket.
He also purchased three extra burial lots next to the one of his wife Lorna, and contracted Vernon Funeral Homes to do the honors of an outdoor funeral, so that all his biker friends could watch him ride to his final resting place.
After he died, five embalmers worked to set him astride the Harley, and they used a metal back brace and straps to secure him to the motorcycle, never to alight again. He was wheeled to the cemetery in full view of the public, inside the Plexiglas case, and wearing black leathers, a white helmet and glasses, and with his hands encased in gloves and grasping the handlebars.
At first his family was wary that people may be shocked as the strange funeral procession passed by, but they went through with it anyway.
"He'd done right by us all these years, and at least we could see he goes out the way he wanted to," Bill's son Pete told the Associated Press.
Bill started fending for himself early in life. At the age of 13 he started working as a ranch hand and rodeo rider, yet kept a sense of adventure for most of his life. After settling down and while raising four children, he was able to retain his spirit of adventure in his life with the help of his Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Last year, Bill was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Despite the loss of his memory, his children made sure that he got the burial that he wanted.
"He was a quirky man," said his daughter Dorothy Brown. "But when it comes to us kids, he loved us, he raised us well and, of course, we wanted to help him."
