5-Year-Old Boy Died From Cancer, But Prepared His Own Obituary
VAN METER, Iowa (CNN) - "My name is: Garrett Michael Boofias. My birthday is: I am 5 years old. My address is: I am a Bulldog! My favorite color is: Blue... and Red and Black and Green."
These lines mark the beginning of Garrett Michael Matthias' obituary, words that he spoke to his parents before losing his battle to a rare form of pediatric cancer.
The Iowa boy made up the surname 'Boofias' because his real name was too hard for him to pronounce. He also went by 'The Great Garrett Underpants.'
In his obituary, Garrett expressed his love for Batman and Thor and his family. He hated pants and needles and his illness. He was diagnosed with cancer nine months ago, and died Friday.
"We never necessarily talked about his funeral, so we never had the conversation with him that he was going to die," his mother, Emilie Matthias, told WHO-TV. "But we had a lot of conversations around, 'When I die, I want to do this.'"
Garrett planned an imaginative funeral, with five bouncy houses -- one for each year of his life -- snow cones and, of course, Batman. "I want to be burned (like when Thor's mommy died) and made into a tree so I can live in it when I'm a gorilla," Garrett wrote. And he wanted fireworks.
"That's him speaking. Those are his words verbatim," Garrett's father, Ryan Matthias, told WHO-TV. "When I read it, I'm just like... wow. Sounds like Garrett just yapping at me."
Garrett's parents said that they will honor the boy's wishes with a symbolic Thor-influenced burial ceremony and fireworks on Saturday. "A private burial of Garrett's ashes will be held at a later time once his parents figure out how the hell to get his ashes made into a tree and locate a nature preserve, so his tree resides in a protected area," they wrote.
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