Rest in Peace ... and Comfort
Have you ever heard the saying, "Americans love their cars?" Well, Sandra Illene West took her love affair to an extreme.
Ms. West was a Texas oil heiress and Beverly Hills socialite. Upon her death, her will directed that her late husband’s brother bury her dressed in a “lacy nightgown” reclined in the front seat of her 1964 powder-blue Ferrari. Not sure what this exactly means or what she did in this car during her life while in a lacy nightgown, but it does sound interesting.
So why would her husband's brother do what the will directed him to do and waste a perfectly good powder blue Ferrari? Well as an incentive for the brother to carry out her wishes, Ms. West's will specified that the brother would receive $2 million dollars if he did what she asked, but only $10,000 if he didn’t.
What would you do? Well, for the brother, the decision was easy. He dressed Ms. West in a lacy nightgown and put her in the front seat of her Ferrari at a comfortable slant. He had the car encased in a box measuring 6 by 8 by 15 feet. The box was then hauled on a flatbed truck to the grave site in the Alamo Masonic Cemetery in San Antonio Texas, and was placed in a nine foot deep hole. To protect it from vandals, a concrete mixing truck poured cement over and around the box.
Ms. West is not only resting in peace, she is resting in the comfort of her own car.