14 DAY TRIAL // 82-year-old Bill Standley was a huge motorcycles enthusiast throughout his entire life. Hence the fact that, when he died, his family buried him astride his 1967 Harley-Davidson.
What's more, the man was laid to rest in the ground in full biking gear, as shown in the picture next to this article.
Media reports say that, as surprising as this may sound, Bill Standley started making plans for this unusual burial some 18 years before he passed away due to lung cancer.
Apparently, he got the idea that he should not be lowered in the ground in a casket, but atop his beloved bike while making jokes about whom of his children was the most worthy to inherit the Harley-Davidson.
“He said, ‘What am I supposed to do? I've got two sons, only got one bike.’ My sister just off-handedly said, ‘Oh, dad just be buried with it,’” daughter Dorothy Brown told the press.
“I think it was about two weeks after that that it really hit him - what a great idea. We all still thought he was kidding. Eighteen years later, guess what?” she went on to explain.
Although the idea to be buried together with his bike came to Bill Standley nearly 2 decades ago, it was about 6 years ago when he actually started taking steps towards making sure that this dream of his would become a reality.
Thus, together with his sons, he pieced together a plexiglass casket big enough to accommodate for him and his bike, Sky News reports.
Besides, he purchased three burial plots, so that there would be enough room for the casket holding his body and the Harley-Davidson to be lowered into the ground. These plots sit next to Bill Standley's wife resting place.
The funeral was held at Fairview Cemetery in Mutual this past Friday, and the man's relatives are more than pleased about having managed to help Bill Standley fulfill his dream to be buried astride his bike.