Old lady who’s a funeral-crasher
Theresa is in the habit of gatecrashing the funerals of strangers where she tucks into the food on offer
AS MOST funerals are, this one is a sombre affair. The deceased is Catherine Whitehead, a woman who died of the endocrine disorder Addison’s disease, leaving family and friends heartbroken. After the service people gather in a nearby hall for the wake, enjoying a cup of tea and a bite to eat while sharing stories and memories of 42-year-old Catherine.
Among them is a little old lady, mingling among the mourners and munching on the buffet.
Catherine’s mom, Margaret, spots the woman and presumes she’s someone her daughter had worked with.
But when she goes over to speak to her, Margaret immediately senses something is amiss. “She told me she used to work with Catherine as a waitress. My daughter never worked as a waitress.”
It turns out the woman is 65-year-old pensioner Theresa Doyle – and she’s a funeral-crasher of note.
Despite not knowing Catherine or her family from a bar of soap, Theresa had no qualms about munching away with gusto. “She was eating from the buffet like there was no tomorrow,” Margaret says.
THERESA is a familiar and eccentric sight on the streets of Slough, an English town, where she’s often seen riding around in bright mismatched clothes on a purple bicycle. For the past 14 years she’s been attending strangers’ funerals, spinning a story of how she knew the deceased while tucking into the eats on offer. And she always brings a plastic container along, stuffing it full of food to eat later.
Neighbours say this is probably the only food Theresa eats and apparently she has no fridge or stove in her little flat.
British newspaper The Sun reports that Theresa has such a reputation in the town several locals have refused to advertise their loved ones’ funerals for fear she’ll turn up.
Theresa has been shamelessly passing through the doors of the town’s Holy Redeemer Church since 2003 and not even the priest has been able to stop her crashing strangers’ funerals.
Father Noah Connolly says he can’t exactly turf out the elderly church-goer who, he says, believes it’s her Christian duty to attend the funerals.
“Every funeral we have she comes. She’s a Catholic and she’s convinced she needs to go to as many masses as possible. I can’t exactly say, ‘You can’t come here’.”
But grieving Margaret isn’t impressed. “There’s mass every morning,” she says angrily. “She doesn’t need to go to funerals.”
Margaret believes Theresa’s behaviour is inconsiderate and disrespectful. “She’s only going where there’s a cheap lunch. She intrudes on people when they’re upset and sad. At the end of [Catherine’s] wake she took out a Tupperware box, filled it up with food and cycled off with it in the basket on her bicycle.”
When asked why she attends strangers’ funerals Theresa nonchalantly said, “That’s my business.” And before any more questions could be asked, she hastily added, “I have to go. I’ve got somewhere to be.” A funeral perhaps, Theresa? SOURCES: DAILYRECORD.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, THESUN. CO.UK