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Epitaph of John Laird McCaffery

Free your body and soul
Unfold your powerful wings
Climb up the highest mountains
Kick your feet up in the air
You may now live forever
Or return to this earth
Unless you feel good where you are!

Mr. McCaffery (1940 - 1995) is buried in Montreal's Cimetiere Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. The epitaph is an acrostic poem, in that the first letters of each line spell out an additional message. Like most cemeteries, there are rules governing what may be engraved upon a tombstone, so pejorative sentiments like the one expressed here can only be expressed surreptitiously.

The motive of his friends is unknown. However, the Montreal Mirror quoted the gravestone's engraver as saying that the stone was ordered jointly by McCaffery's ex-wife and his mistress... They said the message represented him. It was a thing between the three of them.

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