SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Aaron Jamison is dying from colon cancer and not wanting to leave his wife with bills after he’s gone, he sold ad space on his urn.
“I’m 400 pounds, so there’s enough ashes to go around,” Aaron joked Wednesday. And joking around is what he knows, since he’s a comedian.
His humor and contagious smile masks the reality that he’s dying.
“I found out I had cancer a year ago,” he says.
So worried that his wife, Kristin, wouldn’t be able to pay bills after his death, he conjured up the idea that his cremation would be sponsored with ads on his urn.
Kristin said she thought “it was absolutely tacky. But he kept talking about it and the more I thought about it the more I realized it’s his personality.”
“I wouldn’t say she said yes, but she agreed to let it happen,” Aaron says.
Sixteen companies bought ad space. But for this dog owner, two ads by the animal rights group, PETA, stand out. One against dog breeders that says, “People who buy purebred dogs really burn me up. Always adopt.”
And another blasts KFC with a line that says, “I’ve kicked the bucket – have you? Boycott KFC.”
“It’s hilarious,” says Aaron. “And in the end, I figured what the heck.”
Aaron will hand paint the ads on three urns: one for his best friend, his parents, and for his wife. There’s room for more, but the offer is now over – Aaron’s funeral is sooner than anyone expected.
“I had an MRI on Monday to tell me whether it was going to be three months or nine months, and it’s going to be three,” he says.
“Just the fact he came up with this idea to take care of me that means a lot that he doesn’t want to leave me with that,” Kristin says.
“If it’s possible to miss anyone in heaven, I’m going to miss my family. I’m going to miss my dog, and I’m going to miss my wife,” Aaron says.
Those urns will be on a turntable and spinning at Aaron’s funeral.
His motto, that he has had engraved on bracelets: “Cancer sucks, life is good, choose joy.”
Posted on April 30th, 2010 at 4:21 pm by Lin McNulty
0