Grandmother attends funeral for wrong Ron Jones

A grieving grandmother went to a funeral to pay her last respects to an old friend – then discovered he was alive and kicking. Margaret Griffiths, 74, read a funeral notice saying upholsterer Ron Jones had passed away. So she pulled on her dark coat for the funeral where she mingled with the Jones family mourners at Merthyr’s Tabernacle Church. Margaret returned home to tell a neighbour about Ron’s funeral but was told: “Ron’s still alive. I saw him yesterday.”

Shocked, Margaret immediately phoned his home number to check and Ron picked up the phone. Margaret said: “I told him ‘I’ve just been to your funeral’. I said I’d read that he’s died in the paper and that I wanted to pay my last respects to him. He was a bit surprised.” Then she realised there were two men called Ron Jones of about the same age living in Merthyr Tydfil – and both had worked as upholsterers. Margaret had gone to the wrong funeral and her friend was in fine health.



Mother-of-three Margaret said: “I had sat in the chapel, said my prayers and sang three hymns for someone I didn’t even know. It was even more strange when my Ron Jones has told me he was at the same funeral himself because he knew the other Ron Jones. The right Ron Jones was in the congregation – if he’d walked past me I’d have had a heart attack myself! When he answered the phone to me later on I couldn’t believe it.

“But he was very touched that I made the effort to go to his funeral – even if he was still alive.” Margaret and Ron grew up together in the town and often bumped into each other. She said: “I only saw him two months ago so it was a bit of a shock to read that he’d died. I just didn’t realise there were two Rons – and they both worked as upholsterers.” Ron, 73, said: “It was very nice of Margaret to get dressed up for my funeral – I was quite touched.”