'I Am Completely Dead Now': Indiana Man Pens His Own Obituary Before Fatal Crash in Self-Made Plane

Yahoo

15-05-2025

72-year-old Gary Wolfelt wrote his own comedic obituary before dying in a plane crash earlier this month
The Indiana man crashed his self-made plane in Ohio on May 5
Wolfelt wrote that he had many near misses in his life, stating, 'I am surprised that it took this long to happen.'A man from Indiana wrote his own comedic obituary before dying in a plane crash earlier this month.
According to Fox59, 72-year-old Gary Wolfelt crashed his self-made plane in Ohio on May 5. Although he didn't know he would pass away in the crash, he explained in his orbit that he had had many near-death experiences in his life.
'I am completely dead now,' he wrote in an obit published on May 8 — three days after he died. 'I am surprised that it took this long to happen.'
'I had several close calls throughout my lifetime. I guess that I was just lucky that something didn't get me long before now,' he added.
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Wolfelt said there was a 'long series of events and mishaps' that 'should have killed me long ago.'
This included a baseball landing on his forehead in grade school, his sister's horse kicking him in the gut, being hit by a car and a large brick chimney nearly falling on him.
'In my fifties, I got knocked down nineteen stairs at my office by a couple of hundred pound concrete lined safe which landed on top of me and pinned me to the floor,' he added. 'That one was the worst! I didn't get any body parts broken and no internal injuries.'
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Wolfelt continued that after falling from a scaffold and cracking his head in his sixties, he was forced to go to the doctors, who discovered that he had prostate cancer.
While the cancer was found early, Wolfelt's needed to have his prostate removed in his early seventies.
'The surgery went well. But then I developed an internal leak that nearly killed me,' he said.
'I cannot tell you here what sort of event actually killed me as I wrote this obituary before I was completely dead. Someone else will have to fill in the details later on I guess," he continued.
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Wolfelt went on to apologize to anyone he may have 'offended or mistreated" during his life, "especially Anoma Hargis in the sixth grade.'
He also took time to appreciate his wife Esther Chosnek — whom he married in 1982 — for being 'nice to me most all of the time, even when I spent the grocery money on tools and airplane parts.'
Highlighting his life achievements, he wrote, 'I stayed lovingly married to the same woman for a long time. I cut about 100 cords of firewood. I fixed a lot of problems for a lot of people over the last fifty years.'
'I paid all of my bills with my own earnings. I only took welfare (Social Security) after I retired,' he continued, 'I would like to thank those of you who loved me while I was here on Earth. It really meant a lot to me. And I appreciate your letting me love you right back.'
At the end of the obit, Wolfelt's wife Chosnek added that 'it took him 17 years to build his beloved Express Aircraft.'
Wolfelt is survived by his wife, brother, sister, two brothers-in-law, and 'several nieces and nephews.'
Read the original article on People