Charlotte Foster
Family & Pets

"Ding dong, the witch is dead": Daughter's scathing obituary for late mother

A woman has taken her last chance to call out her "terrorising" mother in a damning obituary. 

Florence “Flo” Harrelson, 65, died back in February, although her notice of death wasn't published until August 29th by her estranged daughter Christina Novak.

The delay in the obituary came as a result of Novak not finding out about her mother's death until months after she passed. 

Novak noted in the obituary that her mother, a former U.S. Marine who served as a Maine prison guard, died “on Feb. 22, 2024, without family by her side due to burnt bridges and a wake of destruction left in her path.”

Her daughter confirmed that Flo had been suffering from cancer but ultimately died of heart failure.

She went on to say that it had been 10 years since she spoke to her estranged mother. 

“Florence did not want an obituary or anyone including family to know she died,” reads the obituary.

“That’s because even in death, she wanted those she terrorised to still be living in fear looking over their shoulders. So, this isn’t so much an obituary but more of a public service announcement.”

She also shared the obit to Facebook, and punctuated it with a line from The Wizard of Oz, writing, “Ding dong, the witch is dead.”

Novak told the Bangor Daily News she was “giggling to myself” while composing the obit, admitting she originally set out to write a traditional obituary, but kept drifting into sarcasm.

Novak even considered listing the ways in which her mother wronged her relatives, before stopping short but saying the reaction to the obituary was “priceless.”

Image credits: Facebook

Tags:
family & pets, mother, obituary, daughter