At Wake, Family Picks Unusual Way To Remember New Orleans Teen

NEW ORLEANS, LA — Among the things Renard Matthews loved in his short 18 years of life were the Boston Celtics and video games. So, rather than place his body in a traditional coffin, his family chose to surround him with the things he loved at his wake Sunday.

Dressed in a Celtics jersey and holding a video game controller, he sat in a chair in front of the television set surrounded by his favorite snacks.

The request for "extreme embalming" wasn't that unusual, according to a spokesperson from the Charbonnet Labat Glapion Funeral Home in Tremé, which is handling the arrangements.

“One time, we stood a deceased drummer from a grassroots band at a drum set,” the spokesperson told Yahoo Lifestyle. The funeral home recruits specialists to prepare the deceased's body, and costs vary depending on the details of the service, the spokesperson said.

In 2014, the funeral home hosted a wake for Miriam "Mae Mae" Burbank, 53, whose fingernails were painted black and gold — the Saints' colors. She was posed at a table with beer, a menthol cigarette and an ashtray.

Burbank was a “party girl” by her loved ones, including sister Sherline Burbank, who told television station WGNO that seeing Burbank in her element was a comfort.

“When I walked in, I feel like I was in her house and I didn’t hurt so much,” Sherline Burbank told the television station. “Because it’s more of her, and it’s like she’s not dead. It’s not like a funeral home. It’s like she’s just in the room with us.”

Not everyone thought the send-off was a good idea.

“A lot of people didn’t accept what I was doing,” Zymora Kimball, Burbank's daughter, told the news station. “I didn’t let that stop me, and I know she’s happy with how she’s looking. That’s her, that’s Mae.”

Matthews was shot in the head at about 9:40 p.m. June 25, according to New Orleans police. Police have not released a motive, but the teen’s family members told the Times-Picayune newspaper that his cellphone was stolen.

A woman who lives in the area told the Times Picayune newspaper that she heard about five gunshots before she saw Matthews lying on the ground.

“We got to do better than this,” she said.

The teen will be buried Tuesday, according to television station WDSU, which shared photos of the unusual wake on its website. You can read Matthews’ full obituary here.

Melvin Morgan stopped and talked to the teen as he was walking his dog a few hours before he was shot, the Times-Picayune reported. He was “a nice young man,” Morgan said.

Temeka Matthews, told television station WGNO her son was something of a homebody, but she got him a dog last month, and he enjoyed taking the pooch for walks.

Natasha Joseph, his aunt, told the Times-Picayune that Matthews was a high school student who played recreational football and softball, and was a member of a solid, hard-working family. His mother runs a daycare in the neighborhood.

Photo via Shutterstock / media_digital