Legal humour.

• Author: Fradsham, Allan A.
• Position: Reprint

As I was reading the newspaper recently, the following headline caught my attention:

"Woman Marries Dead Boyfriend"

I checked the masthead of the paper to ensure Gloria hadn't slipped in a copy of the National Enquirer. No, it was the sedate, old Calgary Herald. I read on.

It seems French law allows, with Presidential approval, living people to marry dead people. This is not to be confused with living people marrying living people who they later find out are as good as dead, or even, in extreme cases, should be dead. No, these spouses are dead from the get-go (or is that stand-still)?

These marriages are usually the result of tragic circumstances in which the intended dies before a marriage can occur. So, rather than cancel the caterer, one continues with the wedding. With a dead male, the blushing bride becomes a mourning widow all in one efficient ceremony. I suppose the ceremony is the quintessential "black and white affair".

Can you imagine the variations one could do on the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" skit? "No, madam, he is not dead. He's just quietly listening."

In a subsequent article I read, the bride/widow was reported as being "keen to publicize her decision in the hope other countries will follow suit and allow their citizens to handle their grief as she has done." That is a lovely sentiment. Perhaps while the Supreme Court of Canada is contemplating the concept of same sex marriage, they could also give a thought as to whether both or either of the participants must be alive. That would liven things up, so to speak.

I keep thinking about the part of the marriage ceremony where the person officiating asks: "Does any person know of any just cause why these two people cannot be married?"

I have the image in my mind of someone standing and saying: "You mean apart from the obvious fact the groom is dead and buried? Well, he was married to me when he died."

Doubtless the wise official will respond: "That doesn't matter. When he died that marriage ended, so he is now free to marry...