AN IRISH TRUCK DRIVER saw his dying wish granted after his coffin was driven to his funeral on the back of a lorry.
John Dineen, from Co. Limerick, made his final delivery, on time as usual, while his family and friends said their goodbyes in perhaps the most apt way they could.
John sadly passed away due to cancer aged 74, just four months after his wife, Nora.
Last Thursday morning, relatives, together with his former colleagues, organised the tribute by loading John's coffin onto the back of a Scania Topline 620 truck, the kind John had spent much of his career driving.
He was taken from Ryan’s Funeral Home in Ballylanders to the funeral mass at Knocklong church.
Following the coffin was the Volvo FM that John drove for years.
Limerick truck driver granted dying wish to have coffin taken to church for his funeral on back of lorryhttps://t.co/kY9u7V6AGP
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) December 6, 2019
John had worked as a lorry driver all his life, and spent the last 11 years with Martin Ryan & Sons in Cappamore.
He loved his work so much that he only stopped to look after his wife when she became poorly.
"He had his own built-in sat nav - he didn’t need Google Maps. John was loved by everyone, he was very popular," said his daughter-in-law Teresa.
"If John was delivering fertiliser he didn’t just know where the farm was, he knew the field the farmer wanted it in and dropped it there.
"He had no intention whatsoever of retiring when he turned 65. All he wanted was to be on the road and that was it. Himself and Martin Ryan had a strong bond, they had a great friendship," added Teresa.
She then spoke of her father-in-law's dying wish when she and her husband went to visit him in St Anthony’s Nursing Home.
"He said: 'I’d love my last trip to be on a truck but I know that’s not going to happen,' " said Teresa.
"We said: ‘If you want to go in a truck I am sure we can make it happen.
"That is how it call came about. I was saying it to Martin Ryan and he said they would bring one of the trucks they use for the truck shows and then have the lorry John drove behind it. John also requested that he wanted to be laid out in his Martin Ryan & Sons jacket," said Teresa.
