Unlike most obituaries honoring the life of the deceased, Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick's children wrote a brutal obit revealing the horrors of their mother. INSIDE EDITION has more.
It may be the most chilling obituary you will ever read.
The obituary says, "Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible."
It continues: "She neglected and abused her small children. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love."
And there was this final zinger: "We celebrate her passing from this Earth and hope she lives in the after-life reliving each gesture of violence, cruelty, and shame that she delivered on her children."
The scathing obituary has gone viral.
On the Today show, Matt Lauer said, "Normally they are glowing tributes. This was written by the children of the deceased woman. It is scathing."
Savannah Guthrie said, "It's almost too much to be real."
Just who was the mom who inspired such hatred? Seventy-eight-year-old Marianne Reddick lived alone in a trailer in Reno, Nevada with thirteen cats until she was hospitalized with dementia and bladder cancer.
The obituary was written by her 57-year-old daughter, Katherine who says she and her siblings were beaten almost daily, often with a belt buckle. Now, even in death they cannot forgive their mother for all those years of neglect and abuse.
Lance Van Lydegraf was the elderly woman's attorney. He said she died without friends or family. Her body still lies unclaimed.
Van Lydegraf said, "My initial reaction to reading the obituary was shock and amazement. She had been at home and collapsed, unable to get out of her wheelchair and into bed, and had been on the floor unable to move until she was found and brought to the hospital."
He tracked down her children, but they made their feelings clear.
Van Lydegraf said, "They wanted no benefits from her passing, no part of her estate, and, in fact, it was a relief to hear she had passed."