Woman buried in Russia with 5-ft iPhone tombstone

MOSCOW: A woman was buried in Moscow with a bizarre tombstone of an iPhone.

Rita Shameeva died in January 2016 from an unknown cause but her father Rais Shameev only recently decided to put up the bizarre memorial. Made from basalt, the headstone is in the shape of a black iPhone and has a picture of the dead woman as the ‘screensaver’, according to Daily Star.

Mourners in the Russian city of Ufa were amazed to see the huge tombstone erected over the burial plot in Yuzhnoye cemetery. The 5ft high monument towers above other gravestones in Yuzhnoye cemetery. Rita’s father has not commented on the unusual memorial. Local headstone maker Ilgam Galliulin denied he was responsible for its design.

He said: ‘My father and I make monuments to order. But I saw this unusual one for the first time last week.’

Mourner Nikolay Yevdokimov told newspaper ProUral: ‘I thought I was having hallucinations. How could an American smartphone suddenly appear at our cemetery? And such a huge one. ‘I came closer and was surprised. I’ve seen many gravestones, but to make one in the form of iPhone – this is the first time, to be honest. ‘It was made for a young woman from black basalt most likely. Very unusual.’ Little is known of Rita except that she was a keen traveller and had friends in Germany. She also loved her phone.

The grave is believed to have been commissioned from a Siberian company which offers ‘death accessories’.