When people come across dead bugs, they usually do one of a few things: They dispose of the dead bug, they keep far away from the dead bug, they pay the dead bug no mind. They usually don’t build shrines to the dead bug, but that’s exactly what a few students in the music school did.

It all started with a dead cockroach in a Moody Hall stairwell. A student initially paid their respects by hanging up a small paper gravestone for “C. Roach,” and according to Charlie Snead, a senior majoring in music performance, it only escalated from there.

“I walked by it on my way to class and it gave me a second to stop and laugh, so I found a flower outside to put beside it to pay my respects as well,” Snead said. “The next day I walked by to find that someone had added family photos of the roach’s life. It became a great part of my commute to my class everyday to see what people had added to it. People added a coffin, a candle, a short memorial eulogy written on notebook paper, money, a cast of other little toy insects to act as funeral guests and other random things.”

As if this doesn’t sound crazy enough, the  “roach” family photos had titles such as “leaving home for college,” featuring C. Roach crawling out of a drain, and “first job after graduation,” with C. Roach crawling on a piece of food. What’s more, nobody can seem to figure out who wrote the hilarious eulogy, which featured lines such as: “I remember when we walked along the beach in Daytona: you resting on my shoulder. Were we happy?”

“Everyone in the music department has been trying to find whoever wrote it, and we’ve had no luck.” said Luke Foster, a sophomore majoring in music education.

A dead cockroach may not be who you would expect to bring a community together, but that’s just what C. Roach did. Different students who had never met before all chipped in to bring the scene up a notch and to add their own touch of creativity to the display.

“I love how the entire music school community came together to do something like this. … Everyone contributed something to it and made it better and better each day,” said Jessalyn Miller, a sophomore majoring in general music.

Faculty and staff were even included in the tribute, with professor Kevin Woosley sharing his own touching memories about what C. Roach meant to the occupants of Moody Hall.

“For many weeks, Roach scouted the outer perimeter of the Moody Music Building. Tirelessly he worked night and day to protect out music students, faculty and staff from mosquitoes, quad squirrels and unruly Auburn fans,”Woosley said.

What’s more, C. Roach’s small stairwell shrine reached far past the walls of Moody Hall, spreading across campus as passerbys sent pictures to their friends or posted about it on social media.

“I stumbled upon it one day while running late to my 8 a.m. and I thought it was too funny not to share,”  Alexandrea Nessi, a senior majoring in vocal performance, said. “I love it because I feel like it captures the strange and wonderful sense of humor that I see around the music school. Even though we may be super busy and we are often thought of as being super-serious classical musicians, we still find small ways to keep our space as quirky as we are.”

After attracting quite an impressive attendance at its funeral, C. Roach mysteriously disappeared this week, presumably moving on to a better place. While the memorial may be gone, a lot can be learned from the students of Moody Hall and the gesture they made to a dead bug. Maybe not all dead cockroaches across campus should get elaborate funerals, but amid the stress of college, maybe some unexpected humor can be found where it is least expected.