'I'm still alive!': 75-year-old man tells his friends who thought he was dead after his ex-wife erected his gravestone (Photos)

A Scottish retired welder has declared that he is very much alive after his ex-wife erected his gravestone which made his friends stopped calling him for months, thinking he was dead. 

'People think that I'm dead,' said Alan Hattel, 75, from Tayside, Scotland. 'My phone hasn't rung for three or four months. I've been confused by it all but now I know why nobody has been calling.' 

'I don't even want to be buried - I plan to be cremated.' Mr. Hattel declared: 'I'm still alive', as

he stood beside his headstone and said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

Mr. Hattel said he had realized something was wrong after he stopped receiving calls for the past three to four months, until he discovered that his gravestone was erected in Newmonthill Cemetery in Forfar without his knowledge.

He has now come out to set the record straight and let people know he is very much alive with the Angus Council officials now planning to put a cover over the headstone which bears his name. 

The 75-year-old claimed that his ex-wife bought the plot of land and put up the headstone with the intention of them being buried together. 

I've never, ever said I wanted to be buried alongside my ex-wife,' said Mr Hattel, who has two grown-up children with his former spouse.

'We've been separated 26 years and there's no animosity but I'm struggling to take it all in.

'To find out you have a gravestone in a cemetery while you are still alive isn't something that happens every day.