What's to Become of You?

[Moondance]

1. Cremation ... and then what: Kept in an urn on the mantel? Buried? Scattered?

 

2. Embalming and burial?

 

3. "Green" burial? ("An unencumbered return to earth and re-entry into the life cycle. No embalming, no vault, no casket. The materials used to enshroud the deceased are readily biodegradable, allowing your body to be the nourishing compost from which a new forest will grow...")

 

4. Or do you have some other plan?

[+ Autumnal]

#3 please. The thought of being entombed in any manor gives me the creeps. Send my energy back out into the universe from which it came.

[Chuckball]

Cremation or burial? Does it matter? You're dead. Funerals are for the living not the dearly departed. I have an ongoing argument with family who prefer the "traditional" practice of funeral home visitation, open casket and church service. For me, my preference would be no visitaton, closed casket and no religious service. Perhaps a family and friends meal at a local restaurant to share stories and perhaps a few laughs.

[LaffingBear]

I have left instructions to be packaged and shipped to Amazon. Since Amazon's new delivery drivers never get anything right, I'll be some stranger's problem.

[Rudynate]

1. Cremation ... and then what: Kept in an urn on the mantel? Buried? Scattered?

 

2. Embalming and burial?

 

3. "Green" burial? ("An unencumbered return to earth and re-entry into the life cycle. No embalming, no vault, no casket. The materials used to enshroud the deceased are readily biodegradable, allowing your body to be the nourishing compost from which a new forest will grow...")

 

4. Or do you have some other plan?

 

 

For me, cremation, no service, lunch for family and friends at a nice place. Plant a tree in the back yard, dump the ashes in the bottom of the hole.

[+ Tarte Gogo]

1. Cremation ... and then what: Kept in an urn on the mantel? Buried? Scattered?

 

2. Embalming and burial?

 

3. "Green" burial? ("An unencumbered return to earth and re-entry into the life cycle. No embalming, no vault, no casket. The materials used to enshroud the deceased are readily biodegradable, allowing your body to be the nourishing compost from which a new forest will grow...")

 

4. Or do you have some other plan?

 

4. Mine is 4: body given to science. They can use it to teach student doctors how to do surgery, and all the other stuff that you cannot train on a live human body in case you make a big mistake with the scalpel.

Or anything else they can think about (forensic research etc.).

 

It is not like I am going to miss it.

[+ StLouisOct]

Cremation for me, then deposited out in nature. Not on the mantel. I keep thinking of the story about the wife’s ashes in an urn on the table, into which people often flicked their cigarette ashes. Several years later someone glanced in and said, “My God, Sylvia’s sure gained a lot of weight.”

[Kippy]

I'm cutting out the middle man entirely and donating my body to science. No wake, funeral or graveside services. When the medical folks are done with using my remains what is left is cremated and can be sent to my relatives for burial on top of one of my other family members in the family plot. My flat marker can read "Peace at Last" or "People are a Mess"-- I haven't decided which one I like the best!

 

Kipp

[gallahadesquire]

I'm cutting out the middle man entirely and donating my body to science. No wake, funeral or graveside services. When the medical folks are done with using my remains what is left is cremated and can be sent to my relatives for burial on top of one of my other family members in the family plot. My flat marker can read "Peace at Last" or "People are a Mess"-- I haven't decided which one I like the best!

 

Kipp

 

You might want to find out what they do with the cremated remains after "dedicating your body to Science." I don't remember if they are separately cremated, or if it is a mass cremation. Lovely idea, though.

[Moondance]

I'm cutting out the middle man entirely and donating my body to science. No wake, funeral or graveside services. When the medical folks are done with using my remains what is left is cremated and can be sent to my relatives for burial on top of one of my other family members in the family plot ...

You might want to find out what they do with the cremated remains after "dedicating your body to Science." I don't remember if they are separately cremated, or if it is a mass cremation. Lovely idea, though.

What @Kippy prefers is definitely an option. Ten years or so before she died, an elderly relative of mine made arrangements for this with a medical school in her area. There was the option of the medical school handling cremation and disposal (in which case, I have no idea if the cremation is individual) OR of the medical school handling the cremation and then sending the cremated remains back to the family. Her daughter got a call about a year after her mother passed saying that Mom was ready to be returned, and a few weeks later, she arrived by FedEx, bagged and boxed, with a certificate verifying that it was her.

[Bearofdistinction]

1. Cremation ... and then what: Kept in an urn on the mantel? Buried? Scattered?

 

2. Embalming and burial?

 

3. "Green" burial? ("An unencumbered return to earth and re-entry into the life cycle. No embalming, no vault, no casket. The materials used to enshroud the deceased are readily biodegradable, allowing your body to be the nourishing compost from which a new forest will grow...")

 

4. Or do you have some other plan?

 

Dinner - Cocktails -- Sleeping Pills Curbside on Trash Collection Night wearing a Sign -

 

"Do Not Resuscitate or Recycle -- Dispose of as Non-Hazardous Material"

[+ Charlie]

I want my body to be buried in my family plot. I don't like cremation, because there is nothing for future archaeologists to examine.

[+ Topseed]

Neptune Society.

[Populist Fury]

I defo want this for myself: https://www.celestis.com

 

It's just a matter of deciding which service to save for. Earth Rise sounds pointless, so no. Earth Orbit sounds cool, but you eventually drop back down to earth & burn up into nothing lol. Lunar & Voyager are 2.5x more expensive but I think I want one of those <3

 

The rest of my ashes can go in the ocean or something. I already have a playlist of the songs I want blasting @ my funeral also, want people to be happy & upbeat knowing that my final wish is being fulfilled. The idea of a traditional Catholic funeral terrifies me, don't wanna end up locked inside a casket.

[Epigonos]

When my father died in 1982, unbeknownst to me, my mother purchased three plots in a local cemetery. I was 42 at the time and she probably assumed that I would never marry. I didn’t learn about the third plot until she died in 1995. I recently lost a beloved brother-in-law, of 63 years, which was a real jolt, and have been forced to face my own future and death. This spring I plan to go over to the cemetery and make plans for my cremation and the burial of the ashes in the plot my mother purchased. I will see if I can purchase a headstone that matches theirs. I don’t want any service or gather of any kind.

 

My real problem isn’t the disposal of my remains – that’s relatively easy. What is difficult is arranging for the disposal of a huge number of objects I have spent a lifetime collecting. This spring I simply MUST start cataloguing everything and have my lawyer write up VERY specific instructions about what to do with everything.

[Kippy]

Just a thought which may not have been discussed here previously. You could perhaps leave something to Daddy(or site successors) in your will if you thought it might be appropriate. Folks often times remember groups or associations to which they had a particular appreciation or attachment. Food for thought...

 

Kipp

[+ poolboy48220]

Monty Python was interviewed as a group at some comedy festival, they brought along an urn that supposedly held Graham Chapman's ashes. Of course it got knocked over, and they brought out a dustpan & brush, someone had a Dustbuster...funny stuff.

[bigvalboy]

Monty Python was interviewed as a group at some comedy festival, they brought along an urn that supposedly held Graham Chapman's ashes. Of course it got knocked over, and they brought out a dustpan & brush, someone had a Dustbuster...funny stuff.

 

[bigvalboy]

#2...sort of.

Embalmed and placed in a crypt in the court yard where my parents are buried.

[liubit]

I wish to be cremated. What to do with my ashes? I don’t really care, it won’t be my problem anymore.

[+ Avalon]

I wish to be cremated. What to do with my ashes? I don’t really care, it won’t be my problem anymore.

 

Imo cremation is the only way to go! When I was young I worked for a mortuary for a couple of years. Once I saw what went on in the back room I convinced all my family for cremation.

 

That said I think the best way to dispose of a body is this but it's not available here

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence

[Rudynate]

#2...sort of.

Embalmed and placed in a crypt in the court yard where my parents are buried.

 

 

Wow. Interesting. Makes me think of those above ground burial places in New Orleans.

[Epigonos]

Drintor you are absolutely correct and that is exactly why I'm not leaving any of my possessions, other than family items, to my nephews.

 

I'm willing all of my Native American Arts & Crafts to the gift shop at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. I am leaving a stipulation that EVERYTHING they receive MUST be sold in the gift shop and NOT placed in the museum’s permanent collection. Too many museums have back rooms filled with huge numbers of items that they have no room display. These items simply sit in backrooms collecting dust. I have loved owning these objects and I want other who will love them to purchase them from the Museum. I could care less what the Museum does with the money.

 

My first edition books written by Brits who lived through the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58 will be shipped to an antiquarian bookstore in London and sold. The proceeds from the sale will be donated to the British Museum. The rest of my book will be donated to the University of Southern California Library.

 

My graphic art pieces will be sold and the proceeds donated to the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach California.

 

My youngest nephew who loves to cook, as I do, will receive all of my cooking equipment. He already salivating at the very thought of inheriting my knives.

 

Everything else can go to the Salvation Army or the dump.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Epigonos

[gallahadesquire]

My Sister chose my Mother's urn. It's a slightly brownish Burgundy cloisonne with floral design. It's on the top bookshelf in my living room.

 

After Mom arrived, my Sister couldn't find the Urn.

 

"Where is she?" she asked.

"She's on the top shelf."

"I don't see her."

"There ... in the middle ..."

"DAMN! She fits right in with the decor!"

[+ pitman]

My husband died two years ago today. He requested no service, which was a goddessend for me to not have to think about organizing a memorial at that time. Instead I met individually or in small groups with his family and friends, which I found very comforting without the pressure and hoopla of a larger gathering.

 

He also requested that his ashes be scattered in Iceland. One year ago today I was there fulfilling his wishes. Its was a very healing thing for me as I was fulfilling his wishes and remembering the wonderful trip we had there in 1992.

 

I would like to see something similar happen when I go.