Cremation or burial when you die

I think I'd prefer burial, but without all the useless extras like a viewing, embalming, fancy casket, and so forth. It's all just upselling. I'm thinking about building an actual coffin-shaped coffin out of scrap reclaimed wood and linen instead and using it as a coffee table until it's needed. I could also store stuff in it, so it would be pulling triple duty.

As for the burial, I might try to find a Jewish funeral director who also accepts gentile customers to take care of the details when the time comes. Get me in the ground before sunset with no fanfare like they usually do. Then my family and friends can sit shiva or celebrate, whichever they prefer.

Then again, I recently acquired a used grave in a Catholic cemetery, so that may rule out the Jewish undertaker and burial. On the other hand, I can always buy another grave. Real estate is always a good investment, and at least the neighbors would be quiet.

I also thought about donating my body to science, but someone told me that they actually sell the cadavers that are donated. If that's the case, then fine, but I want my vig. It's only fair.

Rich
 
Personally, I'd prefer burial as well. Something about the thought of cremation doesn't set well with me, even though that seems to be the most common method these days.
 
Burial at sea, like Osama Bin Laden, without the SEAL 6 inputs of course. ;)
 
Forget that sissy stuff, I want to be sent off 21st century Viking style.


Basically this but with the truck replaced with my corpse , with a open bar, all my friends and family nice and drunk off good beer or great scotch.

 
I've told my wife that I'll likely drop over dead in a remote trout stream (or at least that's my hope) - just leave me there.
Sure as Hell do not want people walking by my casket making lame pronunciations re my life and times.
 
mscard88 said:
Burial at sea, like Osama Bin Laden, without the SEAL 6 inputs of course. ;)
Click to expand...

I actually have a friend who's willing to sit my corpse in his open-cockpit biplane, fly 50 miles out over the Atlantic, invert, and drop me into the drink. It's a tempting idea. It also appears to be legal as long as a preacher or funeral director flies along in a chase plane to sign the Certificate of Interment. (Aviators apparently aren't allowed to sign it like mariners are.)

Rich
 
wrbix said:
I've told my wife that I'll likely drop over dead in a remote trout stream (or at least that's my hope) - just leave me there.
............
Click to expand...

Many years ago a friend failed to return to deer camp at the end of the day, a search party found him siting at the base of a tree with his rifle
cradled in his arms........heart attack.
 
biplanebob said:
Many years ago a friend failed to return to deer camp at the end of the day, a search party found him siting at the base of a tree with his rifle
cradled in his arms........heart attack.
Click to expand...

Hopefully peacefully doing what he loved. Condolences.
 
Haven't decided. I've known people who wanted cremation and ashes spread, but then changed their minds after thinking about their grandkid who wanted to be able to visit their gravesite. There's something to be said about being able to go visit "dad"/"mom"/"grandpa"/whoever.

Different things for different people.
 
Matthew said:
Haven't decided. I've known people who wanted cremation and ashes spread, but then changed their minds after thinking about their grandkid who wanted to be able to visit their gravesite. There's something to be said about being able to go visit "dad"/"mom"/"grandpa"/whoever.

Different things for different people.
Click to expand...
I agree. An urn sitting on the mantle isn't the same as having a physical gravesite to visit. I don't like knowing that after cremation, there's nothing left. Doesn't sit well with me, but each to their own.
 
Cremation: I told my wife, spread my ashes offshore at my favorite fishing site or along the runway at my favorite grass airfield.
 
my wife wants to be buried next to me and have kids and grandkids visit the site. I really have to go with her wishes. I just cannot gone down in a firery plane crash.
 
Talked about this today.

Cremation with ashes scattered in our "bury patch" where our deceased pets reside.

Pointless symbolism, of course, but why not?

Burial just seems like a pointless waste of space, but to each his own.
 
Beheaded and frozen like Ted Williams.

Just to Eff with the inlaws. ;-)
 
GRG55 said:
In the bed of the F350? :D
Click to expand...

Hell no. Maybe in a Duke. :)

Everskyward said:
Sky burial. Yes, I know what it is.
Click to expand...

I had to look it up. Very interesting, especially the philosophical points about disposing of the body in "the most generous way possible" by providing food to scavenger or other animals.

Matthew said:
Haven't decided. I've known people who wanted cremation and ashes spread, but then changed their minds after thinking about their grandkid who wanted to be able to visit their gravesite. There's something to be said about being able to go visit "dad"/"mom"/"grandpa"/whoever.

Different things for different people.
Click to expand...

Everyone's different, and every family is different.

My grandparents are buried next to eachother. My grandfather was buried in 1986, my grandmother in 2007. My grandmother never "visited" my grandfather until she moved into the plot next door. She didn't like seeing her name there. In fact, she was so against it that the one time my mom took me after much insisting on my part (I think I was about 10 or 12) we had to lie to my grandmother about what we were doing as we were visiting her. I was instructed not to tell my grandmother.

The next time I went was when it was my grandmother's turn.

To my knowledge, nobody else has shown up before or since. Maybe my cousin who lives in Richmond has, but I doubt it. I highly doubt I will ever go again. I would have to be in Richmond with some time to kill (pun intended).

I know that some families make traditions of visiting and placing flowers at graves every so often, and for those families I get it and it makes sense. This is especially the case if you have a family that is born and dies in a town and doesn't disperse for generations. My family has not been that way for generations, and I doubt if our kids will be that way. So burn me and send my ashes out to sea.
 
Cremation and scatter at sea.

Both my grandmother's funeral and best friend's funeral had an open casket I can distinctly recall looking in and thinking "that is not [dead person]"...or at least least the person I knew. The physical appearance was just so dramatically different with all the crap they did to them.

I would have much preferred my last visual memory been of how I knew them in life.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I know that some families make traditions of visiting and placing flowers at graves every so often, and for those families I get it and it makes sense. This is especially the case if you have a family that is born and dies in a town and doesn't disperse for generations. My family has not been that way for generations, and I doubt if our kids will be that way. So burn me and send my ashes out to sea.
Click to expand...
This. It was not a tradition in my family either (probably because they were either cremated and scattered, or they lived across the country from where I grew up).
 
Shawn said:
Both my grandmother's funeral and best friend's funeral had an open casket I can distinctly recall looking in and thinking "that is not [dead person]"...or at least least the person I knew. The physical appearance was just so dramatically different with all the crap they did to them.

I would have much preferred my last visual memory been of how I knew them in life.
Click to expand...

To be fair, it sounds like they did a bad job. Most of the open casket funerals I've been to have done a very good job and the people do look like I remember them.

Our neighbor died when we lived in Ohio. He had instructed that he be buried the way he dressed, saw no reason in wearing a suit as he never wore them. So a casual polo shirt and jeans. When I saw him I said "That's Ken." His kids were angry, but it was what he wanted which is what matters.

Everskyward said:
This. It was not a tradition in my family either (probably because they were either cremated and scattered, or they lived across the country from where I grew up).
Click to expand...

The reality is that we will all be essentially forgotten within 100 years from our deaths. I have some relatives who died in the 100 year ago range who I know a bit about, but obviously never met and know little of besides the fact that I share some amount of DNA with them. So I don't see a point in sitting around for the rest of time that way.

Now that said, I do always find it interesting to walk through old cemeteries, if nothing else to see how the grave stones are marked and read what is on them (if it is even legible anymore). But not enough to do the same myself. I'd rather go out in a cool or otherwise unusual manner.
 
RJM62 said:
I also thought about donating my body to science, but someone told me that they actually sell the cadavers that are donated. If that's the case, then fine, but I want my vig. It's only fair.

Rich
Click to expand...

Read the book "Stiff", it lists just about everything done to a dead body. It is actually funny in a dark sort of way, worth the read, then I bet you dont donate to science.
 
My wife's boss found a local program where you can donate your body and the forensic students learn about how to determine things by watching you decompose.
That sounds cool but I have the thought that there will no doubt be a point where a group of NCIS wannabe students are laughing at my genitals under their breath.
 
Meh, donating your body to science can be sketchy. I worked on cadavers in college...people who donated their bodies to science and education. I got to follow up after the med students, and I'm pretty sure a lower leg didn't belong next to the poor guy's head. Or organs inserted not quite where the should be. Nope, not the thing for me.

Stick me in the ground. My family has a plot where we can all be together. Beaides the place really needs some Americanized Asians to balance out da 'hood.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top