If I can get a blog post out of this I shall mark it up as an accomplishment.
As I was idly reading through various blogs today I was smote smack on the forehead with not one but TWO references to The Great Beyond.
Mr. Pudding began this frame of reference by taking a walk through a cemetery over where he lives in Sheffield, U.K.
Talk of gravestones put my mind into a reflective mood.
And then, as I was reading marvelous Val's latest post there was an aside about a gambler in her area of Missouri who had used a windfall to pay off his mother's headstone!
Well, when one has been smitten right between the eyes twice on the same day it calls to him to take up his duties as a scribe.
So here it is.
I have long planned for my imperfect body to be consumed by flames when it is through perambulating.
Cremation is my game and I had absolutely no plans for the ashes.
Dump 'em, said I to SWMBO and probably also to the BRD, whichever is called upon to take charge of the nasty task.
But having my mind joggled by these two other bloggers today got me thinking.
What if, to my great amazement, there may be someone who survives me who would want to visit my resting place?
Should I have a headstone somewhere with my name on it?
Perhaps with some amusing epitaph inscribed thereon, like "I told you I was sick."
That one has mistakenly over the years been attributed to Oscar Levant.
Then there's this fellow:
Or the voluble Merv Griffin.
Of course, all of these options cost money.
Just ask Jessica Mitford, author of The American Way of Death.
Oh, never mind, she's been gone since 1996.
But getting back to my point(?) what decision must I come to?
To lie under some shrine of some sort or to disappear forever?
Without becoming macabre here, what is your choice?
I figure cremation is the way to go, so to speak. Maybe not 'go', but after going.....we have a large family plot down in Oregon, and it's been taking Mulligan remains since the first one died in 1876. Goes back to my great, great, great grandfather. The kids are going to mix my ashes with some water and just kind of spread them around.
ReplyDeletethat one above, the "....44..." is a copy of one in the boot hill in Tombstone AZ. Or maybe the other way around.
If I have the wherewithal, I plan on eating a couple pounds of un-popped popcorn on my deathbed. Just a little fun for the guys at the crematorium........
My late friend Lenny gave his body to the university for science. He said why should anyone pay for his cremation when they will do it for free.
ReplyDeleteAnother friend tells me there is now something they are working on that is better for the environment than cremation. I have no idea what that is. Everyone gets to die...just once. No need to get upset about it, what is is.
When I was a kid "ma" Cobb lived just down the road from me. That was her real last name but everyone knew her as ma.
Just as well smile, why not?
He's talking about "Green Burials". No embalming, keep the body on ice for a short time for services and viewing. Biodegradable shroud and buried in land set aside for that purpose. It's available in California and a few other places.
DeleteI had a philosophy prof at UND who left these instructions to his daughter. Cremation, no service, ashes spread in places where you think I'd like to spend some time, as many places you think are appropriate. Take $3,500 of my life insurance money and throw a party 12 months after my death. it will give my family,friends and associates time to think of something to say about me without being overly sentimental, silly or stupid about my life, work and demise. Spend the rest of the money on yourself because you're a good girl and I loved being your father.
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ReplyDeleteGive me to science or up in smoke. If I had family that would visit, a grave, but none here in Germany.
Steve
Hi Steve it's me AZ are you still doing the squirrel blog? I lost your link with the death of my last computer. Speaking of death I'm going for cremation too, no service, no luncheon, just fry me and then throw what's left off the Queen Creek Bridge
DeleteAZ, Hi. Haven't had the squirrel blog since 2015. Hope you are doing well.
DeleteSteve
Hanging in there Steve. :)
DeleteMy gaud! Please, please. Cremation, buried in my garden or under one of my beloved trees, no service (maybe a party), no mourning, no obituary, You guys who are left?......get on with living!
ReplyDeleteCremation for me, too. But I have requested that whoever outlasts me take my ashes to Colorado and dump them into one of the cold snow-runoff streams high in the mountains. I feel that is where I should be. And about the kids....they'll thank you for not having to feel guilty for not visiting your resting place at the appropriate intervals. And they all slip up and forget one now and then.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps you can be lucky enough to choose to be standing in the direct path of the comet! Star dust old buddy--from start dust to star dust.
ReplyDeleteI think I've actually SEEN Merv Griffin's headstone. It's in that same cemetery in Hollywood where Marilyn Monroe is entombed, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't want any kind of memorial. I want cremation and then I want my ashes put into a hole in the ground and a tree planted on top of them. (Which I suppose IS a memorial of sorts, now that I think about it, but I don't want my name on it!)
There's an old disused graveyard on the edge of the Yorkshire village where I was born. I should like to be buried there with a simple headstone that just gives my name, the year of my birth and the year of my death. Nothing more.
ReplyDeleteCremation for me, and an interment in some quiet country cemetery.
ReplyDeleteI stop by my parents' graves at least once a week. They are conveniently located on the way to Walmart, in a plot closest to one of the roads that wind through the cemetery, so I can do a drive-through visit. I know they're not THERE, but it's a place to go and reminisce or work out concerns.
ReplyDeleteWhen my dad's tombstone arrived, the cemetery put it ON THE WRONG GRAVE! Not that he would know, you might think. Without any idea that the stone was ready, I was up all night hearing creaks and pops in my newly-built house. I though the place was going to fall down around me. We'd only been moved in for 3 months. It wasn't old enough or new enough to be settling at that rate, all at once overnight.
The next morning, my mom called to say that she'd been to the cemetery to see the stone, because the people there had called her, and she couldn't find it! The stone situation was remedied that day, and no more pops and cracks in my house. Pure coincidence, I'm sure...
After hosting both of my parents' HUGE funerals, funeral luncheons, 2 days of visitation each at the funeral home, a 21 gun salute at the cemetery, a bagpiper, and all the million decisions that had to be made, I signed up for a donor card. Whatever is left after the culling of viable organs, they will give the ashes to the next of kin in a little cardboard box. I've got great skin, good eyes, and healthy organs that someone my be happy to get. I think I requested a sprinkle in Lake Michigan over the side of sailboat. Or maybe I changed it to Lynx Lake! It's all written down somewhere! If only I could remember where . . .
ReplyDeleteFor my dogs, I get custom engraved river rock by www.perfectmemorials.com. Really nice in the garden.
ReplyDeleteJan's grandmother collected owl things, she loved owls. We sit out and hear owls and think of her grandmother, who was a wonderful, kind and loving woman. Best way to remember someone. My mom was a reader, so every time I pick up a book, My dad was a pilot so every time I hear a prop plane...it goes on.
ReplyDeleteYes, cremation for me too. [At least that way I don't get buried alive!!] Thereafter, I'll be passed caring what happens to my ashes. Let the living do what's better for them.
ReplyDeleteI'm of a disappearing nature!
ReplyDeleteI will be buried, bones and all. No way am I letting fire eat dem bones of mine and there'll be a stone as well. Haven't decided what to write and/or draw on it yet but I'll give it some thought. Why shouldn't we leave some individual marks of our short presence on this planet? If a few loved ones or strangers want to stop by post-mortem to say hello, well, we should welcome them, right? Have a stone Bruce, and write something on it (in advance obviously).
ReplyDeleteBruce, so what are you going to do?
ReplyDeleteSteve
Tree pod.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.boredpanda.com/biodegradable-burial-pod-memory-forest-capsula-mundi/
I want cremation too, but the thing is, cemeteries are so important to historians! What will they be able to study when everyone is just flung hither & yon with no stone to mark their passage? :)
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