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End of life pre planning , " Viking Funeral "
Old 09-05-2015, 01:44 PM   #1
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End of life pre planning , " Viking Funeral "

Finally getting around to end of life and funeral planning.

Have been intrigued with the Viking Funeral . I'm very far removed from a Scandinavian Warier , but love the sea, and intend to have my cremated remains sent off in a small wood sailboat sails up and ablaze, beyond the X mile limit.

A few years back, the US coast guard did this for a veteran.

I plan to have mine done on the cheap, so looking for a small wood sailboat, to be kept in storage until the time needed.

Most I tell think I'm kidding . I think my niece will make it happen when called to this duty.
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Old 09-05-2015, 01:56 PM   #2
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Nice idea. Not for most, but I can see the attraction -- it's a very romantic concept.

At my father's request, I took his ashes back to the east coast and paddled out in my kayak to his favorite fishing spot in the bay. Scattered them on the water and it made me smile to think of the life cycle of carbon atoms.

Told my mom, and she liked it enough to ask me to mix her ashes with his, so that was another enjoyable trip and paddling exercise.

The only drawback I can see with the Viking funeral idea is that in order to do it completely legally, you might have to go beyond the 12 mile limit. That's quite a trip!
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Old 09-05-2015, 02:56 PM   #3
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I am totally a fan of the Viking funeral! That's what our plan is as well. No Scandinavian heritage, but think it is cool anyway.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:00 PM   #4
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The only drawback I can see with the Viking funeral idea is that in order to do it completely legally, you might have to go beyond the 12 mile limit. That's quite a trip!
I've been planning to have this done for me for years too. Not sure if you need to go beyond the 12 mile limit or not. It might be one of those "easier to get forgiveness than permission things". But there is a more serious complication. I don't have a single friend that could hit my boat with a flaming arrow, and quite a few of them would probably shoot themselves and set the funeral party on fire.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:02 PM   #5
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I'd previously told DW to double bag me and put me out on garbage day........but now I'm thinking she could maybe also toss in a couple rollmops* and set the bag on fire.

(*I know, I know, rollmops are German, but that's all I could think of offhand.)
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:06 PM   #6
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The 12 mile limit might be a good idea even if not required. It would be awkward if the wind/tide brought the boat back to shore before fire burned enough wood to make it sink.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:11 PM   #7
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There is something clean and right about returning one's remains to the vast immensity of the ocean.

I like it.

You just don't want to end up in a situation like happened in the movie "It Runs in the Family".
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:15 PM   #8
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I told DW that if the Viking Funeral thing doesn't work out, just roll me in a sheet with a cinderblock at my feet, take me out to the deep water, and push me overboard. I've eaten enough crabs in my life that it's only fair they get a shot at me.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:16 PM   #9
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Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of a Viking funeral (921 AD)


Risala: Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:17 PM   #10
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I'm thinking of something similar, but using a Ford Pinto.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:18 PM   #11
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Any fisherman out there that want to be turned into chum and fed to the sharks.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:29 PM   #12
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The Viking Funeral idea is romantic, I agree, but still a little unsettling to me because so many people treat the oceans like a giant toilet dump site with infinite capacity. So, I remain undecided about that. Don't know what I want.

I'd like to be buried under some rose bushes or a cherry tree, if my body could become fertilizer for it. Unfortunately, after the required embalming that natural solution is not an option. Besides, with my luck, with all that fresh decomposition I'd probably provide fertilizer burn and kill the bushes or tree.

What if one's spirit/soul/ghost/whatchamacallit, in a state of disorientation and confusion, wants to return to where the body is buried for comfort and solace? Cremation woul ruin that idea, for sure.

These questions would be SO much easier to decide on if I was either religious or an atheist, but being an agnostic I have to cover all the bases.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:55 PM   #13
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The Viking Funeral idea is romantic, I agree, but still a little unsettling to me because so many people treat the oceans like a giant toilet dump site with infinite capacity. So, I remain undecided about that. Don't know what I want.

I'd like to be buried under some rose bushes or a cherry tree, if my body could become fertilizer for it. Unfortunately, after the required embalming that natural solution is not an option. Besides, with my luck, with all that fresh decomposition I'd probably provide fertilizer burn and kill the bushes or tree.

What if one's spirit/soul/ghost/whatchamacallit, in a state of disorientation and confusion, wants to return to where the body is buried for comfort and solace? Cremation woul ruin that idea, for sure.

These questions would be SO much easier to decide on if I was either religious or an atheist, but being an agnostic I have to cover all the bases.
Actually, embalming is rarely required by law. If you feel strongly about this as I do, you may want to look into it.
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Old 09-05-2015, 03:55 PM   #14
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being an agnostic I have to cover all the bases.
One of my favorite bumper stickers:

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Old 09-05-2015, 04:05 PM   #15
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I come from a line of folks who are pragmatic and non-sentimental. No embalming, casket, burials. My maternal grandparents and parents filled out and notarized the proper paperwork so their bodies could be donated to the local medical school. The med school harvests any useful organs (organ donation), and if nothing is useful (due to age or disease) they use it as a cadaver. At the end, it's cremated along with the other donated bodies.

Memorial services were held - but no physical body present. Like a funeral without the corpse.

Pragmatic because there is no expense for this option. Instead of a funeral home picking up the body - the med school does... from wherever the body is (Gram and Gramps both died at home, Mom and Dad both died in hospitals.)

But it only works if you're not sentimental, don't need a grave to visit or an urn on your mantel, and don't get skeeved by your body being used to teach future doctors stuff.

My paperwork is filled out and submitted as well.

Not quite as romantic as the viking funeral, but maybe a future doctor will learn something from my carcass once I'm no longer using it.
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Old 09-05-2015, 05:07 PM   #16
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Good for you, rodi. I've considered that but haven't quite wrapped my head around actually doing it, at least not yet.

Fortunately, cremation seems to run in both of our families so we plan to go with the flow in that regard. Our church has a memorial garden and I plan to have ½ of the ashes put there, and the other half sprinkled (illegally) on Deep Creek Lake in MD where I spent many wonderful summer days over the years.
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Old 09-05-2015, 05:33 PM   #17
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SO attended a fairly orthodox Jewish service for a departed so I read up on it a bit - very attractive to me - no embalming, a cotton garment with no pockets, a casket designed to decompose rapidly along with the remains. I'm not looking for my remains to rise up after my death, so the full, rapid and useful decomposition of my vehicle on this earth feels very right. But I don't think I am my corpse.
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Old 09-05-2015, 05:58 PM   #18
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I come from a line of folks who are pragmatic and non-sentimental. No embalming, casket, burials. My maternal grandparents and parents filled out and notarized the proper paperwork so their bodies could be donated to the local medical school. The med school harvests any useful organs (organ donation), and if nothing is useful (due to age or disease) they use it as a cadaver. At the end, it's cremated along with the other donated bodies.

Memorial services were held - but no physical body present. Like a funeral without the corpse.

Pragmatic because there is no expense for this option. Instead of a funeral home picking up the body - the med school does... from wherever the body is (Gram and Gramps both died at home, Mom and Dad both died in hospitals.)

But it only works if you're not sentimental, don't need a grave to visit or an urn on your mantel, and don't get skeeved by your body being used to teach future doctors stuff.

My paperwork is filled out and submitted as well.

Not quite as romantic as the viking funeral, but maybe a future doctor will learn something from my carcass once I'm no longer using it.
These are our plans as well (DW and I). We have visited enough family members grave sites in our lifetimes and really don't care to purchase real estate/caskets/etc that could cost significant money that someone else in the family could have a better use for.

I'm sure my titanium hip implant and some other internal synthetic and stainless steel parts (pins, plates, screws, etc) will be of interest to a budding orthopedic surgeon.
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Old 09-05-2015, 06:04 PM   #19
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Some of my late wife's ashes are here: http://www.thedesertbar.com/

Some are in the Colorado River, and some are in her family's plot in Ontario.
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Old 09-06-2015, 08:01 AM   #20
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I plan to have whatever organs and parts harvested for people that need them, then the rest put in a cardboard box and buried without embalming. I would like a headstone.
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