No funeral or memorial service

Idnar7 said:
J

Friend of mine had a church funeral that celebrated his loyalty to the local football team. Guests were asked to wear jeans and a jersey or at least the team colors. The sanctuary was lit in the team colors. The minister had a tie with the team colors. The closing hymn was the team's fight song. His dog also attended an sat with the family in the front pew.
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Love this. I plan nothing, but if I did......................
 
I mentioned this a few years back, but I gave my late wife's mother some of her ashes for their family plot, some went into the Colorado River, and the rest were scattered by the 'church' here, (she had no religious inclinations but really enjoyed this place):

The Desert Bar
 
My FIL was cremated, but the family could not decide on a celebration ceremony. So, he sat in my furnace room for a year. Then BIL decided to bury the ashes in another state and asked me to send them to him. I mailed him Priority Mail Express with tracking signatures in case he got lost. Postal clerk asked if package contained anything prohibited and I assured her it was just my FIL.

It was a nice ceremony. :flowers:
 
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Just to muddy the water a bit, here's a story that shook me when it happened, but then has just made me smile ever since.

Dad died in 1996, and had a direct cremation. The ashes sat in a box in my closet for about a year and a half until I was able to take them on their final journey to scatter them in his favorite fishing spot in Jamaica Bay (New York City).

All went well, but as I was pouring the ashes into the water, I noticed a small metal disk, about the size of a quarter. I picked it out and put it in my pocket. There was just a serial number impressed in it, obviously how they keep track of the bodies in the crematorium.

After I got back home, I put the disk in the envelope with the cremation certificate that came with the ashes. Much to my surprise, the number on the certificate was one higher than the number on the disk.

So I took care of someone's ashes, but I certainly don't know whose. And someone else took care of my father's ashes. My first thought was to contact the crematorium for the information, but it had been almost two years earlier and I just decided to forget it.

All is well, and at the end of the day it really made no difference.
 
I told the young wife to ship my body to the House of Representatives, cause there outta be a law against anything this good.
 
For MIL we did a whole day thing where we (immediate family, spouses and children) gathered together and hiked up the mountain where her first husband (DW's father) died in a plane crash and scattered some there, scattered some near the grave of her second husband (my FIL and DW's beloved stepfather) and the remainder were in a urn buried at the family gravesite. While it was a long day it was a nice way to say goodbye.

For my Dad, most of his ashes were buried in an urn at the family gravesite but some were reserved and then scattered into the lake in front of our family summer home. Each of us (me and my sisters) scattered a bit and DM scattered the remainder.
 
Funerals are for the living, not for the deceased.

If I died today, I think my kids would be helped by seeing the body in the casket and having a service.

But, if I die after a long illness, and they all have their chance to process the loss before I die, then I could see no funeral.

In the second case, I'll probably have time to talk to them about my plans, and see what they prefer.
 
Idnar7 said:
Just some various musings:


I tell my wife I am scattering hers in her local Talbott's department store.


.
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I had always told my SO & my daughter to scatter mine on a nice beach but half at Talbot's & half at JJill would probably be more appropriate !
 
cyber888 said:
Just give me a viking funeral. What's needed is - a old canoe w/ some hay, a lake, a bow and arrow. Drift my body to the lake, shoot a burning arrow to the canoe, and let it drift burning. Probably cost less than a funeral. LOL
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I found a company that makes small boats for about $300 that you can do that with. Obviously, the boat contains ashes, not a body lol. You can do a Viking funeral with it.
http://http://seacaseurn.com/seacasehome.html
A biodegradable urn for ocean ash scattering ceremonies. A personal memorial on the bottom of the ocean. A wooden boat urn is designed to carry ashes and sink.
 
ponyboy said:
...What you see at a viewing is not the person you remember. Its a hunk of meat...
...take the $5k that would be blown on viewing/burial/embalming etc and have a massive dinner somewhere nice for a group of people of her choosing.... At least if people are fed it will provide some nourishment for their bodies.
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Instead of going to a restaurant and spending $5000 for a meal, why not just eat the deceased ("Its a hunk of meat"), and invest that $5000 in a low-cost index fund?
 
redduck said:
Instead of going to a restaurant and spending $5000 for a meal, why not just eat the deceased ("Its a hunk of meat"), and invest that $5000 in a low-cost index fund?
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lol, good point. Unfortunately I dont weight a lot and the body is made up mostly of water...it wouldnt be enough for the entourage.

I should clarify...it actually has less use than a hunk of meat by the time it gets to the viewing stage. Again...my FIL is a funeral director...you dont even want to know the stuff he has seen and has to do to prep a body. Blah.
 
redduck said:
Instead of going to a restaurant and spending $5000 for a meal, why not just eat the deceased ("Its a hunk of meat"), and invest that $5000 in a low-cost index fund?
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At a few places I visited during my international oil & gas work, I was warned that I could become someone's addition to a stew pot.:LOL:
 
About time for the pig.......................
 
Anybody know how much the cremated ashes of a average human would weigh ? My mother was cremated and the urn with her ashes was surprisingly heavy but after all she was a big woman.
 
Bigdawg said:
There has been in excess of 100 trillion people on this earth (estimated) and over 7 trillion currently.
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Wow, that is a lot of people! Where are they? The earth's population is currently at 7 billion, so where are the other 6.93 trillion people??
 
pb4uski said:
Over the last year or so, we have had several friends or acquaintances die that had no calling hours or funeral or memorial service or celebration of life (which I collectively refer to as funerals for convenience sake). In fact, one friend they never even had an obituary or announcement of her death even though we had heard of it by word of mouth.

Have any of you noticed this trend? While I'm not keen to go to funerals, they do provide some closure to a friend's passing IMO.

In all these cases the decedents and families could well afford some sort of commemoration of the decedents' passing so while money may be a factor it probably isn't an overriding factor.
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Family tradition. Although we usually have a heck of a party at somebody's house.

heh heh heh - As far back as I know no part of the family tree is Irish. :cool:
 
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