what would you do with 80 grave sites?

[lazygood4nothinbum]

it seems brother & i have inherited more than 80 empty graves. i only need one as i do want to be buried near mom, unless i decide to set myself adrift and set the boat on fire. decision pending.

with each generation moving farther from the area it seems unlikely that brother's kids would ever use them. certainly not 80 of them. that's a lot of expense to keep flying those bodies up there.

so what are we supposed to do with this? all creative ideas encouraged.

 

[theloneranger]

That which has been purchased can always be sold, though not always at a profit.

 

[BUM]

EBAY

 

[bbbamI]

Contact the local funeral directors. Maybe you'll get a bidding war!

 

[rs0460a]

Try selling them as "farmettes"

 

[Peaceful_Warrior]

You could grow gardens!

 

[Brat]

First research the market - what are the sites worth, retail, in your community.

Then you could:

talk to funeral homes for a referral arrangement;

offer them on Craig's list;

donate them to a place of worship or charitable organization in your community and take a tax deduction.

E-bay is always an option but I don't think folks in the market look there.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Call Costco. They need something to go with the caskets and they love bundling!

 

[wabmester]

What would you do with 80 grave sites?

There has to be a lawyer joke in there somewhere.

 

[Arc]

Since no one else asked - I'll bite. How does one inherit 80 gravesites?

 

[bssc]

What a grave question? How about Craigslist.

 

[Meadbh]

Who would buy 80 graves, unless it was a funeral director?

 

[Moemg]

Sell it to a cult !!!

 

[dex]

Add a bed and roof and rent them out to the goth crowd.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Build a subdivision!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/

 

[crazy connie]

You could team up with the guys family who after his death opened his storage locker and found a whole bunch of tombstones!!! (I really enjoy the "odd" news)

Figure out FMV and if you can't sell em... Donate for a charitable deduction.

OR

What about a putt putt mini golf course... Pet cemetary Let's see 80 plots times 6 per (remember Fluffy wasn't too big!!!) 480 pet plots... Sell em for cheap and keep the grass mowed till ya drop!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the development idea would fit the site as this portion of the cemetery was set up generations ago by the patriarch of a large & obviously successful construction family who, i suppose, at the time considered themselves dynastic enough to plan for large families staying in one area. our batch is just a small portion of the entirety which was subdivided two generations ago and with the family association still holding a significant number of graves.

seems almost inappropriate for today and impractical into the future when considering smaller sized families who are moving & settling all around the country.

new lots at this cemetery sell for between $2 & 3k per grave. don't know what we'd get for our "used" (already platted) ones on craigslist but i sure don't want to be in the underground real estate business for the next 30 years trying to find out. also i have to find out if the cemetary has first right of refusal which might determine the fate of these.

i like the charity idea though. in modern jewish tradition--i suspect influenced by what i think is bigoted online conversation stopping concentration camps--jews don't care much for cremation so burial is de rigueur. a lower income friend of mine who recently had to bury her mom went to a jewish society which has free graves for those who can not afford one. so that might be a completely appropriate donation.

anyway, thanks very much for your relevant and irreverent suggestions.

 

[Leonidas]

i like the charity idea though. in modern jewish tradition--i suspect influenced by what i think is bigoted online conversation stopping concentration camps--jews don't care much for cremation so burial is de rigueur. a lower income friend of mine who recently had to bury her mom went to a jewish society which has free graves for those who can not afford one. so that might be a completely appropriate donation.

I'm not Jewish but I do know that they have strict laws regarding burial and I think that cremation is not an option. Their religion teaches that an individual is supposed to return to God as close to "original" as possible. There are some exceptions made under guidance from a rabbi, but for the most part they don't allow cremations, autopsies, burial at sea, etc. They can donate organs, but in general the body and any parts that were detached in death have to be buried together in earth. In Israel they have special groups that show up to the scenes of bombings that go around and collect parts and pieces that have been dispersed in the blast and (I guess) figure out what goes with whom so they can be buried properly.

 

[brewer12345]

bum, I would probably first find out what strings are attached in selling them. After that, I would see how I could maximise the value. Highest would probably be subdivisions for houses. You;d need to investigate zoning, etc. Other than that, I guess either commercial property or selling them as gravesites would work. If perpetual care of the site is included in the deal, I have little doubt you s=could sell the sites. A local cemetary or funeral home might be willing to take the lot off your hands or sell on consignment. Might be worth a chat, at any rate.

 

[wabmester]

i like the charity idea though.

That sounds like a great idea, especially if you can get a write-off at the retail price. I have no idea how the IRS would require you to value the sites, but the secondary market prices are generally pretty weak from what I could find.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

leonidas, thing about some jewish law is how it is open to interpretation, to debate and to change. while you might not find an orthodox rabbi to officiate at a cremation, you can get a reformed rabbi to preside at one.

you are correct on collecting body parts, especially in israel and after bombings. the body is considered holy and so is treated with as much respect after as during life. it is so holy that many jews do not look directly at the dead for if you were to look directly into the light of god how could it not blind you. and so jews don't hold viewings of their dead like others might.

from my point of view, if putting bodies to fire was so unrespectful then how to justify all that past sacrificing of goats & such. wasn't fire the conveyor to god? and wouldn't the ultimate expression of a burning being not being unholy be the burning bush itself. so i think cremation could be argued either way.

brewer, so sorry, but i was totally kidding about development and ran with cutefb's poltergeist theme. the gravesites are center stage of an existing cemetery, zoned only for more graves.

wab, i was pretty much already set on charity before i started the thread. just thought we could all have some fun with graves. good idea though on checking with irs to see how to price it. sometimes you don't inherit benefit. you inherit bother as in i'd rather not be bothered but better to handle it now than to pass this mess down to future generations.

 

[Leonidas]

lfrom my point of view, if putting bodies to fire was so unrespectful then how to justify all that past sacrificing of goats & such. wasn't fire the conveyor to god? and wouldn't the ultimate expression of a burning being not being unholy be the burning bush itself. so i think cremation could be argued either way.

Well, like I said, I'm not Jewish and was just passing on what I had read after I saw a news story on the body part collection teams in Israel. But your reply spurred me to go off and do some more research (okay, I Googled it), and learned some interesting things. There's Orthodox and Reformed, and then there are a lot of people who just don't follow tradition. Thus, you get cremation being performed even with a Rabbi there to officiate. I found an interesting lesson online by a Rabbi who talks about how a lot of jews' funerals are contrary to tradition and belief. He talks about a lot of details (like metal coffins) but in the end he said even if you do these things we will still officiate. We would just prefer to think that you would walk the path more traveled than choose your own. Sounds like from at least one man's view, Judiasm is a big tent with a lot of room underneath it for variances in action. He did mention, mostly in passing, something like "besides, there's too much history of people wanting to cremate us".

Whatever the drive or motivation behind it, there does seem to be a need for grave sites for Jewish people who can't afford one. The charitable organization you mentioned seems to be serving that need. Sounds like an easy way to get rid of something that may be hard to sell and get a nice tax break at the same time.

 

[Arc]

You may want to get in the middle of the Anna Nicole Smith debacle. Could be an opporunity for "temporary storage." And would not be surprised if more bodies drop.

I'm in a mood this morning

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think they should send half of her to texas and half to the bahamas. Nice compromise.

 

[TromboneAl]

Anna Nicole Smith and James Brown.

78 left!