End of life pre planning , " Viking Funeral "

[Lakewood90712]

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.

 

[braumeister]

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!

 

[Sarah in SC]

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.

 

[harley]

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.

 

[Nemo2]

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.)

 

[Walt34]

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.

 

[Free To Canoe]

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".

 

[harley]

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.

 

[Gumby]

Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of a Viking funeral (921 AD)


Risala: Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus

 

[travelover]

I'm thinking of something similar, but using a Ford Pinto.

 

[eytonxav]

Any fisherman out there that want to be turned into chum and fed to the sharks.

 

[W2R]

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.

 

[MissMolly]

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.

 

[braumeister]

being an agnostic I have to cover all the bases.

One of my favorite bumper stickers:

Militant Agnostic
I don't know and you don't either!

 

[rodi]

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.

 

[MBAustin]

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.

 

[calmloki]

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.

 

[aja8888]

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.

 

[Nemo2]

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.

 

[Redbugdave]

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.

 

[irishgal]

Being Irish I guess I will have my ashes out into an empty Jameson's bottle and tossed out with the trash.


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[rodi]

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.

Check your local med school's policy. For UCSD Med school you have to have paperwork on hand PRIOR to your death or they won't take you. And it has to be notarized. In other words, it requires pre-planning.

And you have to be local to the hospital when you die. My stepmom's former husband died in Tierra Del Fuego - he got sick while on an antarctic cruise - and died in a hospital down there. So much for his plans... local laws took over and he was buried down there.

 

[aja8888]

Check your local med school's policy. For UCSD Med school you have to have paperwork on hand PRIOR to your death or they won't take you. And it has to be notarized. In other words, it requires pre-planning.

And you have to be local to the hospital when you die. My stepmom's former husband died in Tierra Del Fuego - he got sick while on an antarctic cruise - and died in a hospital down there. So much for his plans... local laws took over and he was buried down there.

Good points, thanks.

DW and her brother are working out the details at the moment. Her brother had a heart transplant earlier this year and almost did not make it, but he is good for now. I suspect we will get all the paperwork and details set in place by October. We have a large family (her side) meeting set up here in Houston on the 18th to coincide with a birthday party and we have time carved out for a discussion on this and other matters. Heck, the youngest of the family group is 65! One good thing about DW and her siblings is they are all level headed and get along quite well, so the drama will be limited.

We looked at the UT body donation program and, probably like others, there is a list of exclusions that would render a body unacceptable for their use, one of which is that it must be specifically embalmed to their standard within 10 hours of the time of death. There are other factors, many of which have to do with the cause of death, the condition of the organs, the physical makeup of the body, etc., so it's not a guarantee that by just completing the paperwork, it's a done deal.

 

[Sue J]

I've told my husband and our sons to donate any parts of me that could be used. It's also on my driver's license. Then I would like to be cremated. If they want to keep me around in an urn for a while, that's fine, but eventually I want to be put in the Cuyahoga River. I've lived in different areas near this river and anything put in it will end up in Lake Erie, eventually making it out to the Atlantic Ocean.

I haven't thought about the Viking idea, but that looks interesting.

I've been very specific - no burial.

I guess I should write this down and make it proper.

 

[Midpack]

My Mom passed away a few weeks ago. Mom & Dad had already made full arrangements with Neptune Society - America's Trusted Cremation Provider since 1973, and the whole process could not have been easier. They literally take care of everything, which is considerable, and the cost was more than reasonable IMO. Neptune folks have all the contacts, and know all the legal requirements (considerable once you see it all laid out) - and they are prepared to answer any family questions since they handle end of life every day. Money well spent, I am sure my Dad and sister would have managed, but having all that come while grieving would have been most unwelcome. FWIW

And since 1994 my will stipulates that my ashes will be scattered in the last body of water I sailed in. Several of my friends who passed away very young have been similarly scattered already. I'd rather have it done by friends & family than the USCG anyway (nothing against USCG, they're great).