Funerals/burial Plans Etc.

[SilentLoner]

I'll be cremated, haven't decided where the ashes will go just yet.

 

I think everyone who knows me is well aware what I'd say about a xtian funeral.

[bellsybop]

I have discussed this to the absolute last detail with my husband and kids.

 

I will be cremated immediately after my death. Then my husband gets to go to his favorite place *Lowes Lumber*, and buy a tree. He'll take it to a chosen spot we've talked about and dig a nice hole for this tree and put my remains around it near its' roots. My tree is my headstone. It will grow as time passes. No funeral. No praying and preaching.

[WCrystal]

If, when I die, my organs are still in good working order, I'd like for them to be donated to people who can use them. I'd like to donate the rest of my body too for anyone who can use whatever they can off of it. And the clothes, give them to someone who needs them. Same goes for everything else I own. Hey, I'm not going to need it all -- I'm dead.

 

But, if all of my organs , then bury my naked body back into the earth with the worms and the insects and dirt, without a fancy box of any kind -- no fancy piece of metal or rock needed on top of me with words or pictures needed either. Turn my dead body into something useful and fertilize the damned ground or something. Same thing goes with the clothes and all other things I owned.

 

I expressed this clearly with my family already. Hopefully they follow my wishes. If they don't want to do either of those after I'm gone (I can't control what they do, I'm dead), I told them, "Burn my ass". Hopefully they'll at least do that. I really don't care if they have any pomp and ceremony, I'll be dead. It's more for them than it is for me.

 

Yep, that's all I really want.

[bellsybop]

Yep.. I forgot to add that about organ donation too. Most definatly want anything and everything used if possible. My daughter has had 3 liver transplants and I'm thankful to everyone who has ever played an important part of saving another's life by doing so.

[pitchu]

Natural burial. It's a growing movement, despised by those who make a fortune from death and grief. It doesn't put bad chemicals into the air like cremation does, nor unnecessary fru-fru into the ground like a casket does. The place I've chosen is about 20 miles from my home:

 

http://www.naturalburial.org/

 

Accompanied by a party with lots of laughing and cavorting and singing (including my own songs, of course -- I may be dead, but the lyrics live on!).

 

No god stuff allowed.

[Neon Genesis]

Personally, I've always wanted to donate my body to science. Like they can use it for medical research, education, and donate my organs or anything if it can help. Burials have always made me feel uncomfortable but I've never been too keen on cremation, either. But at least with donating my body to science my body can be put to good use even after I die and even if it's not a big contribution, at least I'll have done something to help contribute to the furthering of scientific research.

[pitchu]

Edited article on environmental side-effects of usual-type burial and cremation:

 

http://thesoko.com/thesoko/article1301.html

 

The damage to the environment from a typical funeral begins with the embalming of the body. Embalming is a process of injecting the body with various chemicals combined to make embalming fluid, including formaldehyde (a Class 1 Carcinogen), glutaraldehyde, phenol, methanol, antibiotics, dyes, preservatives, additives, disinfectants and sanitizing agents. The purpose is to temporarily prevent decomposition of the body so that it may be displayed at a funeral.

 

When the embalming chemicals leak into the soil as the body decays, they may have negative effects on the surrounding environment. 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid is buried in the United States each year. Contrary to popular belief, there is no law that states that a body must be embalmed.

 

The ornate decorated coffin you would see at a normal funeral is not only expensive, but it has dire effects on the earth. Many are made from rare hardwoods, which need to be transported causing environmental damage along the way. Using coffins means that in an average year we bury 90,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze and over 30 million feet of hardwoods in the earth. Much of the material used to make caskets is non-biodegradable and they are often covered with toxic lacquers.

 

Cremation is also a burden on the environment. Every time a body is cremated between 0.8 and 5.9 grams of mercury is released. This results in 1,000 to 7,800 pounds of mercury per year. Seventy-five per cent goes into the air and the rest ends up in the ground and water. The energy used to cremate one body is enough to drive 4,800 miles. In a year of cremations, you could get to the moon and back 83 times.

[The Sage Nabooru]

The Tibetans have the best "burials". They leave the bodies to be eaten by animals as a last compassionate act towards living things, and whatever's left can disintegrate into the ground. No waste of fuel or land. If someone wants to keep anything, cut a lock of hair.

 

Seriously, I wouldn't mind if, when I know I'm sick and going to die soon, I just crawled out into the woods, laid down, and let go of life surrounded by nature, and allowed my remains to be used up by the forest and its inhabitants. My family could get whatever's left later, get their little hair-lock if they wanted, and put it on a home altar.

 

That's another thing I like about Asian cultures, is that a lot of them just keep an altar in the house to remind them of the departed. It's a lot easier to think of your ancestors as close to you when they're in your living space, rather than in a faraway, cold and depressing cemetery.

 

those who make a fortune from death and grief.

 

My mom's been in the healthcare industry for almost thirty years, from hospital to nursing home, and I actually worked there for a little bit too. I'll tell you, undertakers, funeral salesmen, the whole damned gang, nothing but snakes, all of them, stripping the clothes off your back and ripping you off behind it.

[I Broke Free]

Cremation is also a burden on the environment. Every time a body is cremated between 0.8 and 5.9 grams of mercury is released. This results in 1,000 to 7,800 pounds of mercury per year. Seventy-five per cent goes into the air and the rest ends up in the ground and water. The energy used to cremate one body is enough to drive 4,800 miles. In a year of cremations, you could get to the moon and back 83 times.

 

Was there some kind of hiccup on the board last night? I left the following post and photo and it was gone in the morning. I will post again…

 

Pitchu, thanks for the information on cremation. I had no idea how much energy was involved in the process. It does make we wonder where all that mercury is coming from. Teeth fillings? My partner and I just signed our ‘final instructions’ with our attorney last week and we both requested cremation. To be honest the main reason that I have always wanted cremation over a burial is because of an irrational fear I have of waking up and being trapped in box.

 

My mother used to half-jest that after she died she wanted to be hung in a Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert and have the birds have pick at her. While that was not practical, legal or possible, my father and I did spread her ashes under a Joshua Tree where we used to spend a great deal of vacation time. It is about twenty miles off the highway in a beautiful valley in the Mojave Desert overlooking an ancient extinct volcano. Five years later at my father’s request his ashes were spread on the exact spot. The photo below is of that event. I was unable to attend due to distance, but the rest of my siblings and their families were present.

 

IBF

[pitchu]

Yeah, IBF, there was a definite glitch. I got the email notification that you'd posted to this thread, but there was no IBF post when I got here.

 

It's troubling to try to balance out the personal and environmental concerns when it comes to one's Final Exit.

 

There's a detailed description of what's released during cremation at the site below. This is just the first paragraph. But be assured, I don't minimize your concern about being buried alive.

 

http://www.ees.ufl.edu/homepp/cywu/ENV4121.../Pollutants.htm

Air pollutants are emitted from the cremation processes by three major avenues, combustion, incomplete combustion, and the volatilization of metals in the human body. Combustion is responsible for the emission of particulate matter, hydrogen chloride, and other emissions that depend on elements present in the atmosphere. Incomplete combustion during cremation, as with any incomplete combustion process, will produce carbon monoxide. Volatilization of metals or the deposition of metals onto soot, which is then emitted into the atmosphere, is responsible for the pollutants mercury, cadmium, and lead.

[florduh]

It's ironic. Christians don't worry much about the environment, but the Rapture is the most environmentally friendly way to go.

 

Just sayin'.

 

- Chris

[pitchu]

It's ironic. Christians don't worry much about the environment, but the Rapture is the most environmentally friendly way to go.

 

Just sayin'.

 

- Chris

 

It's one more reason I hope they're right.

 

They will, however, leave behind their accumulated trash that we'll have to take out to the curb, plus a street-scattered dirty laundry problem that'll make us long for the days when we only had to pick up after the kids.