What Do You Want Done With Your Body After You Die?

[hereyago]

For those of you who don't care, please consider donating to education or science -- so much good can come from the research it enables. And it's easy, doesn't cost you or your family money like a funeral.

I just wanted to add to this because I believed in so much. And this only MY experience, different places may have specific requirements and even though you or your loved one signs up, the Body may not be able to be used, so have a back up, Body Farm (not sure if Tennesee has the only one but lives ones would have to pay to get it transported there, or whatever your plan B is and make sure there is a back up ) if my mom had passed a year before she did, she wouldn't have been accepted due to loss of weigjt, open wound and c diff.. I wasn't in any shape or form to pay for a cremation or burial,etc.

 

[Praying Colonel]

If it were just me I'd be cremated and my remains inurned at Arlington. DW wants us to be buried at her family's cemetery in her hometown, so I'm going along with her wishes.

 

[hereyago]

Thank you, I would be fine with this, if my family was.

You do what YOU want with your last wishes, no one else should have a say. And I mean that with upmost respect. And make those plans known and written and make sure that you have someone who will carry out YOUR wishes even if they personally wouldnt do it themselves.

My dad went against the norm of what his side of the family did and donated his body. He made me Executor, Durable POA,etc. His sister's wanted me to changed his mind and get buried um no, his last wishes were HIS and his alone.
Then they asked me to have him shipped there when he died (to his birth state)and just not tell him and let him think I.would follow his wishes. It was at that point I told them he made me in charge of everthing because apparently he could trust me to follow through..

 

[BrianL]

For those of you who don't care, please consider donating to education or science -- so much good can come from the research it enables. And it's easy, doesn't cost you or your family money like a funeral.

I fully support this. We donated both of my Grandparents to be used for medical schools. The procedure was so easy. They came to claim the body (a funeral home did as they are contracted to do the transport). Every year they hold a very nice ceremony for all those who donated over the course of the year and you get a little note about what was done with the body. The ashes are then returned to you. This all cost nothing and we know that something useful was done with their remains.

On a side note, my Grandfather died at home (my Mom's house) late at night. The two people (a man and a woman) from the funeral home who came to get him were right out of a movie. I mean, they were EXACTLY the kind of people who you picture working at a mortuary at 1 in the morning. They were super nice and very kind and understanding, but I think they may have been related to the Addams family. That actually was comforting to me a little that night.

 

[longboard55]

$200 to hire an outrigger canoe off of Waikiki for a ceremony to scatter ashes. Seen it many times

 

[loves to dive]

I want to be creamated and my ashes scattered in the ocean somewhere I haven't been diving. That way my honey (if he outlives me which is debatable) and my son can have a good dive trip. I've told honey I want my heart buried in NM since that is where my heart always is, but he assures me they aren't going to give him my heart and then creamate me. I've told him if he loved me he would figure out a way. Nothing like giving him that last challenge.

 

[AuntieMe3]

Cremated... and put into fireworks. There is a company that does this, then they take your family out on a boat in the ocean and fires them off. Everyone in my family and my husband's also has been cremated. My grandparents were donated to science and then cremated with their ashes sent to us. I actually have them together in a biodegradable heart shaped box my grandpa came home in, in my living room until we can get their ashes spread across the country.... they loved road trips.

 

[Branflakes]

My adult kids said they want this when I go. So i'll always be with them.
http://www.lifegem.com/LifeGemPrices.php

 

[BlueStarryHat]

My grandparents made it very clear to their kids that they wanted to be cremated and scattered over the ocean in New Jersey when they were both gone. My aunt went against those wishes and now their remains are mixed in an urn in her home. One of my young family members, I mean *really* young, maybe three or four at the time and of course not knowing anything about their last wishes pointed to the urn one day and said, "Mom-Mom and Poppy are sad in that jar." Gave us all the creeps I can tell you. My last wishes are written down safely stored away with my insurance papers.

 

[hereyago]

My grandparents made it very clear to their kids that they wanted to be cremated and scattered over the ocean in New Jersey when they were both gone. My aunt went against those wishes and now their remains are mixed in an urn in her home. One of my young family members, I mean *really* young, maybe three or four at the time and of course not knowing anything about their last wishes pointed to the urn one day and said, "Mom-Mom and Poppy are sad in that jar." Gave us all the creeps I can tell you. My last wishes are written down safely stored away with my insurance papers.

Ok, I just goose bumps.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I, personally, would like to be donated to science...but I think that automatically means cremation afterward, and my DS (at this point in his life) is kind of "creeped out" by cremation. - That may change over time, of course, but I definitely believe the ceremonies surrounding death are for the comfort of those who are left behind, so, should anything happen to me, I have given DH my blessing to override my original plans if DS needs something else. Hopefully, it won't come up for a very long time!

 

[jt'smom]

My adult kids said they want this when I go. So i'll always be with them.
http://www.lifegem.com/LifeGemPrices.php

When I was dx'd with my brainstem tumor and told to go home and die, I wanted to do this and joked that my husband could give it to his next wife as her engagement ring, lol. Since that didn't work out, I want for them to take whatever they can from me, or if I'm unusable, donate me to science or the Body Farm, or the Bodies In Motion thing. And if no one wants me then, just cremate and dump my ashes any old place. I won't know or care. Whatever is cheapest is good with me.

 

[Atlas722]

Cremate me and spread my ashes off the west side of Kelleys Island, Ohio.

 

[DawnM]

Heck... I will just be glad I am out this old body, and maybe rejoicing in a better place!
Just bury me in an old pine box. Hahahaha!!! (trying to make light of a slightly morbid subject)

If I were to have my ashes scattered somewhere, so that I could be linked with that place forever... It would be a beautiful warm tropical beach. Maybe Lumahai beach, as I think it is the most gorgeous and also non-trafficed beach I have seen so far.

You know, my dad always said that, so I looked it up. Did you know that a pine coffin is more expensive than a lot of the other options out there?

 

[Gigi22]

I am being cremated and put in an urn, then into a columbarium next to DH's ashes. There will be a short celebration of my life in the memorial centre at the cemetery, with light refreshments for the mourners. I pre-arranged the entire thing when I selected our niche at the cemetery after DH died. My POA knows where to find everything to set it all in motion.

 

[Neesy228]

Creamated...half of my ashes at my favorite beach, the other half in the Seven Seas Lagoon. I do not want to be buried. And I told my brother that he was in charge of planning the vacations for the whole family to both places in my honor.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I want to hire a robotics team to motorize my dead, decaying body and using state of the art remote control technology (or whatever Radio Shack has on sale) terrorize the neighborhood.

 

[low-key]

I just hate all my options

 

[goofyernmost]

This one may seem weird. My wife left me 18 years ago. We were like strangers after that although we did see each other at family celebrations with our daughters and grandkids until this past September when she passed away. I plan on being cremated and have left instructions for that to happen. I also purchased a military burial plot in a local cemetery this past year for that purpose. Now the weird part. My ex-wifes ashes are currently at one of my daughters house. She died broke and the burden of a burial location for her would fall to them. Since both of us, she already, and my plan will be to be cremated, there is plenty of room in my plot for both of us. Since we will both be dead at that time I see no real conflict with it, I have offered my daughters the option of putting her remains in my plot and for me to join up later. (hopefully much later) It will save them a lot of money and also make visiting the site easier for my girls. I know of no one that has ever done anything like that especially after they had been divorced for two decades, but, we did have 29 years together, raised a family and struggled through hard times together and to me it just seems right. Neither of us has remarried and I have no inclination to pursue any further relationships. Since neither of us remarried even the Government considers me to be a widower and no longer a divorcee.

Can anyone give me some reasons why that might be beyond weird and just shouldn't happen?

 

[runwad]

Cremated! I don't care where my ashes are spread but I want them all together, not a little here a little there. For some odd reason I feel I need to be kept "whole."