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

[kdonnel]

If I end up insanely rich I want to be cremated and my ashes used in a horrific reality tv show where people have to eat my ashes in a bizarre contest to win some of my money.

If I end up less than insanely rich my body donated to the Tennessee body farm.

If I end up poor just dump my body down the sewer.

 

[dotfurio]

I want to be buried. The idea of being cremated freaks me out. I wouldn't want it for family, either, but I would respect their wishes if they wanted it.

 

[ronandannette]

Organs donated and then I want: Embalming and preparation with a viewing prior to a traditional funeral service (flowers, music, eulogies and video tributes) at our church with a luncheon afterwards. Graveside service to follow.

This is the way "my people" have done it for generations. It's what I expect for me and DH too.

 

[plutotek]

Cremation since there's no reason to takeup space, assuming my DW can't find someone to stuff my corpse for future use at Halloween.

However, at the memorial service, they'll play my playlist (Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell, Don't Fear the Reaper, etc.) which ends with Pop Goes The Weasel. Meanwhile, someone will be standing in a corner, silently watching, dressed as the Grim Reaper.

That should make for an interesting service.

 

[Sabeking]

Donate my organs...then bury me in the plot I purschased for 50 BUCKS....the best deal I ever got! They were originally 25 dollars and they raised the price to 50 at the church. I can't pass up a deal, so I bought 4. One for each of us! Lol!!! Not that I expect my kids to need them, they would probably want to be buried with their spouses when they get married. But I couldn't get past the fact that I owned some real estate for 200 dollars!!!

 

[MillauFr]

The thought of wasting $100k on a funeral plot is kind of crazy to me. I just want to be cremated.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Okay, guess I just can't "get there" in my head right now.


But... for all of those saying "Cremation... who cares."

Your family may.. it's especially difficult to grieve a loved one when there's no "place" to go too.. it's like you didn't exist.. ur just gone.
KWIM?

My mom (RIP) was cremated, her ashes went out to sea .. but some were kept ( thank goodness my sis did this) and interred ( in a spot my dad will eventually share with her) and it gives us this beautifully serene area to go too and visit/See ..her name.. She IS someplace..
it's So difficult losing a loved one, but not having a place to visit makes it that much harder for those left behind..
Just my thoughts...

 

[MinnieMouse84]

Cremated. I don't care what's done with the ashes.

 

[winterman]

My DH was cremated and I keep his ashes in my bedroom. While he was in hospice care, he had asked to be cremated. I was relieved that he did because I would be moving more than 120 miles away from the town where we had lived for 26 years. This was following through with plans we had made together for our retirement , but I couldn't bear the thought of 'leaving' him so far away.

I really don't care what is done with my body. I have told my kids that they will likely have to bury their dad along with me. Even after more than 5 years, I just don't want to let him go.

When DH was dying, we talked to our parish priest and he told us that the Catholic Church is ok with cremation but want the ashes to be buried and all together. So no scattering for us.

 

[DVC-Don]

Cremate. Put them anywhere but the trash.

 

[Hikergirl]

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?

I don't think it is weird or shouldn't happen but, the only thing I would consider is how your ex wife would feel about that. Obviously your daughters would know how she felt about you after all those years.
There doesn't have to be a burial, those ashes can go anywhere. Meaning they can be spread somewhere meaningful to your ex-wife. If its important to your daughter to bury them in a cemetery then I would talk to her about what your ex-wife would want. If she would be ok with being buried with you, and you are ok with it, then there is defintely nothing weird about it.
This is coming from my own experience. An idea like that would not go over well with either of my parents.

I am a believer that the wishes/wants of the deceased should be followed. If you know that your loved one would never want to end up somewhere they would hate, don't put them there. That doesn't mean you have to go broke doing what they would want, but at least think of something else they would have wanted that you could do.
OP, not saying that to you, this is just a general thought.

 

[ronandannette]

The thought of wasting $100k on a funeral plot is kind of crazy to me. I just want to be cremated.

Um...where exactly would it cost that much to by a burial plot?

 

[DaisyJ]

Organs donated and then I want: Embalming and preparation with a viewing prior to a traditional funeral service (flowers, music, eulogies and video tributes) at our church with a luncheon afterwards. Graveside service to follow.

This is the way "my people" have done it for generations. It's what I expect for me and DH too.

I've made it abundantly clear to DH there will NOT be a viewing when I die.

 

[rastahomie]

I've made it abundantly clear to DH there will NOT be a viewing when I die.

Me too! I think the Western, Christian* custom of viewing the body - especially while the widow/widower has to stand there and be polite and receive mourners - is nothing short of ghastly. But, to each their own.

*I say this not as a religious dig, just as a cultural descriptor of the custom, which I assume originated in Christianity.

 

[ronandannette]

Me too! I think the Western, Christian* custom of viewing the body - especially while the widow/widower has to stand there and be polite and receive mourners - is nothing short of ghastly. But, to each their own.

*I say this not as a religious dig, just as a cultural descriptor of the custom, which I assume originated in Christianity.

No. Laying in state took place in ancient (pre-christian) Greco-roman culture and existed amongst the Egyptian elite prior to that. And maybe others too. It is an extremely prominent part of the funerary rites of Hindus and Buddhists. I don't think Jews or Muslims** do it though as both groups bury as immediately after death as possible, although cremation is now accepted by Jews (Muslims never do that).

ETA: ** It's part of Muslim religious obligation for family or members of the immediate faith community to prepare the deceased for burial. This is sort of like viewing, I guess and in several Eastern European countries that are predominately Muslim, the custom is for the deceased to be carried in an open casket through the streets to the burial place.

 

[MillauFr]

Um...where exactly would it cost that much to by a burial plot?

In Seattle they are paying up to $100 million per acre for raw land. Land price are out of control here and cemeteries are getting enormous prices for burial plots.

 

[ronandannette]

In Seattle they are paying up to $100 million per acre for raw land. Land price are out of control here and cemeteries are getting enormous prices for burial plots.

Maybe, but cemeteries are generally not located on prime real estate. I'd still need to see an actual pricelist from an actual cemetery to believe a single plot is selling for $100,000.00.

 

[Mizzoufan]

It really doesn't matter to me once I'm dead I know that my life will go on in Heaven and that what truly matters to my family and I.

 

[hereyago]

Okay, guess I just can't "get there" in my head right now.


But... for all of those saying "Cremation... who cares."

Your family may.. it's especially difficult to grieve a loved one when there's no "place" to go too.. it's like you didn't exist.. ur just gone.
KWIM?

My mom (RIP) was cremated, her ashes went out to sea .. but some were kept ( thank goodness my sis did this) and interred ( in a spot my dad will eventually share with her) and it gives us this beautifully serene area to go too and visit/See ..her name.. She IS someplace..
it's So difficult losing a loved one, but not having a place to visit makes it that much harder for those left behind..
Just my thoughts...

They may or may not, but it is still up to the individual person what they want their final wishes to be.

Both of my parents donated their bodies and then were cremated. My dad had his ashes sent to his birth state to be scattered and I scattered my mom's ashes here (as this was her birth state and family plot is).
I can tell you that I don't feel slighted at all that I can't "visit " their graves or have thier remains on the fireplace mantle.

People are much more then just their physical selves.

And there are so many options for remebrance if the people left behind need: urns, make jewelry from ashes, plant tree (when my dd was in elementary school, one of the lunch ladies who had been there for years and was a wonderful woman died, they planted a tree with a plaque in dedication to her), etc.

I feel my loved ones around me, I am fortunate enough to have very give dreams of my parents and they look healthy, far from the end of their lives were.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Organs donated and cremated. We just did our wills and I had this was put in my will.

I also wanted to add for the family to light a candle and think of me on my birthday after I die but decided that was a little much........