To be buried or cremated?

[Ceicei]

Not sure how I'd like my body to be handled when I'm already dead. I keep thinking I'll have a violent death.

I know the most likely way would be to be traditionally buried, but I wouldn't mind being cremated and having my ashes scattered by a hang-glider. If I haven't hang-glided before then, I can finally do that...

- Ceicei

 

[Cryozombie]

Are you related to Bernie? :wink:

- Ceicei

Thats what I was thinking

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Don't waste the real estate. Cremate me and throw my ashes over "Bruce" at the JFK Warfare Center at Bragg. Or the 200ft towers at Benning. I'm ok with either.

Jeff

 

[Grenadier]

I always hated it when I have to visit graveyards. They're depressing, and I really don't like the memories that I have from each time that I've had to go to one (grandmother crying in such a way that everyone ended up shedding tears as well, other relatives in sheer misery, etc.).

I'd much rather be turned into ashes, and that the ashes be used in a productive manner. Maybe as fertilizer, or maybe as a research compound, where I (or more precisely, my ashes) will be used as a chemical standard for mass spectrometry labs, or perhaps as a nitrogenous base?

Coffin burials seem like such a waste. People pay thousands of dollars to have a fine work of art built. The coffins are made of beautifully polished wood and / or metal, with very nice adornments. Then, they throw them in a hold, and keep it out of sight...

One thing for sure, though, I DON'T want to be buried with any of my possessions. I'd much rather some worthy individual get some use out of my things, than to have them buried / destroyed with me.

 

[Kacey]

Well, if I have to choose between the 2, I'd rather be cremated - Jewish law against cremation notwithstanding. However, my preferred choice would be what my grandparents did - donate my body to a medical school for the use of the med students... that is, anything that's left after the organ donations (which they couldn't do - they both died of old age, too old to donate).

 

[elder999]

I always hated it when I have to visit graveyards.

Funny, they're one of my favorite places for picnics.

 

[jetboatdeath]

I can't answer that my wife told me they would never find my body.

 

[Ceicei]

However, my preferred choice would be what my grandparents did - donate my body to a medical school for the use of the med students... that is, anything that's left after the organ donations (which they couldn't do - they both died of old age, too old to donate).

That was another idea I had previously considered, donating my body for medical study. Thanks for the reminder.

- Ceicei

 

[shesulsa]

This is a bit of a gross question but anyway,
I'm confused, is it just myth that maggots eat your corpse? Because maggots come from flies and that means that everyone that dies would have had to, at some point, had a fly lay it's young in your dead body... And alot of people that die would be put in a body bag soon after, then in the morgue, then to the coffin, therefore the flies are unable to reach them at all. So there can't really be maggots in all corpses can there?

IIRC, it's not the worms (nor maggots) that eat you, it's the insects. :idunno:

 

[Don Roley]

I always hated it when I have to visit graveyards. They're depressing, and I really don't like the memories that I have from each time that I've had to go to one (grandmother crying in such a way that everyone ended up shedding tears as well, other relatives in sheer misery, etc.).

One of the advantages of being buried at sea, as my father was, is that all of his kids can now look out and see where he is buried no matter what part of the world they are in. And we are pretty scattered.

I seriously have given thought to going to a service that will freeze dry pets so that they look real and asking to have my head mounted like a hunting trophy. It all started with a debate a few years ago about people who will eat meat but won't kill an animal if they could. I have no problem with hunting, nor eating meat. I have no problem with those that won't kill animals and won't eat meat. I also have no trouble with people who eat meat and are willing to kill. It is those that won't kill but will eat that I have trouble with.

In that spirit, I would love to have my head on the wall of some place public with a note as to who I was and why I asked to be mounted with a comment to the effect of "think about it." The only thing that holds me back is getting all the various parties to go along with it and the cost it may cause to my family to see daddy mounted on a wall somewhere.

Yeah, I'm warped. I have issues after all.....

 

[Bigshadow]

How about a viking burial?

That sounds like my kind of burial! Valhalla look out!

 

[bushi jon]

Creamated and put in everyones cereal and eaten one last time

 

[Jade Tigress]

Interesting topic. I'm not sure for myself yet. It is something I have thought about. I've always assumed I'd be buried because that's what my family does. The jewelry, I've heard of that. Part of me thinks it's kind of cool, then there's a part of me that feels it's kind of morbid. I don't know. Have to get used to new ideas I guess. I like the idea of having my ashes scattered over some exotic tropical place.

I'll try to make this short...my father died 3 days before his 52nd birthday in '88. My parents were divorced and my father was indigent. He was sick for many years and by the time he got into the hospital he was wasted away to nothing. He died 2 weeks later. Neither me, my sister, nor my mom had any money and couldn't take responsibilty for the body so the hospital took care of it. "Potters grave". It's sad. There have been many, many times I wish I had a grave site to visit. And I don't know if they cremate, bury in a potter's grave, or what they really do. It's difficult not knowing "where" he is. Somehow I would be comforted if I had a grave site to visit. To sit there and contemplate the things of my memories of him, to perhaps talk to him. Sappy as it sounds, it can be a source of comfort, it makes remembering easier and can also facilitate healing if needed.

Anyway, it's early and I'm not a morning person so I'm rambling here.

Carry on.

 

[exile]

It's difficult not knowing "where" he is.

Pam, he's there, inside of you. That's really where he still is.

 

[Brother John]

I want to be cremated and then stirred into a really nice fondu for all my friends and family to enjoy.




Your Brother
John

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Cremated for me and the ashes thrown out over the sea down in the Key's or someplace else where it is beautiful.

 

[shesulsa]

Ya know, when my father was in ICU, I just happened to run across a (now) very popular poem on passing. It exemplified how I viewed what I would want people to feel upon my passing and I kept it and wound up reading it at his scattering at sea. Years later, in an effort to get over his death and other things and move on with life, I purged it from my home. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else since.

It went something like "don't cry for me for I am the dew on the grass and the wind and the sea" etcetera. I just felt that he was finally free from the pain he endured for so long and it was a great comfort to me, Pam.

By the bye, if anyone has any idea of which I speak, if you would forward the info to me, I'd be most appreciative.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Pam, he's there, inside of you. That's really where he still is.

Thank you. :asian:

It went something like "don't cry for me for I am the dew on the grass and the wind and the sea" etcetera. I just felt that he was finally free from the pain he endured for so long and it was a great comfort to me, Pam.

It sound like a beautiful and comforting poem Geo.

Off-topic, but does anyone know what hosptial's actually do with "unclaimed" bodies?

 

[shesulsa]

Here is the poem - I finally found it!

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a 1,000 winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sun on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled light
I am the soft star that shines at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there; I did not die.

Anonymous

Here's another one I've always liked:

High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air;
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark nor even eagle flew;
And while, with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Fl. Officer John Gillespie McGee
1922-1941

 

[Cirdan]

I think I`d like to be buried under the roots of an apple tree.

However I plan to live forever so there really won`t be any need for such arrangements :uhyeah: