Cremation or Burial?

[rileysgranny]

When my husband was growing up, and as he was raising his boys, they were always learning and reciting poems and jokes, etc. I'm amazed at how many he remembers. He does masonry work and spends his time entertaining the guys he works with by reciting the good ones, you know, the ones that construction workers would enjoy! He has even made up a few of his own. I guess it passes the time away while working.

justuschickens59: I lost my Dad on May 12th and we chose a very simple (not ornate) casket and had a very simple service. The whole thing cost just shy of $10,000! $10,000 of my Dad's insurance money that could have taken care of my Mom's needs now that he is gone! $10,000 spent for a wooden box that was only seen for a couple of hours and then stuck in the ground. Don't get me wrong, I certainly wanted to honor my Dad, and I believe he would have been pleased (he wouldn't even discuss cremation), and the funeral home did take care of publishing the obit and contacting the insurance company and making arrangements for Mom with the Social Security Office, so she didn't have to fill out a bunch of papers. But $10,000!!!!!!

 

[thechickenchick]

I always thought that most people leaned towards burial. I am surprised to learn that more people believe cremation is the way to go.

 

[frankenchick]

My first choice is composting, but after that would be cremation and scattering (pref. over the IL prairie).

DH hates cremation, though, so I'll probably be buried. I'll insist (somehow) on not being embalmed and put on display, and I want a plain pine casket.

Had to skip from page 6 to 16 because of the time, but I'm gonna go back and read it all.

 

[babylady4]

Cremation, no embalming. Just cook me to ashes and do whatever with them I really don't care!

I also want a New Orleans style funeral with Jazz at the end! No crying and carrying on please; just have a big kick butt party celebrating my life.

I would write up legal documentation if my spouse would not abide by my wishes for a funeral. It is MY event not his!

Oh, just an FYI; some states insist that the body is embalmed before cremation. I think there are some old laws on the books about making sure people are really dead before burial...... that and you have to be burned in some kind of casket. Wast of time, money and resources if you ask me! A good old fashioned Viking funeral pyre could be a plan.......

 

[babylady4]

The Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that he'd "sooner live in hell".

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead -- it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say:
"You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows -- O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May".
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared -- such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; . . . then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm --
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Robert William Service

 

[Beekissed]

Wonderful!!! Its been years since I read that....thank you for the prose!

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
And where the remains go? It probably would stink a while wouldn't it?

 

[shadowpaints]

i choose cremation but. i am donating my brain for Chiari research. i have a 9 mm chiari herniation, and want to help it be researched

i figure there are enough people burried, that i didnt need to add to the number

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
X2. I would rather be cremated. That way my ashes can go with the people I leave behind. To me, seeing my Grandmothers ashes in my Aunt's house always made me feel good. I don't like visiting gravesites either, and I move too much to pick one area where I should be buried anyway.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

And where the remains go? It probably would stink a while wouldn't it?

It's a method used for animal disposal in areas such as some laboratories as well, and has been used for two decades, I believe. It is one method used on our campus for animal remains, and has never stunk up the place.

I hate the huge industry burials have become. Burial also just isn't for me personally, because being pumped full of gross smelling preservatives, made up for display, and put in a box just seems so isolated for my dissolvable and reusable nutrients and chemicals..and honestly creeps me out as far as doing it to my remains goes. I would like to be buried (no chemicals, no coffin...you have to do a lot of paperwork for that) under a tree with my husband or someone close to me doing the digging. He expects the same from me. I could totally go for vulture 'sky burials' too. Cremation would be okay with me, so long as people let my ashes disperse rather than keeping them around in an urn, but not my top pick.​