Got dibs on where you're going to spend eternity?

Well, I want to be fire roasted, and spread out in the woods behind my house. ( I really wanted my ashes thrown in my septic tank. All the damn grief passing those permits to get it!!! But my brother won't do it.) I don't care where they bury you; sooner or later, they're going to build a McDonalds or a Starbucks over you. Worse than that-a parking lot. Somebody leaks brake fluid on me, I'm coming back to haunt them.
 

My family's always been cremated, the only odd thing is we do it in groups. The last included my father, mother, and step-father. They wanted to be sprinkled in the lake out on the back of our property. Of course they didn't die at the same time, but over a period of seven tears, and their ashes sat on the mantle until the third one died, and then their remains were distributed as they wished.

This has happened several times in my family.

Now, my son and husband's ashes await me, and we too wish to join the waters of the world.
 
Punalu'u Black Sand Beach here on the Big Island. With my late wife and our 2 fur kids, once we're all gone. Black Sand Beach.jpg
 
My physical body? Hey I'm dead like a rotten peach...cremate me with little fanfare and throw me throughout the local nature reserve. Like Fuzzy, if future generations destroy the nature reserve to build over priced condos and Urban Outfitters I will haunt their sorry Big Corp, wannabe Hipsters into eternity. I do believe there might be an afterlife for the spirit. Mine is a self replenishing bookstore with every fuzzy critter I ever owned...but no one has to eat or poop...it's paradise after all. You can visit with human spirits you've loved. Perhaps your soul gets reincarnated into another human body? Yup that whole concept works for me...bodies as temporary vessels.
 
Why do some people picture themselves spending eternity in a grave or as far-flung ashes?

That's your body, folks. It's your soul -- where YOU are going to spend eternity -- that you should be thinking about.

Of course, if all you think you are is just a body ...
 
I mean my take is our teeth go, whole organs go, our bodies shrink, our hair can fall out...no we are mortal. I feel when we die the spirit and soul are "us". When someone remembers you, you are there.
 
In the words of the great John Prine:

Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride.

When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:

Chorus:
Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have 'em cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get 'em out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I've got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose

Repeat Chorus

Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don't pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It's a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
 
Into the water with my cremains. My soul flies free, until the wheel spins again. I salute those I knew before, know now, and in the future, some of whom are all of these things. So very beautiful. Shall we dance? The stars laugh with us my friends.:love_heart:
 
I have thought about this a few times, I used to want to be sprinkled into the ocean, some body of water, but, now if as I plan, I end up in NC, I want my ashes buried along where my siblings are in my mothers grave site.
 
My wife's ashes sit on her dresser awaiting my own. Then we get mixed and returned to the universe . It matters not where. The great mixing wheel churns over eons and it is all the same. Who we are ceases at death except in the memory of others. When I die, the memories of those who live in my mind will die with me. I find nothing to be depressed about in that. We had more joy in our lives than most. Not interested in spending eternity on my knees telling God what a great guy he is. Not interested in coming back as someone else to try my luck again. The daily struggle will be over. A long nap sounds good.
 
I'll be buried in the family plot. I've experienced so much death in my life, I hate to even discuss the topic but it's all been arranged and paid for.
 
<<<Hugs>>> I'm sorry Chic, some of us gallows humor helps us personally, but really...my Mom passed suddenly more or less when I was twenty six...I must have cried for five years...n' you never quite "get over" it sometimes...but they are always with you regardless.
 
My family's always been cremated, the only odd thing is we do it in groups. The last included my father, mother, and step-father. They wanted to be sprinkled in the lake out on the back of our property. Of course they didn't die at the same time, but over a period of seven tears, and their ashes sat on the mantle until the third one died, and then their remains were distributed as they wished.

This has happened several times in my family.

Now, my son and husband's ashes await me, and we too wish to join the waters of the world.


I think lots of people make pacts like that. My mom wants her ashes interred where my baby brother was buried and whomever dies first of myself or my husband, will wait 'on the mantlepiece' until the second passes on' and our ashes will be spread somewhere in sight of a most beautiful mountain between Golden, BC and the Alberta border. When you pass the mountain, you can see how it used to be part of the prairies and that during a violent volcanic or earthquake upheaval a millennia ago, the earth split open and the prairie reached up to the sky. It's perfectly flat on the west side of the mountain and the east slope is all jagged and broken. That's where I'm going to be added back to the earth.:rolleyes:
 
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Where will I spend eternity?

Well if I am correct (and I usually am) I will be able to go anywhere and do anything I desire. My trusty old furry friends will be waiting for me to join them in some epic quests to the far regions of where ever. My body or whats left of it is to be cremated and scattered behind the house in the woods. I have to agree, I better not see a parking lot or a coffee house near my ashes. I will be checking it from time to time.

One thing is for sure we will all find out what happens. I am confident something happens and it is not what we have been told. (I was raised catholic)
 
After my useable parts have been recycled, would like my ashes to be scattered either from Kaanapali Beach in Maui or into a lovely babbling brook in Yellowstone Nat'l Park.
 
We both grew up Lutheran with the traditional viewing, visitation and services. So after years of discussions about this we have both decided to go "organic." Not just bio-degradable stuff but truly where they wrap a sheet around the body and plant it. Every year after, they fill in the indentation with dirt. No embalming, no coffin, no box - seems like the simplest and most natural way to go since I'm sure the Army Corps of Engineers and TVA won't let me float down river in a Viking ship on fire! ( My husband has offered to put a cardboard dragon on a canoe.) Do you suppose there are permits for that?? Maybe it will be better in Maine - on the ocean.

On the other hand, I was talking to my younger sister the other week and she says, "Oh, by the way, I got my urn!"
"Your what?"
"My urn. For when I am cremated."
"Really?"
"It is biodegradable."
"Really?"
You can take it on a boat, beyond the 3 mile limit and it will float on the water for 5 minutes while you have short service then it will sink and slowly erode away."
"Really?" I didn't know what else to say!
She loves the beach, "It is a seashell and I got it on sale!!"

I could not stop laughing but I know she was serious. I mean, out of the blue she hits me with that, but I'm glad she has made some plans!
 
We've both elected for cremation and the one that goes last brings the first one home in a urn and puts it wherever.

Never really thought about it till now of what will happen to the firsts ashes when the second one goes........when you think about it it makes no difference really.

With no heirs (that we care about) our wills state that when the last one goes that our estate is to be split 50-50 between a local no kill dog and cat shelter and a near by wildlife rehab facility.........let them worry about what to do with the two urns.
 
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I like the idea of the biodegradable urn. It takes care of the problem of scattering ashes when it's windy. After my late husband's memorial service, we went out in a flotilla of boats to his favorite fishing spot to scatter the ashes. When I tipped the box over the water, a gust of wind picked the ashes up and blew them right back into my face. I was picking them out of my hair for an hour, not to mention the spitting .... oh, please, don't mention the spitting. I just KNOW he was laughing at me.
 

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