Serious post here, although I have enjoyed some of the more quirky posts.
Hubby died earlier this year and was cremated according to the prepaid funeral plan that he arranged for several years ago. I have yet to collect his ashes.
I have organised side by side niches in a beautiful black polished stone wall in the cemetery where most of our family are either buried or have their ashes scattered.
Hubby wanted his ashes to be scattered so I have the dilemma of granting his wish and at the same time providing a place for our descendants to visit.
My daughter came up with a solution that I think he would approve.
She suggested that instead of interring his ashes at the cemetery, we should take them to a place near an historic arched stone bridge west of Sydney.
Hubby was fascinated by bridges and their development over time, from stone clapper bridges, arched bridges, the Iron Bridge in UK and modern bridges of all kinds.
We will invite friends and family to the stone bridge and have a private ceremony there to say our goodbyes as we scatter his ashes to the wind.
Then we will all have lunch together, either a picnic or at an hotel.
The empty niche at the cemetery will serve as a time capsule in which we will place significant objects and a written history of his life. Words spoken at his funeral and wake will also be preserved inside the niche, which will bear the usual biographical details and these words that were spoken by his Lodge brethren -
"He lived respected, his loss regretted".
When my time comes, it will be up to our children to decide what to do with my ashes but I think I will yet have time enough to tell them what I would like to happen.
