October 28, 2011

In case of an Antarctic car crash

Being at a funeral affects your thinking toward your own mortality. Specifically, it makes me want to shout from the rooftops what I don't want done with me after I'm gone. Everyone has their choices and reasons for their end of life decisions. And this is no judgment on any of the choices of others; Only what I feel strongly about for me. And since this seems as reasonable of a rooftop as any:

  • No open casket. Please. I don't want anybody looking at my made-up self talking about how good I look.
  • Let's just say no casket, period. Cremate me.
  • Do what you want for the funeral. It's for who is left anyway. But if you could have decent music, and not boring old church music, that'd be nice.
  • No headstones. I need no marker of me on some valuable piece of land next to other headstones. Remember me somewhere I actually like to be. Go to the beach. Plant a tree. That's where I'd prefer to be while living anyway, so remember me there if you must have a place.
  • If you'd like a trip or two to nice places, take me with and scatter bits of me in my favorite places around the world - like Praia do Futuro in Fortaleza, Brazil, in the Swiss mountains, and Brier Island, Nova Scotia as you see a humpback whale... you get the picture. Other fabulous options include Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, off Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and off the beach wall in Havana.
  • If you're cheap and don't want to go to nice places, throw me in the water somewhere pretty.
  • Bottom line, keep it simple. And keep it cheap. For God's sake, don't spend a lot on a funeral. Unless it's to splurge on the good booze. Then, by all means, have at it.

2 comments:

Bev Sykes said...

I love your ideas...especially "don't spend a lot on a funeral" I can think of nothing worse than going into debt over someone's funeral, for Pete's sake!

Mary Z said...

A wonderful plan! It sounds like what we've told our kids.