I would prefer to be buried just in case I would need to have an actual body to be resurrected but, since I doubt that's true and cremation is cheaper and easier, I'm okay with cremation. If we had curb service, I'd suggest leaving my body out for trash pickup but I don't think my wife would like to drive me to the transfer station. Now, if I could interest her in composting, we might have another idea.
As a Ex Embalmer of several hundred dead bodies I took great pride in my skills to restore them to a healthy life like appearance there by comforting the survivors whose last view of the deceased was less than favorable.
I will be buried in the family cemetery. First burial took place there in 1827. It has been a place of comfort and continuity in my life. Even as a child I could be found back against a stone under a tree, gathering wool and staring at clouds, at peace with my forbearers. Almost three hundred years of my DNA,occupying a small 5 acre plot. I will have a VA plaque on a granite stone.
Cremation definitely for me......it's my last chance for a hot smokin' bod. No, seriously, I do favor cremation. My family mostly favors it, too. We do memorial services later, instead of funerals. That way, everyone's not so strung out and there can be story telling and laughing, as well as crying. My grandmother told my mother, "I don't care what you do with me BUT DON'T BURY ME NEXT TO YOUR FATHER!", which surprised the heck out of me because she had been a devoted wife. So we just had her name put on the double headstone and scattered her ashes at the farm. My dad wanted a Viking funeral but the Coast Guard looked askance at setting a perfectly good boat on fire and pushing it out to sea, so we scattered him in the surf and shot off fireworks. My late husband's ashes were scattered from a flotilla of boats over his favorite fishing spot after his memorial service at his favorite fish camp. Recommendation: don't scatter ashes on a windy day and if you do, keep your mouth closed (I was combing him out of my hair and spitting him out for an hour). Me, I want to be scattered at a waterfall. The boyfriend's family, on the other hand, has the long drawn-out open-casket hideously expensive funerals and burials with all the attendant drama. In fact, he already has his headstone in the family cemetery, just waiting for the death date to be added. It skeeved me out royally when I saw it. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
My body goes to a med school. The Funeral Industry is a royal rip-off, set up to take advantage of those at a very vulnerable point in their lives. Disgusting! Grave yards are a huge waste of space, and totally unnecessary, as I see it. Cremation is the way to go, if you don't want to help educate folks, even after you're gone. Of course there's also, maybe, in the future...... Soylent Green!
Yes..."Soylent Green" was a food made from deceased persons! Quite a movie, but I can't see why Charlton Heston ever agreed to do this one. Hal
TAXIDERMY Why not have G'pa mounted just like a bear or deer? Once a body is embalmed it should be a easy job to continue with the taxidermy process and mounting.
You hope your body goes to Med school. Depends entirely what you die of. Most infectious diseases will put you in the ground or crematorium.
Interesting topic. As a young child thought best I was burned no problem with the idea Married a Catholic girl who when she was 20 and on are our marriage always said she wanted to be buried could not accept the thought of cremation When she died at 61 after being told she would die with her cancer she said to me she wanted to be cremated.