Suppose your late Uncle Al wanted to hang around? Could you send him to the local taxidermist for mounting?
I have heard about people who don’t want to go into a grave-I recall reading about some English nobleman, who was placed in his tomb, sitting in his favorite char, with a bottle of whiskey nearby.
Seems like a nice way to spend eternity.
I wonder if he was related to Willie the Wimp?
Willie the Wimp was buried today,
They laid him to rest in a special way.
Sent him off in the finest style
That casket-mobile really drove ‘em wild
Southside Chicago will think of him often
Talkin’ 'bout Willie the Wimp and his Cadillac coffin,
Willie the Wimp and his Cadillac coffin
I’ve never been to a service with an open casket, but have heard more than once from those who have that the deceased didn’t look like him/herself.
Were we to have an open casket for my mom*, seeing her in a dress with some pearls and makeup would be weird. Since she retired she wears sweatshirts almost exclusively. It would be more apropriate to send her off in one of those with her gardening hat and gloves.
I kind of like the idea of honoring something the deceased loved as part of the service. The action pose though, would freak me right out. I think that’s a step that didn’t need to be taken.
*Purely speculation, she’s only 64 and in pretty decent health.
It’s a little creepy. I don’t know if I’d call it “cool”. They could have just put up a photo of him on his bike when he was alive, but they just had to go the extra mile eh?
I guess this guy was all about the cycle of life.
Sup?
If that was something tht was important to the deceased I think it’s a pretty cool idea.
My dad wanted to be cremated when he died so we didn’t need to buy a casket. Instead we rented one from the funeral home. At a cost of $600 for two days. :eek: Looking at the bill I thought it would be a lot cheaper, and I think he would have liked it, if we had just rented a really nice caddy and posed him in it for two days.
Let’s hope he’s not on a highway to hell.
I take it you have Maori heritage, then?
I might be wrong, but rigor mortis only lasts for a certain amount of time. Eventually the body unstiffens.
Nope - Pakeha. But I like the symbolism, and it felt wrong just to chuck it out! (Not wrong enough to consider eating it thought…)
Oh, OK. I think it’s nuts, then. 
That sounds about right - I don’t have first hand knowledge but a vague feeling that you can apply to be buried on your own property and that its not that hard…
What in the hell do you have to do in America if you want to bury a placenta, though?
“Scuse me doc, can you fish that out of the afterbirth bucket and put it into a biohazard baggie for me…to go?”
I can’t speak for all New Zealanders, but from my perspective the divide between “maori” culture and “pakeha” culture is not that stark in NZ. As Girl from Mars says, many “Maori” things have pervaded popular culture - so it may be more accurate to say its “New Zealand Culture”
We buried my mother back in January and she had specific instructions about her funeral already written up (long illness) including a detailed description of the casket.
When we went into the showroom to look at the caskets, we immediately saw the one she was describing, which turned out to be the least expensive coffin they had (basically particleboard covered in fancy looking blue fabric…it didn’t look cheap…it’s going into the ground, what difference does it make).
It cost $600.00.
Sorry to continue the hijack, but I had my baby in Australia, and I simply put it in my birthplan that we wanted to take the placenta home. Mentioned it again to my Ob during its delivery, and it was given to Boy From Mars to take home, double bagged in biohazard bags. There it sat in the fridge for 4 days until Baby From Mars and I got home to plant it. I wouldn’t think you’d have any issue doing the same in any other country but I could be wrong.
*Dead man sittin’ on a motorbike
His heart, it did not flutter
He’s just dead meat
Sittin’ on the seat
Lookin’ like he’s out for a putter
Oh, It ain’t gonna rain no more
It ain’t gonna rain no more
Motorbike revvin’
Ridin’ up to Heaven
Where it ain’t gonna rain no more*
http://www.ifmurdered.com/ is a great place for funeral ideas. My favorite is the guy who wants to be cremated and mixed into chili…
so he can tear up that ass one last time.
Personally, I think it’d be hilarious to have a closed casket, but actually prop my corpse up in a random chair and put a hat over my face as if I were trying to sleep. Perhaps put a recording of faint, random snores on my person.
This site is awesome, thanks for linking it.
My favorite- and one I seriously want for myself- at the funeral, all my friends gather around the casket and chant “His name was Robert Paulson.”