Zev, I know that open caskets are a no-no. I had, unclearly, moved on to what other people might be thinking about. In hindsite that should have been a different paragraph.
Are people still wrapped in a cloth for burial, or has the degradable wood box become the more common method?
I still don’t get the open casket concept.
Hi Opal! (I’ve always wanted to be able to say that!)
RE:
"I most emphatically don’t want to be embalmed OR cremated. I also don’t want to be buried in a cemetary.
A) is this legal?
B) can you be buried on private land?
C) anything else i’m leaving off?"
It appears to be legal in some parts of VA (your state) and MD (mine). I gather this from driving around on country roads and seeing graves in yards of farms and small acreages.
i would think as lng as you have sufficient land, there are no health risks, and the death is verified by the authorities (that is, you didn’t knock off Mr Opal and ditch him in the yard somewhere at midnight), it would be OK.
But consider what happens if and when the land is sold and/or sudivided, suburbanized, and otherwise “developed”. Your deceased could well wind up in the backyard of a stranger, and they can refuse the relatives rights to access the site. (According to the Washington City Paper, this has happened). They also could theoretically not maintain the marker and let it fall it into great disrepair (like accidentally on purpose knock it down and put a compost heap on the site). In Rockville MD, the site of a small graveyard for a long-gone church was treated as an abandonded lot by neighboring businesses and became a de facto dump site for all kinds of debris and wastes. It happens from time to time hereabouts that construction uncovers legitimate (non-murder conceal-the-corpse type) burials from long ago. So it could happen that the 2198 widening of highway 66 (to 35 lanes each direction) might unearth the skull of Opal from her backyard. Ewwww.
Depends.
(Oh wait, you don’t want to wear those either?)
On the state, that is.
In Alabama, “…state law through the Department of Public Health only regulates cemeteries that operate on a for-profit basis. Exempted are cemeteries run by churches, fraternal organizations, government bodies and families.”
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/1news/local/081302_bury.html
This spring, the courts upheld the parent’s right to bury their child on their own land in their own way over the objections of the county health department.
Of course, many people would find death and final disposition in ANY form preferable to living in Alabama, so you might want to check the laws closer to home. :eek:
–jack
As a former Zoning Adminstrator I had to answer the question “Can I be buried on my own land?” on several occasions.
In VA the answer is: Yes, you can be buried on your own land. You can bury your wife on your own land (provided she is dead at the time of the burial). You can bury anyone at all on your own land. What you may not be able to do is operate a commercial cemetary on your land (sell plots). That is a commercial enterprise and may be prohibited by your local zoning ordinance.
And once you’re planted, your descendants can come back and visit as often as they’d like, even if the property changes hands. You cannot bare someone from visiting and maitaining a family cemetary even if you are a subsequent owner (in many cases, the family will retain actual title to the cemetary plots with a specific reference to the fact in subsequent deeds).
Well actually I don’t want a marker of any sort. I want a tree planted over my body. Most likely anyone buying the property would have no idea that anyone was buried there.