I want to be like my mom. She donated her body to the Anatomical Gift Society. They will harvest any organs that are of use to the living, then the body goes to a med school (in your state, I think) so the up-and-coming doctors can learn anatomy and techniques on a real body. They cremate the remains and ship it back to the family. The process takes about six months.
There is a shortage of real bodies for doctors to learn on, so it’s a very important and useful thing to do with your dead self. My mom…the final act of kindness. She was some kind o’ gal, eh?
I like what MamaHen said, something I had not considered before - future Little MeanJoes and MeanJanes may want a site to visit.
Until MamaHen, a thought I had been kicking around is a burial I saw on a television show. Now, I have never had a particular affinity towards the ocean. As a matter of fact, I saw Jaws too many times as a kid and have never felt comfortable swimming in the ocean but…
A company offered a burial service that involved your ashes being added to concrete that was poured into molds to form building-blocks that are dumped in the ocean. The concrete blocks (giant wiffle ball looking things) the base for future coral reefs. You could have a brass plaque set into the mold with your name, etc. too. The idea of being a part of a “new birth” and the eventual ecosystem that will develop just really spoke to me.
Anyhoo… it is better than my former idea which was to embalm me, pose me in a chair with my arm wrapped around the keg at my wake and have some pre-recorded messages from me played when anyone operates the keg.
“Having a good time?”
“Enjoy that one on me buddy!”
“Anyone know where the bathroom is?”
“I never liked you, you drink too much.”
“Keep your damn hands off my wife!”
“Slainte!”
I’ve previously said (though not on the boards) that I want have a space at a cemetery where my body will be in a large, clear, upright case filled with preservative, and my bones rigged to an animatronic skeleton linked to motion sensors, so my semi-decayed corpse can lurch unexpectedly towards anyone who gets close.
Unfortunately, given the fact that I have a terrible diet, I’m pretty sure my wife will outlive me, so she’ll probably veto that idea. My second choice is to have a plot in a cemetery, preferrably a plot that’s out of the way, near a steep, crumbling hillside or a dark grove of crowding trees, rather than out in a boring, flat field. I want a weathered stone obelisk to mark my burial (unembalmed, w/o coffin, so I’m free to decompose and feed the worms) with my name and the quote “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.”
Oh, and I’m all for being an organ donor too, though why anyone would want my crappy organs is anyone’s guess. Actually, I suppose my liver is pretty good.
When my great aunt died we took her ashes out on a sailboat, and my sister was given the task of scattering them of the back of the boat. Unfortunately, the ashes were scattered half in the water, and half onto my sis, so my great aunt’s remains are both at sea and down the washing machine and shower drains. Probably not quite what she had in mind.
Cremate me as soon as possible, no embalming please.
And I’d like my ashes stored in a really big, tacky urn - one that’s heavy, unbreakable and generally a pain in the ass. So that the next wife has to dust me regularly. Then when hubby finally goes, we’re interred together.
Right, no viewing. Cremated ASAP, and, since The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite movies, take me to the nearest coastal area in a Folger’s coffee can and ‘accidently’ let my ashes blow all over the mourners (assuming there are any, that is).
It’s full mummification for me. Organs in jars, scented oils, the works. And if my family can swing it, I’d really dig a pyramid. Maybe I could be in a museum one day. Seriously.
Oh, and I want curses. Curses on the people that dig me up.
I thought this would be a hoot in case my husband decides to remarry. His wife will be wearing “dead-wife” carbon diamonds around and I can laugh up at her from hell. Gotcha-ya, you golddigging bitch!
I honestly wouldn’t mind having my body sliced into many parts, freeze dried, and sent to random people around the world. Especially world leaders… make them wonder.
Dressed in a scorched WWII era German pressure suit, and secretly fired onto the lunar surface, along with several hundred pounds of fake spaceship debris.
The name tag on the suit will indictate that I’m a Major, with the first name of Thomas.
Every fall some friends and I get together for a wild stag party, and we usually have a bonfire.
I would like my corpse soaked in 151 Bacardi for a couple of days, placed on top of the stuff to be burned, have the group pass a joint, have my best friend place the roach between my dead lips, and then start the fire.
No donation of my parts! The only reusable organs on me are my corneas, which in my state they can and often do take without permission, and my skin, but the skin banking system is fraught with corruption. Well, possibly my heart, but since I did have that little incident of the cardiac arrest several years ago, I’m not sure if it’s still eligible, have never thought to ask.
I want my body to go to science. I once read of a study being done to try to determine if poeple with superior intelligence have brains significantly different from “normal” people - if that study is still going on, they can have my brain.
Other than that, they can study IDDM with my carcass. Or asthma, if that’s studiable on a cadaver.
I had actually forgotten about this option. I really like the idea of keeping my “loved one” in a rock on my finger or around my neck. Hell, if I had enough “loved ones”, I could even make a tennis bracelet! Seriously, I do like the idea. Kind of like recycling. I think I could also donate my organs before I was rendered into a precious gem which would be doubly good.
Here’s a thought for everyone undecided as to what to do with their remains: You could have them dumped onto a glacier in hopes of being a future Ötzi, Iceman of the Alps.
I loved the diamonds idea when I first heared about it a few years ago. Before I heard about this I wanted to be cooked, not cremated, just cooked and then buried for two reasons : so I could have the best of both worlds plus the worms, etc wouldn’t get food poisoning. I defintely wanna go for the diamond idea now
Then when hubby finally goes, we’re interred together.
).