Wednesday, September 01, 2004

After I am Dead

Okay, with my grandma dying and now my friend's father dying and two days in a row of memorial/remembering events I have been thinking about what will happen in the days after I die. My grandma's remains have been flown to Ohio and buried beside my grandpa's grave as was her wish. My friend's father has been cremated, and his ashes will be buried in a cemetery, with room for his loved ones to join him at a later date.

I've talked to my husband, and neither of us feels a need to buy a plot. This little townhouse of ours is sufficient real estate for now and probably ever. Also, the idea of taking up space perpetually isn't that attractive, what with the living people using up the earth so much already. Then there's the cost. We are cheapskates who don't mind spending money, but we'd rather enjoy it now with our family. So that means cremation and dispersal (??) or whatever you call throwing what's left out into the wind. Okay, maybe it's a fancy and sentimental form of littering, but it can have meaning and it is efficient.

Everyone who loves me knows I am an organ donor and I mean than in the full extent of the word. I believe in heaven and I know the minute I'm dead my body will be a husk that might have some useful parts for other people, but none for me any longer. In fact, if somebody wants to use me as a medical cadaver I don't care. I'm still working on my husband about this one. He's not crazy about the idea, but I've promised not to die first so it won't matter. So whether my parts get doled out to lots of people who need ones that still work or if Drs. New, Learning and Bumbler want to take me apart before they work on living, breathing subjects, well that's good, at least I won't be going to waste. Whatever is left, burn it down to the minimum remainder and do one or more of the following:

1) Toss it off the top of the second hill on the coaster at the PNE (I still want one last ride on the first hill).
2) Pet 100 dogs and rub a little bit on every one of their heads.
3) Drop it off the bridge between Whidbey and Fidalgo islands at Deception Pass State Park.
4) Bury it in the gardens across the street from my office, where the neighbours grown zinnias and dahlias that are near to Paradise on Earth.
5) If I die at Christmas time, bury it in the snow in front of the absolutely gaudiest Christmas-lit house you can find, then stand outside for half and hour singing at the top of your lungs and laughing.
6) Sprinkle it in the meadows up above Lightning Lakes at Manning Park (within lurching distance of a larch tree, please)
7) Dump it from a kayak into the middle of Sasamat Lake

I hope if you read this and you have recently lost a loved one that you won't take this as insulting or inconsiderate. I'm seriously thinking about how I'd like to be remembered and where I would like my physical self to end up.

mompoet - not planning on dying anytime soon, but forming a plan, like always

ps Question du jour: What do you want done with you after?

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