Eco-friendly funeral/burial

[Janet]

I just thought when I read it that it sounded so right...so peaceful and not so commercial. There are special places to be buried and they let them grow naturally. I really hadn't thought about it that much, but when I read that article in the newspaper....it sounded so right.

[Tiramisu]

I'll be buried in a pine box (hopefully made by my son) not embalmed, buried in a comfortable cotton gown, no funeral, no long wake. I LOVE this idea!

[Blueyes]

Around here you have to be buried in a casket with a vault. I didn't have my mom embalmed because I couldn't stand the thought of it, and my dad and my brothers let me choose everything. You have to be buried in a certain time frame if you aren't embalmed. I do not for the life of me understand how people can be persuaded to buy a bug free, moisture free specially sealed vault. I surely understand how you liked this idea, Janet. I like it, too!

[gja1000]

Isn't it so ironic that so many of us want the exact same thing!!! I actually would prefer my body be donated to science or a medical school, but my daughter has a problem with that so I probably won't. In the absence of that, I want the exact same thing, either cremation or buried in a plain pine box with no embalming, no expensive anything, no funeral, no wake. I would like my friends/family to get together (not necessarily at the time of my death) and enjoy each other at the lake, a restaurant, a park, any place, just NOT a funeral. And the only reason I would like them to get together at some point is how many times have you said, "oh it's so good to see you, we seem to only see each other at weddings and funerals........."

My daughter's dad died a couple of years ago and he had no money for any type of burial, so my daughter had to pay the bill. She had him cremated and bought the urn and little heart necklaces for her and his wife to put a few of his ashes in it. I think it was still $1500.00!!! The family just got together at a restaurant and they ate and talked. She said it was nice.

[Blueyes]

Mike just said today that he wanted his body donated to science, since he has so many different health problems maybe they could learn something from studying him. It's fine with me, so that's what we will do. I am an organ donor, myself... if there is anything not worn out on me when I die, lol!

[gja1000]

How weird Betsi, that Mike would say that TODAY as we are having this conversation.

Diana, you were talking about how funeral homes take advantage of grieving families and that is so true. Gary's mom died very unexpectedly back in the early 80's. The family was so shocked they couldn't make very good decisions. I saw the same thing happen to them at the funeral home. It was just awful. They paid for a funeral and things they had no money for. I don't know how it was ever paid off. I swore I would never allow that to happen to my family. My daughter knows I'd like to have my body donated to science, but since it is weird for her, I told her to do whatever she wanted with me, but NOT to spend a lot of money. Since she went through this with her dad, she understands what to do and not to do, so it will be OK. If she wants to bury me, that's fine, if she wants to cremate me that's fine too. I think though I will tell her if she wants to bury me, I'd like to go the "green" route. I didn't even know such a thing existed!

[Janet]

I guess the green burial is becominbmore and more popular. There are only a few green cemeteries here in Indian, but one just happens to be near Lafayette and thTs not far from us at all.

[gja1000]

http://www.walletblog.com/2010/04/ar...ost-effective/

This is a link to some info on green burials.