eco friendly Friday...death

Rusty and I have long debated about who will die first. I told Rusty that when he dies I am going to take him to a taxidermy and then have placed on something that I could wheel around the house. Then when I get sick of him I can just place him in the closet.

Rusty say's that will never happen because he thinks I am going to die first. He will not donate any of my organs and he wants to carry my ashes around.

The first funeral I remember going to was my grandmother. There she was all laid out in a casket. There were flowers everywhere and back then we even went to the place where they were going to lay her to rest.

There was grandmother in this steel casket that could be sealed. Now who is going to dig up my grandmother and see if her body is perfectly preserved? Why are the holes so deep? Why are caskets steel? Does someone really care is their casket will last forever?

When my father in law died, my mother in law had the body cremated, and she even bought a sea salt urn! I must say that this urn was cool looking. We always said that we were going to go dump dad in the ocean. We thought this would be fitting since he loved to scuba dive. Instead dad ended up sitting in our closet for almost two years.

Then my mother in law died. She had no life insurance, so Rusty and I had her cremated and we did not buy her an urn. Now if you have never picked up someones remains let me tell you how they come. They come in a very fancy zip lock bag and that bag is placed in another bag that is just a little nicer then a crown royal bag.

I ended up driving my mother in law around for a month. I don't know why I did not put her in the closet with dad, but I didn't. We did lay both of to rest at Riverside National cemetery. When I made the arrangements I asked for one plot and one head stone. I figured they lived together all of their lives so why not lay them to rest together.

I am sure by now that dad's urn has dissolved and that he has now become part of the earth again.

When my dad died my mom had his body cremated. We all have little urns that we can wear as necklaces. Yep. I can wear my dad as a piece of jewelry if I wanted to. My mom still has my dad's ashes. I have no idea what she is going to do with them.

Then my sister died. My mom actually rented a casket. Yep, you can now rent a casket before you have someone cremated. My sister's ashes are sitting on her fireplace mantel.

While I was back in Chicago I learned that my mother had her mothers ashes in the ceder chest. Great! So let me guess. I will inherit dad and grandma?

I told Rusty that when I die I want him to steal my body from the morgue, shove me into a torpedo tube, steel the ship, take me out to sea and shoot me out of the cannon. I will be fish food! Rusty asked me if I knew how many laws I was asking him to break.

O.K., so Rusty won't do that for me. So I started researching eco friendly funerals. I don't want to be put in a steal coffin. I want to go back to the earth and I want to give back.

There are actually cemeteries where you don't get a headstone, and you have to be buried in a biodegradable coffin or urn. I like that idea!

The picture at the top of the page is a picture of the urn that I want. With in five minutes of getting wet the urn dissolves.

So, even in death I am going to be eco friendly. Here is what I told Rusty that I want.

1. I want my hair shaved off. People tell me all the time that they love my hair, so I want someone to have it.

2. I want my skin donated to a burn patient.

3. My eyes may be bad, but they would work for a blind person.

4. Then I want to be cremated and placed in biodegradable urn.

5. I want to be lay to rest down at Fort Rosecrans National cemetery. This cemetery is so nice and you can either look out over the San Diego bay or the pacific ocean. I don't want a head stone. A simple wooden cross will work.

Rusty said that he is going to cremate me and leave me in the zip lock bag which will go in a crown royal bag, then he will place the in a big plastic container, and place that in a plastic grocery sack.

I must out live this man!