Do you have a funeral plan for yourself or someone else?
3I was just reminded that I am supposed to be shopping for a funeral plan for my mom. I was wondering what exactly I should be looking for, other than the obvious. Have you dealt with any of these plans and what pitfalls, if any, did you fall into or dodge?
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Shopping for a funeral plan? I could write a to do list for you, would you pay me for that?
@chellemonkey No, this is a pre-paid plan, where you pay it off monthly and then when the time comes you aren't hit with a big bill. It also helps keep a lid on cost escalation as you have an agreement with a funeral home on the services and the price.
After shopping around, my parents decided to go with the VA when the time comes.
@nadroj My mom doesnt have military service, although both her ex-husbands did. But I don't think she's eligible. There are a lot of family members buried in a cemetery here in town and I'd imagine that's where she'd like to end up. She has Alzheimer's so although we have discussed this it's hard to say if I really know what her wishes are. I am looking at cremation because she has said she wants me to take her ashes with me on my travels. But I want all the social stuff for friends and family.
I have no useful advice for you, but I hope you find what you're looking for.
@JonT now you know what to sell on meh tomorrow. Funeral Plan Thursday!
@DaveInSoCal
@JonT How about urns?
@RicoSuave Has anyone ever seen what funeral homes want for a simple urn?! It's disgusting. There are way too many funeral homes/companies acting as emotional & financial vampires.
Kinda like this: http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141002/NEWS03/310020066/Coast-Guard-gives-WWII-vet-Viking-funeral-sea
Except mine will be a two-fold ceremony. Part of my ashes go in a mini drakkar on the little lake near our family cabin & set aflame. The rest of my ashes get put in an open bucket strapped to the back of the Polaris and then driven across the meadow hell bent for leather scattering me to the winds. And then the drinking and the eating and the "Do you remember when La Vikinga did this..." stories begin.
@LaVikinga That's awesome! Part of me wants to just get cremated and quietly scattered someplace pretty. But part of me wants a New Orleans jazz funeral.
@LaVikinga I'm hoping that by the time I die it won't be super expensive to shoot my ashes out into space.
@JonT If you'd just go to the gym, maybe it you could save a reasonable amount on payload carriage fees, if you know what I mean.
^^^ so says a guy who, upon his death, could provide enough oil for all the menorahs for all the Hanukkahs evar.
@moondrake I'm going to New Orleans in the morning so if you hurry up and, well, you know, kick the boot and get cremated I can spread your ashes this weekend. Just looking out for you.
@moondrake ...or the bucket if you're feeling kicky
@MEHcus Make sure you get yourself a parade while you're there.
@bluedyn This actually will be happening, we are going for a wedding and doing a 2nd line afterwards, pretty excited about it!
@MEHcus Yesssss. Bring back stories and video for us.
@bluedyn I shall do my best
@JonT http://www.ashestoashes.com.au/
I've given this some thought. My plan (as given to the wife and daughter) is this:
1) If I reach a point of reasonable no return, pull the plug.
2) Toast me.
3) Scatter the ashes--wherever really, someplace that makes you happy.
4) Some kind of memorial, which, yaknow, depends on leaving people with happy memories which they'll want to recall--in which case it kinda takes care of itself. Otherwise, what's the point?
My thought on the being scattered is that that way I can be in death as I was in life. My experience is that cremation is super simple and relatively inexpensive.
The part I talk about less often:
5) My past consciousness eventually reconstitutes itself from the remnants I've embedded across the interwebs, therein and thereafter to haunt indefinitely.
6) Eventually--again, if there's anything anyone finds worth saving--I'm implanted as the spirit seed in a beautiful, but inexplicably quizzical cyborg.
But maybe that wasn't what you were looking for.
Seems rather appropriate that this topic was directly after the 'Best fried food' thread (when I checked in).
@KDemo deep fried Valentine Michael Smith?
@nadroj - my favorite book in high school! PS is your name backward?
@KDemo @nadroj's name isn't backwards, but mine is. It's really annoying to correct people all the time and tell them it's pronounced TuhNaahjuh.
@JonT - You pronounce the @? Lucky thing you spend your life on the internet.
@KDemo yes. Jordan is often taken already, so...
"Shopping for a funeral plan" sounds like it should be a gangland euphemism. "Yeah, Switchblade Tony is stepping up the prostitution racket on the South Docks. He's really shopping for a funeral plan moving into rival turf like that."
My parents have both donated their bodies-- after any usable organs have been harvested ( not yet happened !) to nearby university medical school.( 1 for a specific research project the other for student use) After they are finished using the bodies, what remains will be cremated by the school at no cost to the family. Ashes are set to be placed in a family plot. The family will have memorial service at the church sans bodies. And later after ashes returned -- which could be quite awhile --a small family graveside service.
So I don't think that helps, as far as shopping tips. But donating to a university is always a good think imo.
It might be something to consider. And these days, those dx'd w/ Alzheimer's may be able to contribute to research w/ such a donation.
@ceagee It's a great suggestion and we just had a big medical school open here. But I don't think my Mom will like the idea. It works for me when my time comes. I will almost certainly be the last surviving member of my family and I have no kids, so there's no need for any kind of pomp and circumstance surrounding my departure.
I live alone with a cat. I'm all set.
(Although, true story: I've already died. Props to the team that brought me back. It was during surgery so the cat didn't get her chance.)
@editorkid Do you not like your cat ? Poor thing left w/ a big case of indigestion.
My plan:
@Sabre99 YES! I have dear friends who have promised to do some form of this for me. My son has an issue with it saying there would be no place for him to come visit me. I told him all be all around when he comes to the cabin. He wasn't too thrilled with that idea.
I want to be mummified and placed in a corner of our living room. The wife doesn't share my enthusiasm with this plan. http://www.summum.us/mummification/
@hallmike How about taxidermy? Someone on my Great Dane list planned to have her two danes taxidermied after they died so she could have them with her forever. Mine are cans of ashes on the TV credenza, which is good enough for me.
@moondrake I'm afraid they wouldn't get my eyes just right and they'd spend eternity looking like the ones on Matthew's chin.
@hallmike Ooh, mummified @hallmike with googly eyes. Sounds like a great Halloween costume. Kudos.
I don't really care what happens to this body when I move on to my robot body in which I will live forever.
I'm hoping they do something a little less expensive than this for my funeral.
Our plan: Whatever is cheapest.
O'course we had a courthouse wedding too, so we're not much for extravagant ceremonies.
We've both decided on cremation and a nearby cemetery has a cremation garden. Rose bushes mainly, where your ashes are scattered. A large cement "book" with bronze plaques that have the name and dates. The only problem is there's a pond nearby. With a lot of Canada geese. I hate the thought of my ashes mixed with goose poop.