Burial, Cremation, Which Do You Prefer?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Corie Henson, Oct 25, 2016.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    If everything else were equal, I'd opt to be buried in the cemetery in my hometown, but it's more likely that I am going to be a couple of thousand miles away from there when I die, so there's the expense of transporting my body across the country on the top of buying the plot, etc.
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I onLy have my grandparents in a "drawer" in a cemetery in Chicago...everyone else is cremated. I wouldn't even know where to be buried, CA? IL?

    They're in a mausoleum I think is what it's called. Either next to each other or in top of each other...I forget.
     
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  3. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    #18
  4. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    My sisters wanted to bury Mom but I didn't. I told them that we have so many family members in cemeterys that we don't visited now. We can take Mom with us anywhere and not be bummed or feel guilty because we can't go to her grave. So Mom was cremated and so was my father. I have both of their urns with me.

    I'm not familiar with legal methods of disposing of ashes but I would like mine to be dispersed under a tree, preferably a willow tree or where my grandparents used to live which is just open land now but I had so many good memories there.

    I remember when I was younger I found out how the body decomposes and just the thought of that happening to my body (even though I would not be alive) made me shiver.
     
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  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    In Texas, a family can bury its own dead without using the services of a licensed funeral director. A death certificate is required and, in some places, local ordinances or deed restrictions might prohibit burials, but otherwise families can dig a hole and bury their dead for the price of a shovel.

    Tired of rising costs at the municipal cemetery and funeral homes in one town where I lived, community members got together and bought a plot of land just outside the city limits, as a sort of a membership cemetery, and people would bypass the funeral home, and bury their own dead.

    Also in Texas, an elected justice of the peace could declare death, and there was no requirement that a JP have any medical training whatsoever, so when a death occurred, the JP could pronounce death and file a death certificate, then the body would be buried without any further ado. Although most people were buried in a casket, it could be homemade, and I don't think a casket was required. I know that embalming wasn't required.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 25, 2016
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Cremation is the best but to each his own...

    Glad we have options.

    Thankfully my daughter took care of everything and I didn't have to deal with it. She even took off work and drove here to pick up the urn my husband was in from the funeral home because I couldn't do it.

    She Picked out the urn, ordered it, paid for it...did it all. Think she got me 6 copies of the death certificate.

    The day he died though they were all in Indiana getting Nicholas baptized in the church she was married in....I was alone....well, that Sunday.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 25, 2016
  7. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    I am a Catholic and may be considered a good Catholic all my life but belief surely changes with the times. In fact, I was in church this morning (today is the start of my 10-day vacation) and part of the mass is the reading of the Bible. There was the line that said about "Slaves.. obey your master." Okay, that's the verse in the Bible which, I believe, is obsolete since our society forbids slavery. Am I right on that? I am not a filibuster but I am a practical person when it comes to practices and beliefs so I guess cremation is just fine since resurrection is not about the physical body but just the spirit that will rise to heaven.
     
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  8. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    I wouldn't take that verse literally but in some way we all were at some time considered to be a 'slave'. For instance an employee should obey their boss.
     
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  9. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I have chosen cremation and my ashes be spread. I had that place all picked out until I moved here. Maybe I should spend some time searching for a new place to spread my ashes.
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    It's your last move, so might as well pick a perfect place. something I haven't given any thought to because
    I have no idea and really don't care.

    It's what my kids would like since they are the ones still alive.
     
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  11. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    My mother wanted to be buried. I knew about her wishes and my sisters already had decided to a burial so I didn't say anything about it. I didn't want her to be buried for reasons I've already mentioned. It took my younger sister by surprise and she asked me why. After I explained my reason she accepted it and we all agreed to the cremation.

    My older sister is always excited to see Mom when she comes to visit me. She will bring a card sometimes with flowers on Mom's birthday and on Memorial Day. My younger sister lives down south and has not yet been to visit since Mom's passing. She really took Mom's passing very hard.

    I hope that I have started a tradition with my boys.
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I think the idea was not so much that slavery was a good thing, but that a Christian should look forward to heaven rather than trying to seek a better condition here on earth. I know that's a Mennonite thing, that we are citizens of heaven rather than of the earth, so we should concentrate on being better people rather than on being better off.
     
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  13. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    You can be both! I could fill a page with what my kids give back to the community...and not all is cash donations...actually physical labor and time doing certain projects. Yes, some are tax write offs but not all.

    One year, in Illinois my DIL and son were involved with building a park that can be used by handicapped children also. They contributed money as well as weekends doing some of the hard labor to cut some of the costs...along with other community members. Both being dentists with 3 little boys they have very little personal time and for this they spent weekend after weekend digging and pouring cement, etc.

    They had a grand opening of the park when I just happened to be visiting and it's quite an awesome park! That's just one of many things I recall. Some I probably don't even know about.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 26, 2016
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I think it's the focus rather than the outcome that matters.
     
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  15. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    I favor Cremation because it's neat, clean and efficient. I have already paid to a Cremation Society to have my body picked up at my place of death and taken to a Crematory for immediate cremation. My ashes will be given to my daughter in a bronze urn or scattered in San Francisco Bay.
     
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