Your Death and Post-Death Preferences

[Gemme]

I am an organ donor. I hope to help as many folks as I can with what I have at the time of my passing. I haven't exactly decided what I'd like done with my leftovers once that is done. It honestly depends on how much of my physical being is left. Hopefully, the Universe will allow me a manner of death that will help me to do this.
Maybe I could donate the rest of me to a medical school. Maybe be cremated and cast in some of my favorite places. That would create an expense for my loved ones, though. Maybe I'll start a fund so that someone can travel to those places and scatter me about to and fro. Maybe I'll have separate sprinkles for different people.

Well, that part's not figured out exactly yet. I do know that I want the doctors to harvest as much of me as they can.

I don't fear death. At all. I do worry that the pathway to death's door will be painful to bear. I'm not a big fan of pain, so I hope that my death is either swift or painless or maybe just a little pain. The way I see it is that my life to this point has had quite a bit of pain in it, so maybe I'll get a break at the end. Kind of like a coupon. Oh, you had X amount in pain so you get 25% off your pain during death.

I dunno.

Maybe I sound flip, but death itself isn't something I worry about. I worry about how it will feel. I worry about what the people who find me will think and I hope that I'm not found days into my decomposition because that would not allow me do what I wanted to do most and also, it's pretty damn disgusting. Decomp is a smell you don't easily forget.

[Venus007]

I want to be cremated.
I would like a tree planted with my ashes in its roots.
The people I love can do whatever they want with the rest of my remains, have it made into a diamond, shot off in fireworks, snorted, mixed into tattoo ink whatever floats their individual memorial boats.
I will be long gone and other than that tree thing, I don't care, I just want them to go back to being happy.

[Inuus]

I have had my directives written out for years. I want to be cremated. For me and its only my own opinion, I think a funeral and burial is just a waste of real estate and too much money for a vessel or empty shell. I want no flowers as I also believe that is a waste of beautiful plants and money too. I want my ashes scattered in the most beautiful place I have been on earth The Kancamagus Highway in my home state of NH. If people wish to do anything in my memory I wrote I would like them to actually go down to their local animal shelter, get to see the animals and donate whatever they wish as I believe its a far better way to spend their money.

[ArkansasPiscesGrrl]

I remember when my mom died when I was 13, turning around in the limo to watch all the cars in her funeral procession. I was shocked at the huge number of cars! I had no idea that she had "mattered" to so many people, and from that point on to today, that is what I hope for for me, that when I go, people will acknowledge that I MATTERED in their lives.

I also plan to be an organ donor, firmly believing in that most precious gift. After the docs have taken all that they can use, I want to be cremated. I would want my ashes sprinkled from a couple of places, from high in the Rocky Mountains, to the Atlantic Ocean off Palm Beach, to a quiet park somewhere here in Arkansas, somewhere that has beautiful sunrises and sunsets, tall trees and lots of green. These are places that bring joy to my heart now, and where i would hope to rest.

As for memorial services, I want musical selections that mean something to me, and I have already asked my ex AA sponsor to sing "Amazing Grace". She has the most incredible voice. I would hope for a couple of services, one in FL for all my peeps down there, and one wherever I happen to be living, where my kids and grandkids and friends can come together and remember me and laugh and cry and celebrate my life and yes, how I MATTERED in their lives.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

For the Maori, the Tangihanga (Funeral Rite) may take two or three days. The deceased lies in state, usually in an open coffin with female relatives sitting around them. Visitors come during the day, sometimes from many miles to address the deceased. They may speak frankly of his or her faults as well as virtues, but singing and joking are also appropriate. Free expression of grief by both men and women is encouraged. Traditional beliefs may be invoked depending on the tribe, and the deceased is told to return to the ancestral homeland, Hawaiki, by way of the spirits' journey. The close kin ("dead skin") may not speak. On the last night, the night of ending, the mourners hold a vigil and at sunrise the coffin is closed, before a church or Marae funeral service.

My funeral arrangements are already in place and mostly paid for (should I die whilst living overseas money is available for my body to be flown home) – further instructions are held with my Will. I will be buried on the Marae along with my Daughter and other family members.

For nearly 20 years I’ve worked in the Mortuary Sciences, many as a Mentor for students, teaching them the various Embalming methods/practices of many cultures. I don’t fear death – I’d hope that when my time comes, my colleagues would be laughing and joking knowing that, that is how they often knew me. I’m the least morbid person many people know, lol!

[Turtle]

Oh yeah, I forgot, I am totally for organ donation, got my pink dot on my license ( it's a california thing) and I'm in the computer, so no one can argue about it. Then, cremate the leftovers, please and scatter to the wind or the sea.

[Jett]

I answered earlier... but I am thinking I would want known in this world of doubt and whatever, that I was as genuine as I could be... that if I said you were my friend, you were my friend... and if I said "big luvs", I felt luvs for you... and that if you loved me, I could tell, and am so glad for that...

Jett

[J. Mason]

I am an organ donor so my organs will be donated, its on my DL.

Then I want to be cremated and my ashes spread over my home state!

[princessbelle]

Organ donor here as well. Just not my eyes. I won't say why, being a nurse...just not what i want my body to go through. Sounds funny since i'll be dead.

Anyway. I want to be cremated as well. Not spread anywhere.

Just set me in a pink frilly vase with lace on the edges on BullDog's mantel so i can keep watch over things and still get stories on story night.

Oh and don't forget to take me to the reunions. Pass me around and dance with me. Just don't spill me please and thank you.

[o222Good]

Organ donor here also.
So...
Closed casket, no embalming. Photos.
Sharon says she'll be very mad if I go first!
It's on my To Do list to purchase all the arrangements.

[RockOn]

Years and years ago, when friends and I would be discussing this topic, I'd tell them to make sure they didn't let anyone apply make-up to me or put a dress on me before sticking me in the box. I have changed since them. I want any of my parts that are useable to be removed and utilized to help others. I have organ donor checked on my driver's license. Also, I share the same sentiments along with what atomiczombie posted - my choice is cremation. I would not enjoy being pulled out of "peaceful dead" to have to go CUJO on some freak who was handling the parts in ... let's just call it ... a disrespectful manner. And p-le-a-s-e don't anyone get emotional over the bag of ashes and be carrying that around. I love the woods. A friend can toss the bag behind her truck seat and at her convenience, trot over into some nice woods, dump it there with no fanfare and be done with it.

[EnderD_503]

All this just made me realise that if I died tomorrow they'd probably have no sweet clue what to do with my body, lol. That's ok, surprises are fun even if I'm not around to enjoy them

Ideally being cremated is appealing to me. I also want to be buried in the cemetery in East Ont. where most everyone from my maternal family is buried/will be buried. Oh and I want my cat's urn to be buried alongside me. Yes, I'm cheesy, but I fucking loved my cat She was more awesome than most people.

[tapu]

I'm not giving up my science class skeleton aspirations, but I have heard of a new process which is supposed to be greener and have some advantages over cremation. Sounds kinda skeevy, but it's called liquefaction.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/you-...reener-burial/

[SelfMadeMan]

These conversations are never easy for me... since I was a small child, death was my biggest fear - still is I suppose. I used to be afraid to spend the night away from home as a child - I had this paralyzing fear that something would happen to my parents. I would get up at night sometimes and go check on them. Weird I know, but I think maybe it was a premonition that I would lose them sooner than I should - I was 24 when my Mom died, and lost my Dad two years later. It causes me physical pain when I think even briefly of something happening to Stacy. So it isn't even that I fear my own death, as much as I fear losing those I love.

All that being said - I would love to go WITH Stacy when we're very old, surrounded by our children and grandchildren so I can tell them all one more time (hopefully) that they were our greatest joy in life and how proud they've made us. I want our friends to know they were loved and appreciated as well. I want to have made a difference.

Neither of us want a funeral - we're adamant about that. I am not a religious person and don't want any type of religious ceremony held for me. I want any useable organs donated - I am a registered donor - and then cremate what's left and scatter my ashes somewhere beautiful... doesn't really matter where, although the Grand Canyon would be cool. I don't want any formal mourning event held for me... but a party. I want my life and memory to be celebrated with love and laughter, music and dancing. Matter of fact, I want to pre pay for a keg so I can buy my friends one more round

[tapu]

The idea of being "sprinkled" or "scattered" skeeves me. Was it Beetlejuice when the dead women were falling apart at the end, or was that some other movie?

[MsTinkerbelly]

I am an organ donor, but because of my health I doubt they will use any part of me. When my Step-Father passed we tried to have his organs donated as per his wishes, but they disallowed him.

I wish to be cremated, and as was done for my Mother I would like a party for my family and friends to get together and remember my life.

[JustJo]

I don't think this is morbid at all...realistic is more like it.

My mother and I have had several conversations about this lately since her cancer is what it is. She has decided to donate her body to research on Crohn's disease. As a 50 year survivor of it, they may be able to learn some things from her body after she's gone. She wants no funeral at all....it's a family tradition. We just don't do them. She said that her friends can gather at Dunkin Donuts and have a cup of tea and a cruller in her honor. Her family can do what they want (since they always have...and none of them are close).

As far as my own body, I'd like to donate whatever is usable, although I doubt any of it will be given my health issues. What's left can be cremated. I like roses, and roses like ashes....act accordingly.

Everything I own goes to my son.

[Sachita]

Take whatever organs still work then send me to ashes and sprinkle me in my garden.

[Nat]

As posted elsewhere, after attending enough funerals, my biggest hope is that there will be no preachers at my funeral. A year and a half ago, a pagan friend of mine committed suicide, and his deeply Christian family felt it necessary to blame his religion for his death. Not only did they burn his altar items, but the preacher at his funeral told the crowd of mourners that he had prayed each of us live miserable lives until and only if we accepted Jesus Christ as our savior. I stood there between two atheist friends, myself a pagan, and throngs of his young friends who may or may not have been Christian. It sounded to my ears like a sinister curse.

And there was my limit with preachers at funerals. Maybe one day I will change my mind. I want to be buried somewhere neglected enough that perhaps someone can plant some white irises on my grave. Might be nice if someone could slip a few coins in my pocket before I go underground.

[Heavenleahangel]

Since I have diabetes, I have arranged for my body to be donated to research. All organs that are usable will be harvested and the rest goes to try and figure out what causes/cures diabetes.
I do request my family and friends (as few as there are) to have a celebration of my life and have a good old fashioned pig picking and cook out with my favorite foods!