Makeing plans for the final exit.

In June, Luscious found out she had a brain tumor. They removed it but it was malignant. There is an 85% probability that she will be dead in 18 to 24 months. And that makes this conversation very real for me.

We did the legal Last Will thing and it is her wish that her body be donated to science. Her cancer is exceedingly rare, affecting about 3 people per 100,000 and anything that can shed a light on it may help someone else in the future.

It doesn't matter what the funeral is like. She'll be gone off on the Ultimate Adventure and after 35 years of marriage, I will be alone.

As you may know my brother had brain tumor surgery last year, early June. His tumor turned out to be benign. We went thru a week of horror waiting for a definitive biopsy.
My heart and prayers go out to you and the Mrs, a tough time indeed.
 
JimmyJ, if I have anything to do with it you'll have the full Police Officers Funeral. Then they can spread you out in the garden. You deserve the full deal. As do all the others who have served their comunities.
 
In June, Luscious found out she had a brain tumor. They removed it but it was malignant. There is an 85% probability that she will be dead in 18 to 24 months. And that makes this conversation very real for me.

We did the legal Last Will thing and it is her wish that her body be donated to science. Her cancer is exceedingly rare, affecting about 3 people per 100,000 and anything that can shed a light on it may help someone else in the future.

It doesn't matter what the funeral is like. She'll be gone off on the Ultimate Adventure and after 35 years of marriage, I will be alone.

Been there, brother, and I feel for you. My wife had a rare leukemia. Managed some so-so remission for a year, then came out of it and we knew she had two to three months. She planned her funeral and while she was able we did some of our favorite things for the last time. We grieved together; and strange as it sounds, it was a profoundly spiritual experience for both us.

The important thing for her and for me was not to ask why. We felt that if there was a "why" it probably was too big for us to understand, and knowing why wouldn't change the situation for the better. To this day, seventeen years later, I miss the love of my life, but I don't have to ask why she's gone.
 
To my way of thinking cremation is an alternative to a funeral. You have the crematorium pick up the body at the hospital (or where ever it is) and cremate it. Cremains (not ashes) are actually bits of bone that didn't completely burn up. They are small enough they can be spread on the surface (where legal), but I prefer to bury them so the survivors have a place to visit if they wish to.

Bluejax01, it isn't necessary to donate your wife's body for study, I am sure the tumor that was removed has been preserved. You can sign paperwork to allow it to be studied (Now if you wish). I have metastasized colon cancer and I did this.

Caj, I too would like "He did his best" on my marker.

If you served in the military you can probably get a free grave at a military cemetery and your wife (or husband) can be buried in the same grave. For my mother we got the grave, the burial, and the marker all free. They even have a chapel where you can have a service.
 
In June, Luscious found out she had a brain tumor. They removed it but it was malignant. There is an 85% probability that she will be dead in 18 to 24 months. And that makes this conversation very real for me.

We did the legal Last Will thing and it is her wish that her body be donated to science. Her cancer is exceedingly rare, affecting about 3 people per 100,000 and anything that can shed a light on it may help someone else in the future.

It doesn't matter what the funeral is like. She'll be gone off on the Ultimate Adventure and after 35 years of marriage, I will be alone.

With profound regret I just now found this post. Please know that you and your wife are in my thoughts and prayers. I pray you will both find the grace and mercy of God as you place your faith and trust in him. Sincerely. brucev.
 
I got no interest in a funeral. I don't want a viewing. I don't want any kind of pity parade. You can chisel my name in a piece of granite somewhere...don't make any difference to me...I won't be there.

But supposing there's enough left to pick up after the fire/car/accident/machine-shop mishap/explosion/plane crash/whathaveyou I want my ashes cast into clay pigeons. I got a safe full of good shotguns and somewhere on the order of a thousand rounds of birdshot that won't be doing me any good.

Get my friends out to the range...do some shooting...maybe barbecue...make a day of it.
 
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Wow! Roughly 80 out of 88 responces here dont care if they are clay pidgeons or beef jerky! I am supprised that there is a cemetery in the country. This group seems very abnormal against the odds.
 
Ive told my wife to dig a hole, put me in it, none of that embalming bull, have a bonfire and try to have a good time. Plant a tree or something over my body so I can at least try to give back to the earth that God has created for me (and everyone else, Im not THAT self centered ;D ). Use my life insurance money to keep things moving. God will take me when He is ready for me, and I'm ok with that. My only wish is I outlive my son, I cant begin to fathom that pain. :/
 
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iggy- my wife and I are doing the same thing. my wishes are to be spread at the izaak Walton league that I have belonged to since 1967 and where I do all my shooting. immediate cremation and no services. if she goes first I will send her ashes to her youngest sister that spread their parents ashes the mountains of north Carolina so she can put my wife with her parents.
 
We buried my Mother 2 1/2 years ago my Father and an Aunt this spring. All had traditional funerals and allowed us to get together as relatives with family we had not sen in 30 + years. I would resent not having those times with out a funeral.
Lost a good neighbor a few years back. He was a widower with out of town kids who had no service. We had no closure until someone decided to have a memorial bbq and to heck with his family.
 
They're all Women. I figger Women have been carrying me all my life. Might as well let them continue it when I take the dirt nap.:D
Jim

Wonder what it would cost to have 6 hookers serve as pall bearers. They'd have to be chewing gum, and hustling the surviving male family members, of course.[/QUOTE]

No, Mike, that wouldn't work. Mine are all good friends of mine and they have two things in common:
They're all good looking, and they're all significantly older than me.
Always liked older Women.:cool:
Jim
 
I bought & paid for my services in 1997. Everything is paid for.
My first wife had a grandfather that sold prepaid pkgs. They say it is all paid for, but it's very basic. When the family comes in to make arrangements they try to upgrade and sell them a better quality whatever. The would do it for the prepaid price but usually the family is happy to pay extra for their loved one.
 
My first wife had a grandfather that sold prepaid pkgs. They say it is all paid for, but it's very basic. When the family comes in to make arrangements they try to upgrade and sell them a better quality whatever. The would do it for the prepaid price but usually the family is happy to pay extra for their loved one.

They tried to coerce my father into paying extra for my Granddad's funeral. The guy kept whining about how the contract was from the 60's, his parents wrote it, he couldn't afford to do it, etc.

I called the Attorney General the next morning and he told me that this sort of thing goes on all the time. Said that Florida Funeral Homes were like aluminum siding salesmen, always trying to scam Snowbird relatives who didn't know better. He asked for the funeral home particulars and said he would take care of it. And he did.
 
They tried to coerce my father into paying extra for my Granddad's funeral. The guy kept whining about how the contract was from the 60's, his parents wrote it, he couldn't afford to do it, etc.

I called the Attorney General the next morning and he told me that this sort of thing goes on all the time. Said that Florida Funeral Homes were like aluminum siding salesmen, always trying to scam Snowbird relatives who didn't know better. He asked for the funeral home particulars and said he would take care of it. And he did.

Too bad for the funeral director.

If you sell a policy to a person who is in his 30's and expected to live into his 80's, provisions in the contract should have reflected that.

Make sure any jewelry, gold teeth, gold crowns that the deceased has on his/her person when embalmed is returned to the survivors.

If you don't ask for the items returned, you can be sure they won't be with the deceased when interred.

Pal of mine owns a pawn shop and funeral directors come in with bags of gold teeth, gold crowns and gold partials all the time.
 
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Pal of mine owns a pawn shop and funeral directors come in with bags of gold teeth, gold crowns and gold partials all the time.

Now that is really nauseating! Maybe not quite the last word in greedy disrespect for the dead, but would have to be damn close. True, the deceased have no more need of them, but still...:mad:
 
My first wife had a grandfather that sold prepaid pkgs. They say it is all paid for, but it's very basic. When the family comes in to make arrangements they try to upgrade and sell them a better quality whatever. The would do it for the prepaid price but usually the family is happy to pay extra for their loved one.

My parents prepaid for theirs and threw in another $500 for extras. We had no outside costs.
 
The howitzer battery I was in started out with 105 toweds before we switched to 155 self propelled. With the 105s we occasionally fired blanks when orchestras would play the 1812 overture. After the last firing before we turned in or 105mms for 155s I kept one of the fired brass casing for which I turned a black walnut plug. I've soldered my unit crest on the outside with my units and dates of service.

When I hit room temperature I'll be cremated and sealed in the casing. When my wife hits room temperature we'll be buried together. Until then I jokingly told the kids that they could pass the shell around every Christmas like a rotating gift. My daughter said no, that she would be the custodian of the casing. My son would likely lose it and my wife might remarry.
 
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