Thursday, June 21, 2012
Your Turn
So, what would you like written on your tombstone? I would like. "He came, he ate, and he ate some more." Oh and a photo of bacon on it too. I also want a big party. Nothing somber. I want people to have a really good time. Like a three day Vegas weekend good time that takes you a month to recover from.
I told my sister that when I die, I want my heart removed and cremated. Then I want to be buried in my hometown with the words "This town can have my body, but it will never have my heart." I want my heart's ashes scattered at the lighthouse in York, Maine, since that was the first lighthouse I ever saw.
ReplyDelete@Vicki, that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteI won't have a tombstone since my plans are to be cremated and my ashes spread at sea.
ReplyDeleteHowever, those plans also call for a huge ass party to celebrate my life - I've told everyone these plans and have them in my will.
I half jokingly call it a "roast me and toast me" farewell.
I'm with you Enty, I don't want a funeral either. I want people to have a huge party and talk about all of the fun times we had together.
ReplyDeleteIi'm an organ donor so I guess I'll be sliced and diced once I'm dead. Won't matter to me much then. I won't need my body where I'm going.
I want to leave 'em laughing. I'll have a Weird Al singalong and hopefully a montage of my favorite MST3K clips. Then, of course, as the casket is being lowered Oingo Boingo's "Goodbye Goodbye" will be blasting.
ReplyDelete"I told you I was sick."
ReplyDeleteLOL, Liv!!
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna be cremated and tilled into the soil somewhere, so no tombstone. But if I could, it would be Laurie Anderson's: "remember me/is all i ask/and if remember/be a task/ forget me"
ReplyDeleteThis is a crematin' crowd, I should add.
ReplyDelete*LOL* @ Live - that was my first thought as well. But it's more funny if you're a hypochondriac, which I am not *L*.
ReplyDeleteI really don't know what I'd put on there. Maybe a dick joke?
@Vicki Cupper-Your plans, all of them, are brilliant. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteOoh, Vicki, that's good. I've never thought about the tombstone part, and actually don't care if I even have one. I've told hubby that I will come back and haunt him if he spends a lot of money for a funeral for me. That whole deal is a racket designed to get money out of families while they're grieving.
ReplyDeleteTruly respectful, sensible funeral services are few and far between. Ever bought a casket? Bring your checkbook - $10,000 is not out of the question. Then they pour a cement vault that they lower the casket into, and seal the top. Why? I get environmental concerns, as in we don't want coffins floating around during a flood, or animals digging people up. But, seriously, attempting to preserve the body won't make you less dead or keep you from eventually disintegrating.
Soapbox topic for me - pine box all the way! I won't even start with embalming.
Maja, that's an actual inscription of a woman that was famous for being a hypochondriac. lol
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stanley. :)
Oh, and cremation is fine by me, too. Whatever. Love me while I'm alive and remember me when I'm gone. Very simple!
ReplyDeleteMaja-That's awesome. Love it!
ReplyDeleteI'd paraphrase Ab Fab: "Here lies Eddy. Still no thinner"
ReplyDeleteCremation. A memorial service that's as simple as possible. Donations to my favorite charities in lieu of flowers. "In My Life" by the Beatles, "Lovely Cruise" by Jimmy Buffett, and "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" by Patsy Cline to be played. It'd be cool for my immediate family to go to one of my favorite restaurants afterwards, and make a toast in my name with Jack Daniel's. Anything else, my family can decide as they prefer.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Enty, I do not nooo sadness, gloom, or tears at mine. I want a big ass blow out with my friends and family celebrating the life I lived.
ReplyDeleteI've honestly never thought much about this. I think I have a plot near my hometown that my mom bought when she found out the cemetery was almost full. It's beautiful there.
ReplyDeleteI want to be cremated and have my ashes spread in the waters of Key West. That is one of the most peaceful places I've visited alive, and I'd like to have peace when I'm dead.
ReplyDelete" Over my Dead Body "
ReplyDeleteJust to get a couple a smiles
I used to want "Well, this certainly sucks" or "She had fun" on a tombstone, but now days I'm leaning towards the fire pit too. It's too much money and for what? A fancy casket? BFD. Why should I care about any services, I'll be dead.
ReplyDeleteThe family should spend the money on more important things, like a party.
I'd love for my ashes to be thrown off the Empire State Building, but I guess that won't work. Or maybe the Stratosphere? Blowing dirt might shouldn't be as noticeable in the desert. My gang will go to Vegas for ANY excuse.
And any music has to be disco!
ReplyDeleteAlso want to be cremated, but want my ashes buried, preferably under a tree. I will have a funeral Mass.
ReplyDeleteI loved that line from Death at a Funeral where Luke Wilson says something to the effect of "When I die I want the stock market to crash and factories to close..." - just cracked me up.
Calif, "Last Dance" has to be required.
ReplyDeleteI am with the "shake and bake" crowd. Or, perhaps more correctly, "bake and shake" ;>. My hope would be that I made a difference for the better in the lives of the people I knew.
ReplyDeleteI used to work at a mortuary, so cremation for me. I don't want a service or tombstone. My ashes can go under a nice tree in the forest.
ReplyDeleteLove this epitaph by H.L. Mencken:
ReplyDeleteIf, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.
(wish I could write something as cool)
The fiery furnace on this side of the grass for me too. I'm also an organ donor so don't know how much will be left.
ReplyDeleteAfter, I hope folks have a party.
I will be cremated too. Told my hubby and kids to put me in a coffee can and bury that in the back yard. If they don't have the cash they can just throw my body over the fence into the neighbors yard. Never liked them anyway. I really don't care how they memorialize me or if they do. It's kind of like adding my two cents worth regarding what they watch on tv after I leave the house. I don't care. I'll be outta here!
ReplyDeletelmao Violet!
ReplyDeleteOMG, Violet, I'm trying not to bust, "throw my body over the fence" is the funniest thing I've heard all day...
ReplyDeleteGood one Vicki! I guess "I Will Survive" is out of the question?
Cremated, but with three opinions that I'm really dead.
ReplyDeleteOn my Brick it will read:
"I'll be back"
We are stardust, so there is nowhere for my ashes to go, except.. up !
Cremation for me as well....no funeral home party at our fav bar, red velvet rope at entrance where my in-laws will finally be told to %$&^ off, Goin On Up to The Spirit In The Sky is my one request and my brother will read something I heard on Little House years ago
ReplyDeleteRemember me with smiles and laughter,
for that's the way I'll remember you,
If you can only remember me with tears, please don't remember me at all.
Then drink, drink, drink. Haven't decided if I want a headstone because who will care in 100 years, I'm just a regular person.
@Violet
ReplyDeleteI am still laughing at your comment. Too funny
I'm in @Lurky Loo's bake and shake category, as everyone in my family has had their ashes scattered at a certain undisclosed, very cool location in Colorado Springs. I was supposed to go the grave with that information, but . . . .
Is it totally weird that I want the cast of Rent to sing Seasons of Love at my Memorial? And I want my best friend to poster size the photo of us wearing white hard hats, white rain boots, and blue coveralls being lowered into a cave in New Zealand. It's the most epic photo ever, and the best part is my eyes are rolling back into my head from the flash and it makes everyone crack up who sees it. THAT'S how I want to be remembered
I want to go out like the little Indian kid in The Darjeeling Limited.
ReplyDeleteSo no tombstone for me either (besides, I think that's more a white ppl thing...b/c note, there aren't any Native American tombstones from the 1700's laying around)
//Omama isn't white.
Pepperoni.
ReplyDelete@Goober - I love that!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be buried either, I want the least expensive cremation and disposal with no ceremony. Donate any organs that would be useful if the circumstances allow.
ReplyDeleteIf I did have to have something it would be "Free at Last".
I plan on being cremated and scattered, but my favorite all-time tombstone has to be Mel Blanc's. "That's All Folks!"
ReplyDeleteCremated, but with three opinions that I'm really dead-Agent**It
ReplyDeleteThis! And my husband and I are both to be scattered in the Carribean, preferably together. Need to figure out who is gonna have the honor of taking us since we dont have kids.
I do want a funeral, but more as a celebration of life type thing. I definitely want "Sabre Dance" playing as people come in, I think it'll make people chuckle. Also, the In-N-Out truck has to be there.
ReplyDeleteI hope that I die in a way that will enable the docs to harvest as much of me as they can (I'm an organ donor). I then want to be cremated ASAP, as I do not want to be embalmed or anything like that. Ashes scattered at sea with a small memorial service. If someone could sing "People Get Ready" and "Amazing Grace," that would be cool.
ReplyDeleteThe funeral biz is such a racket. When my dad died, we had a smallish funeral at our church (use of the small sanctuary and the services of our pastor were free, of course). The cost of the simplest pine casket (which is what he had said he wanted), flowers, body transport, embalming, cremation and scattering urn was almost $7,000 in 1999. Ridiculous.
funeral is expensive... I would like the family to rent a casket (can be done) and bury me in a cardboard box in a cemetery... I would like something sweet.. If tears to build a stairway i'd walk to heaven and be with you once again
ReplyDeleteI'm getting cremated or that other process that is more enviro friendly that I read about a few years ago and having my remains spread in the Atlantic ocean. I may have lived on the pacific coast for the last 15 years but the east coast will always be my home.
ReplyDeleteIll still be around haunting people. No tombstone for me.
ReplyDeleteFor some morbid reason I am always thinking about this, much to my daughters chagrin as I'm always telling her what songs I want played.
ReplyDeleteTombstone:"She died laughing"
Wake, with my cremated remains being mixed with some cement and thrown over the side of a ship to become an underwater reef (yes such a service exists)
Rock and Roll played at my wake, no black, I want to be the only one wearing it. I want laughter, music and good times.
One of these days I need to get my CD burned for the songs, but I do keep changing my mind.
I will be cremated but if I did have one, it would be old style Disneyland Haunted Mansion style;
ReplyDeleteHere lies a childless, unmarried, know-it-all fat fuck who talked too much, ate too much, and drank too much wine!
That's Aunt Flow talking...if I wasn't pms city right now, it would be nicer I'm sure.
"Ate pussy like a champ!" Which I don't think is particularly true, but one girlfriend did say something like that. I just want something highly transgressive on my tombstone. My kids won't care. They'd just laugh.
ReplyDeleteHI B PROFANE! Have we met??? Bc we totally should.
ReplyDeleteCremation for me. No ceremony. Scatter my ashes where there's lots of flowers.
ReplyDeleteburn me. Being left in the ground to rot is gross.
ReplyDeleteAnd make sure not one penny of anything o have goes to anyone in my husbands family. I would rather have everything burn to the ground before they got a bread crumb
ReplyDeleteYes being referred to as either half retarded or just a really stupid bitch and the fat one does not inspire good relations
ReplyDeleteLet's write on my tombstone what everyone would think when they find it:
ReplyDelete"Thank GOD she's dead. The bitch."
I'm a nice person in real life; just don't act like a doormat.
No really, I told my husband of 31 years to do this or else. He just nodded quickly. Snort!
I just want a big smiley face.
ReplyDeleteMy parents and sister were all cremated and their ashes are spread in a special place, which is where I want to end up. But if there were some kind of memorial, I just want under my name an old-school journalism mark signifying "the end":
ReplyDelete-30-
No tombstone. Cremated and placed in a plain paper box, until I am spread all over the place. I would love it if my friends and family would spread me a little bit here and there.
ReplyDeleteI specifically told my husband and mother to not bend and buy an expensive urn for no good reason. The funeral folks make you feel like an asshole for spending money on stupid things. Spend money on the living.
Ha! When I sent out the press release to all the local newsrooms announcing the death of my father, the headline was, "Slug 30 For Veteran Reporter ____ _____".
ReplyDeleteI want to donate my body to science (if I got to choose, I'd love my organs to be donated and my bones to be used in a forensic anthropology class as I loved all the ones I took).
ReplyDeleteOne big ass party (think wake) and I've always said I want "Another One Bites the Dust" played. For my tombstone, I'm with Tempestuous Grape, I want something Haunted Mansion style.
Mine will say "I was here and I was awesome, damnit."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"Free nightly hauntings between midnight and 2 am"
ReplyDeleteOk I want roasted and tossed. No funeral, no plot. Way too much $$$$$$$.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest tombstone I've ever seen is near my parents. A young mans tombstone with the prodigal son on it. Etched after it says--"Our prodigal returned". Who would do that shite to your child?
I told my family I don't want a funeral. If they won't come to see me when I'm alive, I don't want them around when I dead.
ReplyDeleteHeadstone will read a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
ReplyDelete"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intellingent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded."
And since I'm Greek, and we have eat after any function, I've requested my favorite bar be rented out, and they play Bruce Springsteen, drink beer, and eat buffalo wings. I'm a classy broad like that.
I'll be cremated and my ashes will be scattered over Georgian Bay
ReplyDeleteB.Profane, Seattle?
ReplyDeleteI want to be cremated with ashes spread in the Mediterranean between Greece and Italy.
ReplyDeleteBurnt and scattered over the ocean. If I had a tombstone I would like it to say: She loved well and was well loved.
ReplyDeleteDon't want people in black. November Rain by Gunner's playing when people walk in. My Way for the bit when you sit there and contemplate - I hope people sing along. Finally, The William Tell Overture when people leave so they can get the part started.
I used to work for a dr but unfortunately he passed away. His request was to have one last boys night out. So a few of his friends and other dr's convinced the guy at the funeral home to release his body to them for the night. A few hours actually. They took his casket to a quiet dock on the river and they smoked cigars which he loved, and they drank beer and talked about him. Later they took him back with no issues. I thought that was pretty damn cool he would have loved it
ReplyDeleteI'm an organ donor and what's left of me I'll have cremated, but if I had a tombstone I would definitely want this on it:
ReplyDeleteRemember me as you walk by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, soon you will be
Prepare for Death, and follow me.
BreeB, I don't know of any cemetaries that will let a body be buried in a cardboard box. They will insist on a casket.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, my Dad was a Marine drill instructor in the service, he ended up with a very successful life but he wants to be buried in a certain cemetery with other marines, but instead of in a uniform he wants to be buried in a tuxedo, with the epitaph "All dressed up and nowhere to go". He thinks it's hilarious, my mother wants to be cremated and shot out into space, so she doesn't have to be on the same planet as my Dad for eternity.
ReplyDeleteI have some funny stories about growing up.
Texshan:
ReplyDeleteWe have cemeteries in CA that allow you to be buried in organic cardboard boxes, muslin body bags, or bamboo caskets. The point for this is that you are taken by the earth in about two years, there are no markers and the plots are reused, it's for people who don't want to impact the environment and put put chemicals into the ground and ground water, or use a casket but the body becomes part of the earth on the side of a beautiful mountain and that mountain really becomes their memorial. I believe it's called organic funerals, you take no permanent space, no chemicals are used to process you for death and the item used to hold the body is broken down within weeks of interment. It's quite popular. Your family can even dig the grave, which some people incorporate into the ceremony process. I went to a funeral where that was done and it was very beautiful and really fitting for the person who died. Her epitaph was leaving no footprint except the one in the hearts and memories of those she loved and who loved her.
What do I want on my Tombstone?
ReplyDeletePepperoni & Extra Cheese !
But seriously...
And Psalm 62:5
"Find rest, O my soul, in GOD alone; my hope comes from Him alone."
II Corinthians 4:18
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
I haven't put that much thought in to this other than I definitely want to be cremated b/c of cost. I always thought the end of Elizabethtown kind of had a cool idea. Orlando Bloom ends up spreading his father's ashes on various places Kirsten Dunst recommended on his journey home. So maybe something like that if I can remember to put it together before I kick the bucket. A lot of my family is buried in my hometown in SC but I have already let them know that it would not be my final destination. ;)
ReplyDelete