Do it yourself funerals

This is all kinds of good. If you're going to have a funeral, it only makes sense to go back to the days before I was born when they had them in the house. Makes them more personal and whatnot. Unless of course the family would be more traumatized by it. I would do it if it came up. The romance of it all appeals to me. To do what is right, not according to someone else's skewed vision of right.

Might want to get it done and over with fairly quickly before the body start to fill with gas and ripen though. I have a mother that is nearing the end of life stuff. I am going to consider this seriously instead of paying $10,000. I like the whole do it yourself kind of thing like making the wooden box and digging the grave and all that. Not digging with no backhoe neither. Real getting down in the earth digging by hand with a heavy ass metal spade kind of digging. I hope this is a sign that america is finally starting to come to their senses about things and we revert to good old fashioned get down to it business instead of paying someone else to take care of your responsibilities or to make things easier with evil technology.

I don't care for the idea of any witch doctor rooting around in the innards of anyone I know looking for a ridiculous sign of something else that may have ended their life. If say, they drowned, I don't want no tard going in there and seeing if they drowned or had a heart attack because of the stress of drowning. It makes no difference. The person is still going to be dead. The argument of "for the betterment of mankind" and "for the betterment of medical science" doesn't wash. I think medical science has done an equal amount of harm as well as advances from their unnatural tinkering and curiosity.

New law expands home funeral options

Minnesotans can grieve their dead without embalming them, and then invite neighbors and friends into their home for the funeral, under legislation Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law this week.

The change allows families to skip embalming and hold a public viewing or service up to four days after the death.

Until now, if anyone other than family and close friends attended, the state required the body to be embalmed.

The new law also allows children to be in the presence of an unembalmed body, which had been illegal, and expands the types of transportation that families can use to move bodies. The old law required the body be in the same space as the driver, essentially mandating use of a hearse.

“We had a lot of old laws on the books that were based on superstitions and inaccurate information,’’ said State Rep. Carolyn Laine, DFL-Columbia Heights, chief author of the bill. “We allowed some home funerals, but only for family and close friends. Well, now we can invite the not-so-close friends and skip the embalming.’’

The law, which goes into effect Aug. 1, requires the body to be on dry ice if more than family will attend the service.

Leif Larsen, funeral director at Green-Larsen Funeral Home in International Falls and treasurer of the Minnesota Funeral Directors Association, said the changes are small and probably won’t spur any major move to home funerals.

“I’ve worked with families who wanted to participate in the process; everything from dressing their loved ones to fixing their hair. And we’ve had visitations in survivor homes,’’ Larsen said. “But that’s always been after we do the prep work, after embalming at the funeral home. … As far as home funerals, it’s not something we’re seeing up here. It’s a difficult enough time for survivors without having to worry about caring for the body. That could be pretty overwhelming to a lot of folks.’’

The Minnesota Funeral Directors Association, which at first balked at the relaxed embalming regulations, eventually dropped their opposition and helped craft the final language, Laine said.

Under the new law, the service must be on private property — such as a home, a funeral home or church — and can’t be in a park or on other public property.

Laine said few Minnesota families are choosing home funerals, maybe 1 percent, but that some people are choosing end-of-life gatherings in their homes and without embalming as either a personal, spiritual or environmental choice.

Laine said she was inspired to sponsor the legislation after attending a home funeral about five years ago, an experience she described as deeply moving.

“We are with our loved ones right up to the point they die, and then we were made to feel obliged to get them out of the house as quickly as possible,’’ Laine said. “Now people can slow down and take their time and grieve naturally, like we did for centuries. We don’t need to be afraid of the dead.’’

While Minnesota has generally lagged behind other states in making it easy for home-based funerals, this year’s bill advanced quickly, passing the Senate 50-13 and House 121-7. Laine said the key was testimony by the Michael Osterholm, director of the Center of Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, that there was no public health or medical reason to demand that bodies be embalmed.

The Minnesota Department of Health also backed the changes.

“When Dr. Osterholm testified that it was pure myth that bodies somehow become infectious or diseased after death, that there is no health reason for embalming, the opposition pretty much faded away,’’ Laine said. “This is about giving people choice.’’

 

Just thought about this a bit more...

For me, when/if I shuffle off this mortal coil, I told J I wanted to be mummified, Egyptian style, and buried in a small pyramid. Now I had my funeral at home:

1.) The house would smell nicer, thanks to the herbs, ointments, etc.
2.) If it was a particularly tragic death (closed coffin sort of dealie) it would be a bit easier
for the mourners to handle. For some reason, open casket funerals seem a little better
(less creepy??) than closed casket ones.
3.) All sorts of candles would have to be kept away from me. MAJOR fire hazard, all those
linens.
4.) Pyramid may be an issue to build, especially if I was to be buried at home. The condo
association may have some aesthetic complaints. Not to mention all the permits. Still
would probably be easier and a little cheaper than having a cemetery build it.

On a separate note, I'm quick shocked to find that the article makes no mention of the EXTREME danger having an unsecured corpse just lying around. I'm mean when they start to get up and get hungry, your going to have a lot more problems than weeping mourners and running out of finger sandwiches. Priorities People!! Priorities!

 

I wouldn't mind them having a party/funeral in the house with me being the guest of honor. I would prefer to have a traditional viking funeral, laid to rest on a funeral barge, lit on fire and set adrift on Lake Superior, after dying in battle amongst a mountain of my foes.

*edit*
note to self...sell your house, buy a few acres of land and build your own viking longhouse to live in and occaisionally make raids into town for supplies.

 

My girlfriend's great grand aunt used to lay out bodies in her front room in the days before funeral parlors.
Her gg aunts raised her mother who as a little girl was creeped out by this.
When she came home from school she used to run as fast as she could past the door of the room with the coffin in it.

 

Necro-I hear ya. A wise man once said, it is better to light a single monastery than dwell in the darkness. Now if your funeral has all that, and a Manowar soundtrack, I am totally coming!

-EC

 

I just bought 4 Manowar CD's last week on E-Bay and aim to collect the other 1200 albums they recorded. :yes: