Do you think about your mortality?

Banjo said:
$15,000 being the minimum for a funeral. For a burial (caskets), I can easily believe that it can balloon up from nothing to in the range of $15,000. For a cremation, it's much, much cheaper.

From what I know, cremation itself costs around $700 and up and the funeral with everything included (obituary, viewing, flowers, services, death certificate, transportation, etc) may vary from $1,500 to $3,000. Probably something to do with the fact that it usually costs at least a thousand for a cheap casket while you would pay only $150 for an urn.
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That's exactly what I was talking about. In many parts of the world, people just bury their dead for free. Not us. It's meaningless unless it puts us in debt. :-P
 
"This makes sound financial sense to those who find the cost of dying prohibitive."

I'm *pretty* sure I can't be bothered with this kind of thing once I'm dead...

:-P

Honestly, I'd rather have my loved ones dump my body in the woods than have to go into hock over it. I'm really not going to care at that point.
 
Think I posted this earlier.

When my dad died, he was cremated for a mere $250. this was in 1991. We got no urn, just his ashes in a plastic bag in a cardboard box.

Father-in-law died in 2009. MIL paid $9800 for his casket and service and I'm not sure what else. They had already pre-paid the cemetery and then Hospice got MIL to transfer from the one cemetery to the VA since he qualified for that.

Neighbor's daughter-in-law just died recently. Nothing had been pre-paid or pre-planned at all. She was not on Hospice care. Neighbor put out $16,000 for her funeral. That included the basic casket, service and plot. Flower, music and guest book was another $1500.

Same neighbor is the one who has her late hubbies and son's ashes in her yard. The last one to die (2 1/2 years ago) was the last hubby and his cremation cost her $350. She used no urn.

MIL is pre-paying for her casket and everything so that we do not have to worry with it. She and I are both trying to convince hubby that going with cremation will be less money. His biggest problem is he's not thinking this through properly, but that's his learning disability coming in. We have told him, that when he dies, his soul goes on (that is our belief) and his body is left. There will be no more pain once death is achieved. No more suffering for the body. HE has it in his head that his soul cannot go on if he's cremated and that he would feel the burning process. I do not know how to get him to understand otherwise. His comprehension just can't process that.
 
Banjo said:
Not as morbid as people taking pictures of posing corpses.
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Queen Victoria is said to have hundreds of photos of relatives at rest in her collection. Personally, I agree with you on this one.
 
TheWriteAlex said:
I noticed that most of the pictures are of children. Also, a lot of the pictures include the mother holding their dead child in a manner that implies the child is alive. It's clear by looking at the faces, though, that the child is dead.

I found this incredibly sad and profound.
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I think our perceptions about death have changed a lot in the last two hundred years. It's only recently that humanity has had such a huge number of people living to old age. When I was young it was common on TV to congratulate people on their 100th birthday. Today there are simply too many people that old to congratulate them all. I forget what show that was though.
 
Banjo said:
Not as morbid as people taking pictures of posing corpses.
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They used to make albums, called mourning books.

Some people find it morbid, and it's not generally done now, but I think it's kind of cool, personally.

Jen M.
 
How we celebrate, remember or mourn the death of our families is a deeply personal one. I don't see any wrong or right way of doing it as long as it's done in respectful way per their culture and upbringing. I find it rather obnoxious for people to judge others for their way of mourning/remembering/celebrating their loved ones who have passed away. For example, the latest is the funeral pyre in the U.S.....

Cremation by funeral pyre, now available in the USA « Thefuneralsite's Weblog
 
I just read an article in Mother Earth News about DIY burials. I find it disturbing that there can be so much legal crap draped around dying. Seriously, all species have been dying since the first protein chain broke up. The only reason there's so much cruft around it is someone decided they could make money off it, and they've been doing so ever since.

Just put my body on the ground somewhere where no other humans will mess with it.
 
audiodef said:
I just read an article in Mother Earth News about DIY burials. I find it disturbing that there can be so much legal crap draped around dying. Seriously, all species have been dying since the first protein chain broke up. The only reason there's so much cruft around it is someone decided they could make money off it, and they've been doing so ever since.

Just put my body on the ground somewhere where no other humans will mess with it.
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It does seems pretty wrong that one would not be able to afford to die, doesn't it?
 
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