Not on the dying part, except perhaps the all so important having your wishes clearly known, but on what happens after the spirit has left the body, the plug is pulled, whatever.
I went to the funeral yesterday of the man who hired me for my current job 20 years ago. He had been diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma about 40 years ago and given 6 months to live. He beat it then but it reappeared in his lungs about a year ago and he fought hard but this time it got him.
The funeral service was held in a "chapel" room at the funeral home on site at the "memorial gardens" where he will be buried.
A lousy way to see people you haven't kept in touch with over the years, his service was well attended. There was a "program" printed for us to follow the order of the service which listed the minister and friends/family who would speak. A friend read from a treasured card he'd given to his wife several years ago, etc.
Mid way through the service, a soloist was listed on the card. Not unusual, right?
Well, you surely know that if I'm telling you about it, it was different.
http://www.michaelhoover.com/index.php
Michael Hoover, Elvis Impersonater! Not young Elvis, either. Vegas Elvis. He sang the Lord's Prayer and another song.
I did not know that this was intentional. I'm kind of glad now that it was, as my boss had a pretty good sense of humor but, at the time, I was all BGAK! and just barely managed to keep from blurting out ELVIS IS IN THE BUILDING!
Added to my discomfort was the fact that I was seated next to the President of our company.
This got me thinking on burial vs cremation, funerals (which I thought were more solemn) vs memorial services.
My godfather recently passed away and expressed his wish to donate his body to science. (There was a little bit of a problem since he died on a Saturday morning in his home and wasn't discovered until sometime on Sunday and whether science would still want him but that got sorted out). There will be a memorial service for him later this month, one that will be much more funeral esque and at the Catholic Church he attended the last 50 years or so.
No surprise entertainment at that one but there will be food afterwards.
I personally wish to be cremated (after I'm dead Alex, thank you very much!) and hope that someone will throw a party. I'll leave the food ready in the freezer.
Somewhere I heard that you still have to buy a coffin even to be cremated. I was speaking to a co-worker this morning about that and yesterdays funeral. He said he'd heard that the Netherlands have crematoriums hooked into their power grid.
BZZZZT!! and the lights are brighter for a split second.
There goes Grandma!
Oh, and yes, I did pack a cooler for the trip last night. Another co-worker rode down to the service with me. He pulled in to the parking lot and found a space in the shade of a large tree. I reached into the back of the car and he asked "What are you doing?"
"I brought bottled water, pepsi, strawberries, Ritz crackers and jalapeno pimento cheese"
He looked at me kind of funny.
We snacked on our way back home afterwards.
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