Chicagoist: Six Feet Under Ain't Cutting It Anymore

Cheryl

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:32:04 -0600

I was visiting the folks over Memorial Day weekend, which is a great deal like Day of the Dead for southerners (I grew up here, they moved 'home' when they retired). It's a given you go out to the family plots and clean them up and put new flowers out and have a picnic. This year, we found *strangers* buried where my parents were planning to be buried! It seems no one is really sure who owns this cemetary, and the cousins (of each other, not my cousins) have each been selling the same plots to various people over the years. The dead people in question are some kind of distant relatives of Dad's; they had as much right to be there as he would. I think they got it straightened out, somehow, but I don't know the details.

buzzard bait

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:05:19 -0600

Air burial. Just hoof my fresh corpse someplace the buzzards can find it and let 'em have at me. Circle of life indeed...

JAH

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:15:05 -0600

I'm going to have my body enclosed in a giant crystal pyramid and fired into deep space. Either that, or I'm going to go the H.S. Thompson route and have my ashes shot out of a cannon during a huge, drunken party.

badger

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:07:54 -0600

I plan to explode. Then I want my loved ones to take all my stuff and get sloppy drunk. No wake/viewing/funeral/any of that crap.

eastern'r

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:29:55 -0600

Wait. Is it true that the dead can still vote in Chicago? I've heard that the names of dead people routinely show up on the ballot polls.

Jessica

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:28:14 -0600

I got my very own cemetary plot as a CHRISTMAS GIFT from my maternal grandmother when I was in college (15 years ago). Sure enough, it's in the family plots in Podunk, Mississippi. Yep, Mississippi. A place I refuse to go alive when I have choices and sure won't be going when I'm dead. The best part is that we all got a plot - my mom, my dad, my brother, and me. And my parents have been divorced since I was 12. They don't want to be near each other in this lifetime and I can't imagine they want to share the next one. I'd love to dump my plot. I figure I'll wait a few years until after my grandmother dies and then give it to one of my cousins so their spouse/kids can be buried with them.

Candace

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:20:52 -0600

I have thought of this a lot. Everything is going to the internet including the family plot. I have always loved walking in a cemetery wishing the stones could give up the stories of the lives of the people buried there...and other than names and dates, there were not many stories. Life is about the stories! Its one reason I started InRepose.com

Mikey

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:39:02 -0600

Green burial all the way...

prescott

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:16:52 -0600

I dunno, I think right now it's only being done in Sweden. I should have at least a couple of years left, hopefully it will be available in the U.S. by then.

ross

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:58:14 -0600

Cemeteries are a poor use of real estate and the environment. Your not coming back so why be burried in a cement box.

geekgrrl

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:57:16 -0600

oo. how much does that run you, prescott?

prescott

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:54:44 -0600

I'm totally going the "promession" route -- they freeze your body in liquid nitrogen then blast you into a gazillion pieces. Whee!

Ferdy

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:41:44 -0600

Cemeteries are such rip-offs! I wouldn't go near one or want to stick the cost of a burial ($10,000 on average) on anyone. I'm going up in flames when the time comes.

graveman

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:38:20 -0600

Yes, yes I do Chicagoist. Can't say much about my plans for the my dead body, but it does involve delicious pie.