Has anyone ever planned an unorthodox funeral?

[NightWatcher]

Not to mock Orleans' thread about headstones, but it got me thinking about my own end. It's just that I'm not a headstone/church funeral.... kinda guy. I'd like a fun hoorah for those I leave behind. I don't want to have my family and few friends sit in a chapel in a funeral home in dress clothes, surrounded by flowers (like I won the goddamned Kentucky Derby) before I'm wheeled to a hole in the ground or oven.

I don't want my ashes shot out of a cannon a la Hunter S Thompson, but I like the idea of something more fun, positive, memorable. How does one arrange a Viking funeral? I want rock n roll played, I want to be propped up in the corner with a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses on....

[Sherman A1]

1. Got mine all planned

there will be none.

[RushIsRot]

2. I have requested that one or more smoke doobies

and mix the ashes in with mine.

[rurallib]

3. just told my wife today

1) no body in a casket. There are places now that somehow freeze a body and then mash it into a food for a new tree. Plant a tree and let me feed it.

2) have the gathering after normal work hours so my friends can come. Make sure there is lots of good rock 'n' roll on the speaker. have some pop and brews ready and let people tell their stories.

[Wounded Bear]

4. You could do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zCiKxjZTa2I

[whistler162]

5. Unless your are Jewish and observant

or of the Greek or Russian church wouldn't you always have a unorthodox funeral?

Me if/when I plan my funeral I want my ashes brought in 15 minutes late. 'Cause you always want to be late for your funeral!

[elleng]

6. I expect to plan my burial

http://www.mdgreenburial.com/

and having paid for it, will likely discuss the rest with my family, tho as my offspring don't talk and who knows what will be the case when the time arises, I may plan something myself and inform them.

Want to end up 'pushing up daisies,' kind of like 'ashes to ashes' but without the fire part.

[femmocrat]

7. No funeral for me.

Huge waste of money. I would rather give the money to the kids.

[madamesilverspurs]

8. I'm being donated.

All of me. No expense to the family.

And if or how they choose to mark the passing, I'll be well beyond orchestrating or caring.

So.

[DebJ]

13. Sometimes they won't take you, or will only take part of you, leaving the family to handle

the rest of the remains. This happened to a family I know.

[madamesilverspurs]

16. Already signed and sealed.

"Delivered" will have to wait, however!

[Ms. Toad]

18. That's a different arrangement (organ donation)

If you really want someplace to take all of you - guaranteed - look for a program like this one: http://med.stanford.edu/anatomy/donate/

Both of my grandparents on one side of the family did this, and my parents are signed up to as well. After perhaps a year or so, you get a box of cremated remains of what is left after they use what is useful.

[LumosMaxima]

9. I told my friend who will most likely make the arrangements . . .

That at the end I want someone to announce, "Lumos has left the building!"

[panader0]

10. I'd like to be cremated on my own land on top of a cord of wood.

There would be kegs of beer and my (ex) band mates would play until the embers ceased to glow.

[winter is coming]

11. Make your wishes known to the people closest to you.

I don't see why it shouldn't be possible.

[No Vested Interest]

12. Better still - leave the money for the party

in a special fund.

[winter is coming]

15. Great idea. n/t

[DebJ]

14. I definitely don't want to be pickled and put into a box for people to look at.

I was born in DC and have had politics coursing through my veins all the time. Forced to live in Pennsyltuckey now, but it
will never be 'home' (lived 48 years in Maryland suburbs).

I told people to scatter my ashes down the National Mall so I can haunt Congress and the White House forever.

But in reality, I have a plot at Congressional Cemetery where my immigrant ancestors were buried in the late 1800s. I'm going
to be cremated and I'll probably shop around for prices on that because it is worth it (and then let my family know); opening the grave there costs $700 for a cremation burial. The plot is free and will hold five more if cremated, in addition to the three buried there for over a century now. I would like to get a good headstone so as to memorialize my immigrant ancestors; currently, they have no marker at all

The plot is free to me because I identified myself, through ancestry research, as a living descendent, and the great-grand uncle who once owned the plot died and left it to no one; his line has died out; he was buried in Florida.

[pipi_k]

17. Joking around...

I've told family members to stick me in Tupperware because it keeps leftovers fresh.

Also, I've said that I'd like to be thrown out into the woods as food for the animals.


In reality, though, it will probably be more conventional...cremation and then burial in the nearby Veterans Cemetery alongside Mr Pipi.

[Jokerman]

19. We threw a wake at the legion hall for my dad.

His will specified "no religious funeral service or ceremony" so we had a party.

I attended a real Irish wake at a pub several years ago and it was the best remembrance a person could ask for.