After a few days, I now have more information regarding Grandma's passing. Apparently her brothers had called over and she didn't answer Tuesday morning, so they went to her apartment to see her. Her dog was going nuts inside, so they got the manager to open the apartment. There she was, looking asleep in bed, gone to the world. I'm sure it was quite a shock for her brothers. Now they, and my dad and his sisters, have to go through all her stuff in the apartment, get the dog to the Humane Society, finish arranging everything for her funeral/burial, and figure out what the heck to do from here.
The funeral is Friday. Viewing is in the afternoon and the service is at 3pm. Burial afterwards. There's no way that I can teach my class at the college tonight, fly back for the day, and make it back in time for the evaluations on Saturday morning. I called my dad and told him this and he said he kind of figured that would be the case (end of the semester and all). So, I ordered flowers this morning for the funeral. I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to put on the card because I don't really care for Grandma that much; I care much more about my dad and my aunts. In the end, I put "Aunt S, Aunt J, and Dad: May you find peace during this time of sorrow." The arrangement is purple, which seemed to be one of Grandma's favorite colors, and I'm hoping it gets there in time for the showing tomorrow.
The other thing my mom and I discussed at great length yesterday on the phone was how much the funeral cost. It's simply ridiculous how much grieving families are charged for services. Mom said the cheapest casket you could get was $2500, but you had to pay $4000 because of the cement thing they have to line the plot with so that it meets dead people code (I have no idea what this is really called). The funeral home services were also an arm and a leg, as were paying for someone to dig a hole, lower the casket, and bury it. The total price of the funeral does not include a headstone or paying an officiant for doing the actual funeral services (at the funeral home and then at the cemetery). Luckily, Dad's uncle is a minister and agreed to do the funeral for his ex-sister-in-law (weird, eh?), so maybe there won't be too much of a cost there, but still! WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?!?? I was telling my husband about this last night and said that when I die, I want to just be buried in the ground. No box, no fancy cement thing under me, no $194710467104 for my funeral - just bury me in the desert so that the bugs and animals can help me decompose properly. He reminded me that I didn't want to get either of my daughters arrested for improper disposal of human remains, and said that that's just the way it is. Just the way it is? Seriously?!? Ugh! I don't want to be cremated because I watched my grandfather's cremation in 2001 and totally flipped out. No. Freaking. Way. But, I also don't want to have a huge expense and inconvenience to my family when it comes my time, and I want my body to go back to the earth the way it should. There's no need for my dead body to be preserved for hundreds of years in a box - what's the point? I won't need it after I'm dead! There's got to be a way around it...
Grandma will be buried in the plot beside Great-Grandma, who passed away in 2006. It's not far from where they lived for most of their older lives, and it sits on a little hill over the rest of the cemetery. It's quiet, it's nice, and I think it'd be a good place for the girls to go someday to meet her. Plus, it's near the city pool, so if Grandma's wonderfully preserved body decides to go for a swim someday, it won't be too far of a walk. :p
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