Community Chat

[lulu2]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

I still would check anyway as some people at the airlines are not aware of such things.

Believe me-- going through security and having a bi-pap machine taken out of its case and examined as if its a curiosity (never been seen by security ever) at a major airport here in NYC,  with thousands of people going through airports with respiratory support machines, there was no excuse to take everything out of the bag it was in.

I would still call the airlines and double check, cause the day this happens (the transport of remains on a plane as carry on) someone is going to examine it and question it-- what's in the urn m'aam?? That's not explosive is it?? There will always be someone who is out of the loop and as Murphy's Law would have it-- that person will be on duty that day!

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I addressed this in my response.  To go through security and customs & immigration, I needed a sealed box, a death certificate and a notarized letter from the undertaker, as well as my father's passport.

[Mrsq2022]

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@MaggieMack wrote:

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@June2 wrote:

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@MaggieMack wrote:

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@henderson wrote:

Please consider whole body donation if you want to be cremated.  I registered with Science Care (Phoenix, Az.) to donate my body after my organs are donated.  There is no cost, they will arrange to transport the body from your local funeral home and then after cremation, return the remains to you.    Whole body donations are so needed to help find cures for diseases.

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Please, before you commit to "donating your body to science," read the book Stiff by Mary Roach. She details all of the various ways the donated bodies are used, and most of them are not only not pretty, but pretty awful. I used to have the same altruistic dream of having my body used for higher purposes, but this book changed my mind. In one quick minute.

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Who cares what happens to your physical body once you are dead? You act like you are still going to be around.  

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No, I definitely don't think I will be hanging around, lol! I just don't want my head to be one of forty in a room that is being used in a seminar for plastic surgeons to practice new facelift procedures, or my body left in a field to rot while they count and categorize the bugs that invade it, or be used by motor vehicle companies as a crash test dummy. I have reverence for life, and for the body after death. 

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I know that donating my body to "science" isn't always going to be pretty, but these are all valuable and useful ways that a deceased human body could be used to teach.  Any licensed nurse or doctor explored anatomy and surgical techniques on a cadaver.  I cringe at the idea of my naked body laid out there to dissect or experiment with, but it is an admirable donation to make.

[GCR18]

In 2009, my father's funeral was $11,000.  He was buried in the family plot with his parents.  We paid for the casket, flowers, graveside service, funeral home and cemetery fees.  That was it.

[DoneTryin]

Not spending a dime here.  Donating remains & they'll cremated what's left.  The only decision to be made is whether or not my family wants the remains to scatter somewhere.  I don't care - when I'm dead I'm dead.  It seems absurd to spend a lot of money on me when I won't be able to enjoy it.

[151949]

The man we met with told that the largest expense is the viewing at a funeral home.We didn't really see any use for that anyway so we chose to not have that.Thus we do not have the expense of moving a body home from Florida, the viewing, or a casket.We opted for immediate cremation then a service at our church with just the ashes there followed by just a small graveside service for the closest family.

[nun ya]

Of course it all depends on what you choose, My Dad's was over 10k in 2004.  and half of that was the casket. My mother prepaid her's weeks after my Dad had died. But has since told me she doesn't want people gawking at her, 

We are scattering my MIL ashes this weekend, She lived elsewhere and passed in Jan. 

She wanted to rest in the mountains of Pa

[OnlyShopsOnline]

We prepaid my MIL's funeral a few years back.  She passed a year later.  We paid $2000 for the cremation, which included a car which carried the cremains to the church and then to the cemetery.  There was an additional $150 for an upgraded urn, and a donation to the church for her mass.  I don't remember that amount.  And, it cost about $150 to open the grave...she already had her plot.  Also, there was an engraving charge for the existing headstone which was about $100.  

I think the total, even with the dinner after the funeral, was less than $3000.

[shoekitty]

I am in California.  What really surprized me the last funeral we had in 2010 for my beloved FIL, was the newspaper obituary.  In the olden days , or up until  1998, one could post in newspaper for free, or a few buck if you added pictures.  Now, the larger newspapers charge ALOT!!!  It is 300 to 500 bucks for a couple paragraphs and a photo. Geesh!  That was a shock to me.

[sgraham30]

My mother died 3 years ago on 08/18. She specifically stated that she wanted to be cremated, but just for the heck of it, I asked what a standard funeral cost at that time. I was told that depending on the type of casket chosen for the interment & other factors, the minimum at that time was $8,000. We went ahead & had her cremated per her wishes. That was $2,500 & it included an obituary in the local paper, a viewing for immediate family only, & the cremation itself. 

[151949]

The high costs are a good reason to preplan. You lock in the price today plus when you pay for it upfront they give significant discounts. I think my DH , who wasn't really sold on preplanning was turned around by the financial good sense this makes.

For me it was that we don't have children so when the first one of us dies the other one could be quite elderly (hopefully) and won't have to deal with making all these arrangements. Our niece has agreed to take care of this for us but if we are in Fl and she is in Pa this will make it much simpler for her to deal with.Keeping things simple for her was foremost in our minds as we planned all this.