Pure Cremation

[bednobs]

being made redundant, i have found i am watching some daytime tv (an have more time to think about it). I keep seeing these ads for pure cremation -one of their selling points is that its for people who don't like funerals. It got me thinking - who DOES like funerals?

[Jackdaw33]

Some people do. They turn up at strangers' funerals claiming to have known the deceased years ago in the hope they will be invited to the wake for free food and drink.

[ummmm]

The Irish do.

My dads funeral was a great craic. Obviously the service was sad but we got to see people near and far.

[albaqwerty]

seems odd that what should be a sad, solemn occasion starts with the word 'fun'

Having said which, any of my side of the family, we all had a laugh and a giggle after the sad part of the service.
Remembering the lost loved one with humour and a smile can be comforting.

[rowanwitch]

It takes the ceremony out of the equation but you can still hold your own memorial event. Will use this option but it will upset my family who seem to love a good funeral. In my family they involve a lot of laughs and at least one person flouncing out in a huff.

[bednobs]

i don't really understand what it's about but i presume they just take the body away and burn them all together?

[Barmaid]

I quite like them. I dont mean in a "hey what fun" sort of way. I mean in the sense that one can reflect on the deceased during the ceremony and afterwards there is normally a good bun fight.

To many people, a funeral is the new start. Very often between the death and the funeral there is a state of suspended life but once the funeral is over people may well start to move on and deal with things that hitherto had been left on the basis of "let's just get the funeral over with first".

[woofgang]

I don't like them...and the closer I am to the dead person the less I like them. In my work, I met with lots of older people who were in some kind of permanent care with a spouse elsewhere. When one or the other died, it was received wisdom that the survivor had to go to the funeral for closure. Mostly the survivor was too numb/unwell/demented to refuse but more often than not, I didn't see it do much good. A couple of times, the survivor was in a position to refuse point blank and the angst and distress it caused among the staff involved was of heroic proportions. As an occupational Therapist, it was my job (and personal inclination) to advocate for the bereaved person and it didn't make me popular....tant pis!

[mccfluff]

i don't, i hate the very thought of them. I want to be burnt and binned, that it.

[Barmaid]

Yes it's OK, we already have a binbag with your name on it, McFluff.

[albaqwerty]

is that the one which is ring-fenced with sausages BM?

[kvalidir]

Funerals aren't for the dead they are for the living, which I think is why the Irish enjoy them so much ( my father's family really like a good wake), it's like a misery rite, quite common in Catholic countries but less so here being a mainly protestant land by and large. I personally don't care what happens to me after I'm dead but if it comforts or helps those left behind to do various rites and observations, then I'm good with that.

[Hazi-Hammenuhoth]

I certainly don't enjoy funerals. I do, however detest cermations whereas I can "stomach" burials- I know some folks are the exact opposite too.

[rowanwitch]

The system is they collect the body, it is cremated without rite or ritual at a crematorium of their choice, and the ashes are returned to you. Simples, and as I see the body as just a box the person moved about in that is ok by me. I will have Redmans ashes with me then until I shuffle off the mortal coil then his ashes can go with mine.

[bednobs]

look on the brightside rw, you might go first!

[rowanwitch]

Highly unlikely under the circumstances.

[woofgang]

rowan do you have to have the ashes back?

[rowanwitch]

I suppose they can dispose of them, email them or one of their competitors to check.

[DTCwordfan]

Our Crem had a carol service for the public, second year in a row. I can understand something for relatives of those reduced to ash....however

New Carols....

We saw three coffins go sailing by.
Silent Night (most apropos)
Ding Dong Merrily in the Air
The Holly and the Ashes
Away in a coffin
Joy to the Underworld
In the Bleak Midwinter
We Three Undetakers Are
While Undertakers watched their boxes by night.
The Little Road to the Gas Burner
Once in Royal David's Crem.

[Grumpygrandad]

I hate funerals so much I'm not even going to my own.

[Theland]

Love a good funeral. Chicken legs and sausage rolls and a few beers. " did you know Fred / Freda very well?"
"Yes I lent him / her £500 just a few months ago, but I don't care about not getting it back. He / she was a good soul."
"Hey Charlie, we have to pay this guy £500 that he is owed. Fred / Freda would have wanted it this way!"