Jarred,

I actually work at a cemetery. I am a grave digger and do the cremations also. If you have any questions from that area I'd be happy to answer them for you. (PM me if you want to). One thing you can do once you decide how you want to go, cremation or burial, you can actually set it up ahead of time and even pay it off over time and then once you go it's all taken care of. Hope this helps.

Dale

Jarrad,

A lot of on line services offer a do it yourself will package. I also know some office supply stores have blank will's as well. It's always a good idea to have one even if you dont have a lot of assets.

For me I want to be creamated and my ashes set to the company that makes diamonds from your ashes. I want them divided into 3rd's and then one made for each of my kids. I know sounds weird but I have talked to my kids and all 4 of agree. I don't have the link or the time this morning to find it. But you can do a net search and find the company.

James

The most important thing is to be absolutely clear in your Living Will and Final Will. When my grandpa was dying of cancer, the family -- us -- had to decide whether or not to take him off life support. In his Living Will he stated that he wanted life support to be removed something to the idea of "when life wasn't comfortable or there was little hope of recovery." Those aren't the exact words; they escape me, but you know what I mean. So it caused a big ruckus between our family of what we should do and what he would've wanted (he was unconscious) because there was so much gray area in his wishes. No one knew what we should do and what he would've wanted.

It happened too with his estate. People fighting over stuff and getting all mixed up.

A good idea is to go over your Living and Final wills with a fine-toothed comb in the presence of a lawyer. Also tell family or friends your exact wishes. More than one with the same story.

The idea is to eliminate as much "maybe" as possible so everything goes smoothly.

Just my two cents.

Jarrad:
Just my 2 cents on this topic. I just don't want to put this burden on my kids. I do have one up on you as I do have 2 kids. But someone has to take care of the final arrangements, so why leave them up to someone else? I have not made all my arrangements yet, but I do have them down on paper so when I say "Goodby", at least my kids have something to work with.

Ken

elad, since you work around it and are familiiar, which would you personally choose when you go?

Jarrad,

Well, I am going to get buried, but then I got a plot for free and the concrete liner and granite marker at cost. I already put the liner in the ground. (I even buried a kind of time capsule for the grave digger that buries me someday. It has a letter to the grave digger, a bottle of brandy, a hat I knit, $10.00, a newspaper and some stuff I wrote.) Before I worked here though I thought about cremation because of cost but personally I always kind of liked the idea of being buried. Unless one really wants to be buried though, I think cremation is better. It's cheaper and you have more options of what to do with the ashes. You can scatter them in different places or divide them between friends and family. I am going to start scattering cremations for people from my little boat that is in my avatar. Bottom line is if I had to pay full price for a burial I'd choose cremation instead, unless of course I was rich.

Dale

elad12---------------------you have senior citizen discounts??????????????

elad, that is so awesome you put in a time capsule. i would think that rarely do you guys get the appreciation you deserve. and probably are often forgetten because people are always neurotic when people die. i think the cremation route is probably the best/easiest as well. i am certainly not rich. i have this weird thing with creamation tho. (but it doesnt really matter once im dead i guess) but it always reminds me of the halocaust and burning all the people after they were killed in consentration camps. maybe that is fitting because i have always had this weird connection adn interest in that part of history even tho no one in my family was invovled.

thanks for answering honestly. i appreciate it.

Jarrad,

That is interesting about the cremation/halocaust thought. I have had that same thought many times while doing cremations, but like you say, bottom line is we are dead when it happens. Hope you don't have to worry about this for a long time.

Dale