Yeah, I'm avoiding embalming at all cost. Hey, I'm not crazy about the idea that I'll eventually die. But I want my remains not to leave a damaging impact on the environment in any way.

@ Risque: My death plan is to be donated to the University of Tennessee's Body Farm.
They use donated remains to study things like decomposition, how different elements affect decomposition, etc. They do not destroy remains through cremation after studying either, but instead clean your skeleton for medical school uses. :D It's great.

@ Ava: I haven't seen that before... that does sound so eerie and weird.
I've always been fascinated by things most people call morbid. I want to explore catacombs and crypts and tombs. I want to understand how decomposition works.

In Western society we've really sterelized and hidden death away. We don't talk about our death plans with people, not even loved ones. We don't want to see our dead loved ones. In many places and cultures, part of the grieving process comes with caring for the remains of a loved one. Cleaning and dressing them for burial. In the US this is seen as grotesque. Why are we taught that our loved ones are grotesque and disgusting once they've passed? :( I intend to hold my mother's hand when she's leaving this world. I'll take care of her, as she took care of me. She held my grandfather's hand and spoke to him until his last breaths. It was hard but it brought her so much comfort that he wasn't alone. She kept telling him: "Your Jeanie is here, papa. It's okay." It's one of the most beautiful stories in my opinion.


Sorry for my rant, guys. I'm very passionate about this. Grief and death are just as much part of life as birth and happiness.

I know it's gonna be a while before my funeral, but gods damn it I want it to be a friggin' party. I'm planning on taking a page out of New Orleans' book and having the thing be fun.

I don't get why in the States funerals have to be depressing. Isn't the whole point of a funeral to celebrate the fact that the person lived, rather than be sad that they aren't anymore?

@ Taiyo: We've kind of sanitized grief in the US. It's something that is considered "unsightly" and best kept "behind closed doors". Grief has strict rules to follow. It's...weird. Nobody wants to deal with a sobbing, grief stricken person. Society is changing slightly, but it's slow. Have you ever seen Six Feet Under? That show did an interesting job showing how grief and mourning and the funeral industry works in the US.

My aunt has told everyone that for her funeral, she expects everyone to wear bright green because it's her favorite color. She wants to look down (she's a religious person) from Heaven and see a splash of green. The only exception to this is she expects her children (she has five) and her grandchildren (currently four, but with five adult children she expects a higher number ) to wear their personal favorite colors to the funeral. I think her death plan sounds so beautiful. And she's stubborn, so you better believe we're all going to follow this plan when she passes. Although, it'll be many years, she's only in her 50's and very healthy.

@Clair

Yeah. The "extreme embalming" is definitely unsettling. Apparently, due to the body's lack of circulation, the deceased's eyes go foggy and blue so the bodies are always wearing sunglasses. D:

I definitely wish that death wasn't such a scary thing to discuss for people. :( The only death I've ever witnessed was when my bunny passed away. I was with her the whole time and it was very scary. But I am glad that she died with me, that she knew she was loved and cared for. That was my only first-hand experience with death. :(

All of my grandparents have passed away, but I was never there to see them die. Like most Americans, I have a terrible fear of death. I think it was instilled in my as a kid that death was scary. My parents are Christian and they don't "fear death", but since I am not religious, it creeps me out! I don't know if I believe in an afterlife, I kind of believe in reincarnation. But I am afraid of being hurt while dying

If you get the chance to check out the "extreme embalming" I'd definitely recommend it! It is creepy, but at the same time it's really interesting! Like human taxidermy!

I'll definitely look into it. Sounds very fascinating.

I think we all have a fear of death, it's sort of a natural instinctual view of dying. Caitlin Doughty from Ask a Mortician shared her personal story of overcoming her fear of death. As a child she witnessed the accidental death of another child in public. It scarred her so badly, and the adults around her just sort of covered it up and wouldn't explain what she'd seen. They kept telling her "Oh, she's in a better place" whenever she asked what happened to the other child. It was so severe that she developed OCD to prevent her own death and those around her. She was convinced if she did all these little rituals, like tapping a chair or spitting at specific times that no one would die. It was a very interesting story. Facing death as a mortician she was able to deal with her OCD and ultimately her fear of dying.

The whole idea of embalming just...ew. Ick. If my kids/whoever is making arrangements for what to happen with my body when I'm dead decide to embalm me, I swear to the gods that I will haunt them with a vengeance. Ain't none of that creepy scheiss happening on my meatsack, nuh-uh, not happening. Just....EWWWW.

It's even going to be in my will. No. Embalming. Or you will never have any peace because I'm a stubborn asshole and dear GODS I will make you regret it.

I don't think I'll have to worry about embalming since we're all getting cremated here because we aren't rich enough to buy plots of land to bury our dead. I'll just be an urn of ashes resting somewhere.

I'm not afraid of dying, though I am afraid of a painful or otherwise uncomfortable death. I'm also petrified at the thought of losing a loved one. It's probably one of my worst fears and I get paranoid whenever we go for long amounts of time without contact, I'd keep worrying whether something happened to them.

Plots in the US are always personal. One time purchase and it's yours for good. I know in other countries, plots are rented.

I'm more worried about losing a loved one than about me personally dying. I'm also freaked out by the idea of someone vanishing, and never knowing what became of that person. The idea of never having closure is worst than death, to me personally. I also don't want to die in a painful, terrible way either. I hope my death is peaceful. But, I imagine we all hope for that.

There's a series of books with short stories about a machine that takes a small blood sample and tells you how you'll die. Basically the editors put out the concept to people and then people all over the globe submitted their short stories that revolve around the machine. Some of them are depressing, but some of them are beautiful and happy stories.

A happy story in one of the books is a young man's newly wed wife is battling cancer and he's terrified of losing her. He steals a vial of her blood from one of her treatments to have it tested to see how his wife will die... only to receive a notice that his wife's cause of death will be: Old Age, peaceful, surrounded by family.

Originally Posted by TaiyoTsuki

I know it's gonna be a while before my funeral, but gods damn it I want it to be a friggin' party. I'm planning on taking a page out of New Orleans' book and having the thing be fun.

I don't get why in the States funerals have to be depressing. Isn't the whole point of a funeral to celebrate the fact that the person lived, rather than be sad that they aren't anymore?

Right? But maybe we're looking at it from too practical of a perspective.

On a semi-related tangent, I want everyone to party it up when/if I get married. Hell, everything just needs to be a giant celebration because we spend too much time being cranky.

@ Clair: That's a great idea too! Personally I wouldn't mind being "buried" so much as having a tiny part of me cremated and buried with a nice tree or plant.
Or was that a wedding thing again..? I seem to conflate the two a lot.

@ Risque: Cremation isn't good for growing plants, actually. It's a thing that was floating around the internet for a while. Have your cremations set in a biodegradable urn with seeds for a tree or something. But once an organic thing has been literally on fire until it's completely ash, it's lost all organic material...which is what is good for plants. So, the best thing to do if you want to your remains to grow a tree, is have your body buried in just a biodegradable cloth and have family or friends plant stuff over the remains.

That's what I'm planning to have done. Embalming is creepy, and cremation takes a LOT of resources and dumps pollutants into the air.

Good thing I don't give a crap about my relatives X'D. Because not going the embalming route would be Not Proper XP.


On another note, looking for an easy cute kitty plush pattern that I can adapt to make a Yumeh plush with ^^

Maybe try looking for a pattern on pinterest. I see sewing patterns on there all the time.

A yumeh plush would be adorable.

Pinterest is the best. I LOVE IT! I got practically all my wedding ideas from DIY posts on Pinterest.
I bet you could find a really awesome pattern for a yumeh plushie! :D

Welp, originally I was trying to find a Neko Atsume cat pattern, but the most I found was just these little head plushes. Which admittedly would be cute, but I also want a plush of an all Yumeh X'D

Could you splice a pattern together? Find a teddy bear pattern, then switch up the head/ears and tail yourself?

Probably. Might end up doing that for some more kitty plushes I want to make, too ^^

How big do you want it to be? :)

Hm, not terribly...I'd say maybe a total of ten or twelve inches long, not including the tail. Other cat plushes I'll make smaller

a little late to the party regarding the funeral topic but i second the new orleans style funeral. jazz parade!

Or in my case, symphonic metal and j-rock X'D

I'd probably play a bunch of (outdated) meme songs. Like the Miku leek song or the Nyan Cat theme.

Hmm... I've never put a lot of thought into my funeral, to be honest.
Most of my death plan has been about what to do with my remains, and not a memorial service... I guess I wouldn't want one, but again, a funeral service is more for those left alive. Maybe I'll request some Bon Iver. I like his music a lot.

@Taiyo: Will you show us pictures when you get started? I wanna see a WIP! :D

UGH! So stressed right now. Got an email and then a call from my water company that since February 9th there has been constant water usage of 20-30 gallons AN HOUR! This indicates a leak. We found the leak, thankfully it's OUTSIDE and not under our house... but we think the snow and freezing weather messed with the water pipes. Ugh, this is not fun to deal with. I've gotta wait for the plumber to arrive. Could be a few more hours.

Oh man sorry to hear about the leak! D: Good thing it wasn't under your house. All that freezing can't be good for the water pipes. :(

@ Clair: I will ^^. Including the finished pics, of course

Yeah, got the leak fixed. Took most of my attention away from the event, unfortunately.
My aunt is also sick, so I had to go across the water to go see her. Got some good quality time in with my cousins, though.