March 21, 2013 -- Incomplete Cremation?

While Jason was home for spring break, he and I decided to take in a Coyotes hockey game. Neither of us are huge hockey fans but we had gone to a playoff game last year and had a good time. Since he was stuck in Chandler for his week off, I thought that it would be good to get him out of the house as he wasn’t on a beach in Mexico like half of the college kids seem to be doing these days.

The area around the hockey arena is an entertainment complex with restaurants, bars and shopping. In addition, on top of the buildings, they have a number of rather large billboards, one of which caught my eye. It stated that you could get a “Complete cremation for $586.25.” This brought to mind a couple of questions. The first of which was, “What am I getting for that extra $0.25 that is included in the price?” The second question was even more important, “If I can get a complete cremation for $586.25, how much would an incomplete cremation cost and just how big would the chunks be?”

This might seem trivial to most of you but the cost of a funeral can be huge and as much as most of us like to avoid the discussion, we will all have to go through the process of death and a funeral. Julia and I have had an ongoing discussion over the years about how we would like to have our remains handled after we die. We are on opposite ends of the spectrum on this and oddly on ends opposite of where most would think we would be.

As many of you know, I tend to be a bit of a penny pincher. Some would call it being cheap; I prefer to call it being frugal. The possibility of only spending $586.25 for my funeral certainly has its advantages, but it flies in the face of what I have always wanted to do. I would have to say that I am a traditionalist when it comes to funerals and burials. It’s not that I feel like God will be upset with me if I am cremated, I just feel more comfortable with being put in the ground in one piece.

Julia, on the other hand, wants to be cremated. She would then like to have her ashes scattered in the Caribbean as she loves the beauty of the region. The best way to do this would be while on a cruise off the back of the ship in numerous places. For some reason, she isn’t too crazy about it when I ask if she minds if I take a date on this cruise. Geez, sometimes she is just no fun.

This trip to the hockey game came shortly after I went to the funeral of one of my co-workers. Jeff Richards had been suffering from Leukemia that led to complications including pneumonia and ultimately his death. Jeff was as nice of a man that you would ever meet. I don’t think that he ever had a bad word to say about anyone. My boss said it best when he referred to Jeff as a gentleman.

At the funeral, a friend of Jeff’s from his church gave an amazing eulogy that laid out Jeff’s life and all that he had accomplished. It really got me to thinking about what my eulogy would include. I’ve always felt that I have had a good life, but I’m not sure how much material I have created for a gut wrenching, boy what an amazing guy John was, kind of eulogy.

It made me wonder if I should have spent more time in my life creating a better eulogy resume’. In the end, it isn’t about how many toys we have at the end of life, but just what we have done to make the world and the people around us just a little bit better. I think we all hope that we have changed the world for the better. I think I have, but I’ll have to leave that up to the guy that reads my eulogy. I guess I still have some time left on this aging body and as long as I am still breathing I have an opportunity to improve that five minutes of remembrance. Maybe all of us should give a thought as we live our lives, just how we will be remembered on that day.