Tuesday, May 05, 2009

My Funeral

My Funeral on the Internet
Too often, in my opinion, I have seen funerals that reflect some of the survivors well and not the deceased at all. Often, in my opinion, the personality of a funeral seems to be controlled and set by beliefs of the most religious of the deceased person's relatives and not by the personality of the loved one who has died.
When my first wife died she was religious. So, I had her funeral in a church that worshiped the way she did. I tried very hard to honor and respect her memory that way. People said to me that the service reflected her very well. I made it religious because she was religious. It was an honor to do that. I wanted her funeral to reflect her. Such was not the case in some other funerals I have been to.
I think a typical scenario may be: somebody dies and the family is so devastated they turn to the most religious person in the family who then contacts someone in their church who doesn't know the loved one well or at all. That's who puts together the memorial, a stranger. So, it may end up with an agnostic or even atheist person having a funeral that may be very religious, not reflecting the deceased at all.
In Six Feet Under they had what they referred to as a preneed. That is where a dying person plans his or her own funeral. Hey folks, if you haven't figured it out yet, we are all terminal.
I am saying this for those I will leave behind
This blog is where I am going to express my wishes. This is my preneed. If you look to the side bar on the left you will see a new category. It is called "My Funeral." I am not going to be secretive or morbid about it, but we are mortal. So, I am putting it on the Internet. This is what I want!

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