Semi-private, um, graves

[Keith&Co.]

My sister in law is in a hospice. And not doing well. My wife has started looking into the options for...upcoming events.

The person shd talked to mentioned the option of semi-private graves.
Up to three people in one plot.

I don't know why, maybe it's reflexive staving off the idea of death, but this struck me as the funniest thing i ever heard of.

My first thought was of the salesman, telling people "There's still time to get in on the ground floor!" But it's a lie, of course. They're all the ground floor.

And we used to sleep in three-high stacks in berthing. I don't want to spend eternity banging on the ceiling because the guy above me snores.

And if the zombie uprising occurs? What if the bottom corpse rises, but the two above him don't?
In the Navy we used to get people out of the way by shouting "Make a hole!" But Dad's phrase was "One side or a leg off!" And depending on the state of decay...

Which left me with an image of two zombies reassembling each other becsuse the bottom guy was in a hurry...


Five miles of this. She brought it up at the post office, i could not stop laughing until we got to the book store. The whole time, her muttering, "Why do i talk to you?"

 

[Jayjay]

My sister in law is in a hospice. And not doing well. My wife has started looking into the options for...upcoming events.

The person shd talked to mentioned the option of semi-private graves.
Up to three people in one plot.

I don't know why, maybe it's reflexive staving off the idea of death, but this struck me as the funniest thing i ever heard of.

My first thought was of the salesman, telling people "There's still time to get in on the ground floor!" But it's a lie, of course. They're all the ground floor.

And we used to sleep in three-high stacks in berthing. I don't want to spend eternity banging on the ceiling because the guy above me snores.

And if the zombie uprising occurs? What if the bottom corpse rises, but the two above him don't?
In the Navy we used to get people out of the way by shouting "Make a hole!" But Dad's phrase was "One side or a leg off!" And depending on the state of decay...

Which left me with an image of two zombies reassembling each other becsuse the bottom guy was in a hurry...


Five miles of this. She brought it up at the post office, i could not stop laughing until we got to the book store. The whole time, her muttering, "Why do i talk to you?"

My first thought is, what do the gravestones look like?

"Here lies Keith, beloved husband and father, and also his plumber Joe, and some guy called Todd. Or maybe Tony, his handwriting isn't so clear."

 

[bilby]

Meh. Don't worry about it.

It's only a grave concern.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

My in-laws are in a semi-private "grave". A headstone with 5 spaces on it, 5 vaults for ashes. In that cemetery it's very common to have at least two in a "grave".

Uncremated bodies, though--sounds like a recipe for zombie sex!

 

[bilby]

The English tradition for burials was to work clockwise around the churchyard, digging new graves as required. By the time they had gone full-circle, a couple of centuries would have passed, and nobody would remember the people whose graves were being disturbed in order to make room for fresh ones.

Of course, in times of mass dying due to plagues, there was a real possibility that fresh graves would be dug through the graves of people who had died within living memory - which is the subtext to Hamlet's "Alas, poor Yorick; I knew him, Horatio" - they were living in a time of plague, and so were uncovering the skeletons of people they had known personally.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I think the whole thing is great, but for a different reason: if there's ever a time you need a laugh...
When my mom died, I had the sit-down at the funeral chapel to pick the casket. They have a time-tested sales strategy. They quote the cheapest model and the most expensive model, figuring that you will go for the middle. This lady had a power point display of the various models, and as she started, she said that the lowest price was $400, for what she called "the cloth box." There was no image for that one. She went on through the wood and metal models -- I think some had free wifi inside. But my mind was on that cloth box. I had to see the cloth box. So I waited for a pause in her spiel and told her I wanted to see a picture of the cloth box. She told me she had never sold one, and didn't know if she had an image, but she pulled out a master catalog and thumbed through it until she found it. It was a rectangular solid made of canvas with (I'm guessing) metal support wires to hold its shape. It looked like what you might use to pack your tent and fishing gear, if you were going camping. I couldn't imagine what the cloth box would look like when the fill dirt was being plowed on top of it, but I had a sudden giddy need to laugh uproariously. I didn't, because of the circumstances, but I did later, in the car. The cloth box!! If you're ever doing the shopping for caskets, ask about the cloth box, or at least ask what the cheapest model looks like.
In the end, I went for the middle price.

 

[ZiprHead]

After my FiL passed, he had a spare cemetery plot left in his estate. it was decided it would be shared between my wife and I and her brother. he's somewhat narcissistic and will probably never get married and the rules allow up to three in each plot in the cemetery.

 

[bilby]

Isn't a shared grave a communist plot?

 

[Elixir]

My wife has (had - one died) four brothers. Her dad died long ago but her mother (a witch if I ever met one - even her kids didn't like her) was hanging on... She had lived for years on the ocean in a house by an inlet near Cape May NJ. So while my wife and i and her four brothers were gathered one time, discussion turned to what to do when she died, which all but one of us was hoping would be soon. The eldest piped up "she wants to be cremated'. So then it was what to do with her ashes. Options were discussed, there was a long pause. One of the brothers spoke up "we should take her out to the end of the jetty and throw her in the inlet." There was a round murmur of assent, good idea, seems appropriate... A prolonged silence ensued.
"And then we should have her cremated." I offered.