Please don't cremate me. I'd rather feed the worms than heat the sky. And don't embalm me, I don't want to poison them.
It’s not burning the body that pollutes the atmosphere, it’s the burning of the coffins, these days most lined with plastic and are veneer coffins. I wish people could become less squeamish about this and choose to bury or cremate the body in just a shroud. Green burials will do just that, much better idea.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I like the Tibetan custom of taking the body to a remote location and leaving it for the local wildlife to feed on. You'd be hard put to find anywhere suitable in our crowded archipelago. I recently read a novel in which a young woman pondered on the likelihood of being allowed to leave her body to the nearest zoo, to be fed to the tigers, crocodiles etc. I remember reading, years ago, about a huntsman or MFH who wanted his body fed to his beloved hounds. His executor found it couldn't be done legally, but it was permissable to cremate him and mix the ashes into their food. Poor hounds, I shouldn't think it would be very tasty.
Please don't cremate me. I'd rather feed the worms than heat the sky. And don't embalm me, I don't want to poison them.
It’s not burning the body that pollutes the atmosphere, it’s the burning of the coffins, these days most lined with plastic and are veneer coffins. I wish people could become less squeamish about this and choose to bury or cremate the body in just a shroud. Green burials will do just that, much better idea.
A cousin of mine had a natural burial with a woven wicker coffin. It looked lovely, somehow more acceptable/dignified than just a shroud, but no metal/plastic bits or preservatives. Maybe that's a good compromise.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Don’t want to go into the gory details, but when the wicker coffins bio degrade, they sink. Thus leaving a dent in the soil that needs to be repacked. We've had to make up ground like that.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
If you want to leave your body to medical science you have to make the arrangements beforehand. It’s more complicated than just putting it in your will and leaving it to your executors to arrange ... but yes, it can be done.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Don’t want to go into the gory details, but when the wicker coffins bio degrade, they sink. Thus leaving a dent in the soil that needs to be repacked. We've had to make up ground like that.
This one wasn't a formal cemetery, so I'm not sure whether sinking would matter. There was going to be a tree planted on the grave site in due course, no gravestone to subside and need resetting (I think they could have a wooden marker if they wanted, but they didn't because the deceased lady didn't want one - she knew she was going and planned it all herself). This place http://www.greenhaven.org.uk/offer.html
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
There are quite detailed instructions to comply with for leaving your body to science, tight time frames, proper storage, certain things you die of are not acceptable so even if you do it by the time you die they might not want you. Both my parents left their bodies to medical science but when dad died it was over the Xmas holiday and by the time the death certificate was sorted it was too late. With Mum she had had cancer and they didn't accept bodies with this, although she died of a stroke. Also we moved her in with us and we would have had to arrange transport to send her body to where it was donated and again it was over a holiday time so the time ran out. When I researched about leaving your body I was amazed to read you could donate just your head! They were both cremated and I kept Dad's ashes for 3 years until Mum died so I could mix them together We moved a year later and I scattered them over the borders in our new house.
Posts
That sounds good. I knew there was some potential problem about graves and water courses.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I wish people could become less squeamish about this and choose to bury or cremate the body in just a shroud.
Green burials will do just that, much better idea.
A cousin of mine had a natural burial with a woven wicker coffin. It looked lovely, somehow more acceptable/dignified than just a shroud, but no metal/plastic bits or preservatives. Maybe that's a good compromise.
We've had to make up ground like that.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
This one wasn't a formal cemetery, so I'm not sure whether sinking would matter. There was going to be a tree planted on the grave site in due course, no gravestone to subside and need resetting (I think they could have a wooden marker if they wanted, but they didn't because the deceased lady didn't want one - she knew she was going and planned it all herself). This place http://www.greenhaven.org.uk/offer.html
Both my parents left their bodies to medical science but when dad died it was over the Xmas holiday and by the time the death certificate was sorted it was too late. With Mum she had had cancer and they didn't accept bodies with this, although she died of a stroke. Also we moved her in with us and we would have had to arrange transport to send her body to where it was donated and again it was over a holiday time so the time ran out.
When I researched about leaving your body I was amazed to read you could donate just your head!
They were both cremated and I kept Dad's ashes for 3 years until Mum died so I could mix them together We moved a year later and I scattered them over the borders in our new house.