Planning your own funeral?

[Mendalla]

Pre-planning is helpful to the immediate family who are left to mourn and tend to the funeral details. It works well for someone who is certain that the pre-planning and payments will be practical at the time a funeral will occur. But if there is doubt about where one will be at the time of death, plans without payments and contracts are probably better. Elderly parents sometimes move across the country to be with a child in later life or move "back home" to their original community in later years.

Yeah, Dad lived all his adult life in K-W so having a prepaid with a local home was fairly easy to manage. Whereas someone like me who moves around (3 different cities in my 55 years) could end up leaving a prepaid plan behind somewhere. And there's a non-zero chance that London isn't going to be my final resting place, either.

 

[JayneWonders]

Resurrecting this thread, as it came up in the Euthanasia thread.

My sense is COVID has shifted a bunch of practices.
Fewer folks are having visitation or funerals.
more & more have a social gathering, and that is it....at least in my circles.

Thoughts?

What preparations have you done?
We finally got our wills, executors, and powers* done.
I bought a book "when i'm gone", but, havent' done it. need to.

 

[JayneWonders]

@paradox3 , @Northwind -- just thought we could bring the convo here.

 

[GordW]

My sense is COVID has shifted a bunch of practices.
Fewer folks are having visitation or funerals.
more & more have a social gathering, and that is it....at least in my circles.

Thoughts?

Probably varies with location across the country. However that shift was well under way before 2020. The forced delays in gatherings in 2020-21 may have helped accelerate the shift.

 

[paradox3]

I attended a delayed gathering which took place about a year and a half after the gentleman died. It was surprisingly meaningful but it seemed to be very difficult for the family.

They had a private graveside service at the time of his death.

 

[jimkenney12]

I had planned my funeral over 20 years ago and revised it once or twice. I do not know where it is so am thinking about making a new funeral plan.

Families are getting more dispersed making gatherings more difficult. Often the church originally wanted is no longer open. My mother in law's celebration was in the hall leased by a club to which she belonged. Using a place other than a church gives the family space to choose the presider. Quite a few people do not want a service which makes it difficult for friends in their grieving process. Sometimes the spouse or person with responsibility does not want a celebration of life. So, yes, fewer and simpler gatherings.

 

[Delightful Life]

I wonder if the dispersal of families is going to change here since it looks like, to help SAVE ALL OF HUMANITY, we will be making 15-minute cities?

 

[jimkenney12]

Making new developments walkable communities with all the basic services makes sense. 15 minute cities sounds like s techie fantasy.

 

[Luce NDs]

In the eternal aye ... do mortal cities pass in a flash?