Poll: Have you made your own funeral arrangements?

[Nelson Bradford]

We have - we've also bought/paid for our caskets/funerals/etc plus our cemetery lots are paid in full, with opening and closing costs and our headstones are already in place...waiting for the "departure" date.

:)

[Paula Karr]

We've made quite a few decisions (cremation, cemetery site, etc.), but haven't done any formal stuff or paid for anything yet. The older we get, the more often we have the "we need to" conversation. As we lose more and more friends and family members, we just know that we want to spare our loved ones the stress of having to do these things.

[Glenda Harvey]

We've gotten as far as talking about it.

[Hal Paul]

The survey questions don't address my issues. I haven't made plans because they are essentially made through a funeral home and cemetary. I am only 43, I have been transient my entire life and have never lived anyplace where I expected to be longer than three or four years. I also have no idea where I expect to end up living when I finally do stop moving, so planning for a funeral at this time doesen't make sense from a logistical and financial standpoint.

[Ryan Scott]

I've told my wife to borrow a really nice casket from the funeral home (leave it empty for a closed casket ceremony) and dispose of my body in the least expensive way possible (my suggestion was illegally dumping it in the woods). However, I'm not sure those wishes will be carried out.

[Jim Franklin]

Mine are with a Funeral Insurance policy called Forethought with the service arrangements to be under the direction of my sister so that Esther won't have to bother with it.

[Alisa Stoll]

Mine is a no but not because I can't stand the thought. We're just lazy and only in our late 40's. Course we haven't even bothered with a will yet.

Alisa

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

We have bought our grave plots but have not made arrangements.
Dwayne's dad will be 90 the 9th of May. He said that he is not going to need his, since he is going to be raptured so he will leave his (a Mausaleum-sp) for us. I said sort of loudly-"Do you realize wht you are saying? He laughed. He meant the other family members, also, not just me and Dwayne.
Hid mother picked out apurple suit to be buried in a few years ago, but I think she has decided on something else now, because she gave tht suit away. She is 92.

[Dave McClung]

The survey questions don't address my issues. I haven't made plans because they are essentially made through a funeral home and cemetary. I am only 43, I have been transient my entire life and have never lived anyplace where I expected to be longer than three or four years. I also have no idea where I expect to end up living when I finally do stop moving, so planning for a funeral at this time doesen't make sense from a logistical and financial standpoint.

I am with you Hal. I am considerably older than you, but with our history of moving around it doesn't seem appropriate to plan on being in any particular place when I die.

[Dennis M. Scott]

We have not formalized our plans, but are fairly certain about some of the details, and communicated them to some family members. Our intention is to have a family meeting at which we'll express how we now feel. I have communicated to family that I want to be put in a cardboard box, cremated, and my ashes used as landfill behind the family camp at the lake. It appears that I will be over-ruled.

Recently upon the death of a pastor's spouse who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer for several months, the family surprised their pastor. When she finally died, they had discussed nothing about funeral or burial arrangements. Although they had spent most of their ministry in the area, eight hours after she died, they asked their pastor, "Do you know what funeral director we should use?"

There is a philosophy that says it is a good thing for surviving family members to work together to make these arrangements. I have never been convinced that working through them prior to the occasion is any less helpful. In most cases, families that work together while mom and dad are able to participate seem to come through better. It's also somewhat rare.