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The Forum > Article Comments > Death, dying, and disposal > Comments

Death, dying, and disposal : Comments

By Zenith Virago, published 10/2/2009

When it comes to death, do something creative and beneficial for your friends and family, open up a dialogue and plan your own funeral.

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Really glad to read what you are doing and hoping that the options will become more mainstream, especially of having more environmentally sustainable options, like a cardboard box and a shroud.
On the ABC's New Inventions, a man had produced a re-useable coffin which had a lever to drop the shrouded body into the ground.
I was fortunate to be holding my Grandad's hand as he died and it was a beautiful release for him and gave me a healthy acceptance of dying.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by jewels63, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 10:06:42 AM
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Zenith there should be more people like you who understand the dying processes, we live to die.
I am not so sure though on your comment of your spirit,I must include soul as well, this to me is of a religious nature, to my thinking we will be as we were before we came, that is, remembering nothing or missing nobody, your brain no longer functions.
Most people seem to think that as with a little child who has died that they have gone to some heaven, I presume it does help the grieving parents, but the child has nothing to remember that they once lived, misses neither parents or anyone else.
When I die, end of story, I am lucky to have lived, but that is it, my next step will be to either rot or burn, but going somewhere else as a spirit or sould is not what I believe. I am dead never to return or be somewhere else in some other form.
Posted by Ojnab, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 1:43:53 PM
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What wonderful and important work you do.

This subject is soooo taboo in Western culture.

My family and I were fortunate to experience a different way when my father died unexpectedly in Thailand. He was working there for a big mining company.

My mother was adamant she was not going on any plane with her husband's body in a box in the hold, he'd have to be cremated in Thailand.

Thailand is a buddhist country and he had a buddhist ceremony. It lasted 5, yes 5, days.

We were devastated by my father's death and quite rudderless. So the workers union at the mine asked if they could have the honour of arranging the funeral. We said yes, not quite knowing what we let ourselves in for.

Each afternoon and evening there was an enormous gathering of people with food and services in the temple. There was even a Christian minister presiding over the service one evening as this was very important to one of my brothers. The same solemnity and respect was accorded during this Christian service in the temple as were for the buddhist ceremonies with the monks. It was humbling.

I spoke with just about everybody, many, many people I'd never met before, about my father and their experiences and memories of him.

We cried and cried and laughed and remembered. For 5 days. All the while my father's coffin was there surrounded by flowers.

On the last night, my sister and I had the serious discussion with my father's secretary interpreting, with the wifes of the workers what my father's favourite foods were. These would be prepared especially for the monks who would tend the fire in the crematorium. Just our immediate family went with my father up the steps and saw his coffin go into the fire as we said our last goodbyes.

The next day we scattered his ashes and we saw the beautiful curtains that were donated to the temple on his behalf.

It was incredibly healing.
Posted by Anansi, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 5:43:40 PM
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Disposal.

Low temperature cremation is cheaper than high temperature and 15 Kg of carbon and the bones remain.
Put the bones in an urn for the relatives and use the carbon(charcoal ,biochar) to recondition soil.It retains water for any plants and does not decompose to CO2 for 100,000 years.
Cheaper disposal and carbon dioxide not put into the air.
Biochar can be sold to help make the crematorium profitable.
Wood can be added to increase the amount of biochar.
Safer than CO2 gas pumped under the ground.

We owe it to the future.
Posted by undidly, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 8:21:46 PM
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"Daft, I call it!" as Oor Ernie's Dad used to say. I've asked my family to dig a convenient hole and drop me in, if there's scope to plant a tree, so much the better. No fuss, thank you, it's just the inevitable culmination of life.
Posted by Faustino, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 12:09:09 PM
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