General Chat

Colin, That is so funny.

I have a story of father-in-law performing a funeral. The deceased had been at home for the preceeding few days, in the parlour. Dad had been in an hour or two before to screw down the coffin lid, but when they removed it to the hearse, it had to be turned by standing it up to get it into the small hallway. The lid came off and the family had to admit they had taken the screws out because an auntie wanted to view the body.

Luckily, he didn''t actually fall out.

Elisabeth

Colin - yes I can understand your experiences, when I lived in Cornwall one of the single elderly men in the village died, as he had no family a few of the locals in the pub volunteered as bearers for his coffin including moi....Well all went okay until sidling up on the fake grass stuff either side of the grave I slipped and went head first into the hole with Rob's coffin being hung onto by the other bearers. when I emerged somewhat muddy and red faced, the vicar remarked, I was going to catch you before you went but decided against it...no point in two people getting dirty

I'm sure I heard some years ago that someone was buried in his car.Poor B****r who had to dig that one!!!!!!!!!!

Theresa, i heard of this too.

Janet x

I know that funerals are not funny but I have had some funny experiences at two of them which I can now look back on :)

The first was. there had been a dispute over where a persons ashes were to be placed. These were divided unfortunately and part put in the cemetary and the other half scattered on the water.

On the day the ashes were scattered on the water the wind suddenly blew up and covered the disputers :):) mmmm


The second time was my Great Uncle. As he was being lowered the undertakers hadnt braced themselves properly and it thumped to the bottom. Someone automatically said out aloud, " Hey thats typical of him, its his round and hes off like a rocket lol

I think I would like to have a copy of the family tree with me, so I can go and find all those who are causing me such headaches, to ask them why they changed their surname, reversed their christian names, fibbed about their age or hid from the ennumerator on census night!

Elisabeth

There is no way on earth I am going to be buried in any direction, stood up, lay down, upside down. I don't want to be a worm feast and I don't want anything else down there feasting on me. I want to be cremated. I am terribly phobic about worms!! Can't stand them, even in death. I have given my family strict instructions no burial. Those things can have my ashes but that won't be very nutritious.

I've put a lot of thought into this? :-))

Janet

Love that one Colin !!

Death is very individual & it cannot be shared.

Ben,- and Budgie,

That is all very sad but I suppose the land is all down to £sd, not memories.

Elisabeth

Yes, a lot of our deceased ancestors are now resting under Checkout No 10 in Sainsburys or the jigsaw puzzle section of Toys R Us. I dread to go in those places at night. All those ghosts lol.

Yet 100 years ago or whenever they were alive, it was just a nice churchyard in a quiet town or village or even an old London burial ground.

Ben

They could erect graves underwater with watertight coffins and bury us under the sea.

Oh dear - my grave will be just off the Needles in the Isle of Wight - as I'm ex Navy I hope that the comittal will be from a warship. Have done a few in my days and they were always very proper and respectful apart from the time we dropped the ashes in the wardroom they fell out of the urn so were hoovered up and the hoover bag committed to the deep

Hello Colin!

Budgie,

A relative of ours wanted to be cremated and the ashes spread around her beautiful roses. That was done, but in later years when her quaint cottage was bought by others, the garden was divided, so she is now under a very smart new house built on her divided garden.

Elisabeth

I spent 4 years grave digging so in truth you would have to dig the hole 6ft by 6ft square to enable you to bend in the hole to dig that deep,,,,rather a waste of time and effort.

Ray

Hi Elizabeth :):)

It certainly would be, digging for us six footers :):)

I hope you are keeping well :):)

Just think of the poor gravediggers! Digging down 6 feet is enough, but to go down another 6 feet would be amazing.

As the wife of an old undertaker's son, who spent time in churchyards with a bottle of pop to keep him hydrated in the 1960s, earning pocket money - it is a long way down!

Elisabeth

my friend's husband died on holiday in Heraklion. they don't bury people in Greece - what they do is entomb them and leave their bodies until such time as only the bones are left - then they unseal the tomb and remove the bones to be buried. In my friend's case she went back for the opening of the tomb but it was discovered he was still not just bones, so they had to seal it up again and she went back later.

http://www.grantham.karoo.net/paul/graves/labilliere.htm


This one is upside down

How about doing what I saw on the telly once.. you get buried as normal, then after a certain amount of time dug up again, your bones cleaned up and reburied in a much smaller box???