Not to sound morbid or anything, but I just can't stand the thought of being buried in one of those steal caskets, how in the world will I decompose in one of those things, so I did some research and you can be buried in a wooden casket. There are many wooden coffin makers on the web. One is www.funerals.org/famsa/caskets.htm

I found a great book at the librairy titled "Caring for the Dead",by Lisa Carlson, ( My fourteen year old got a kick out of it, because I had that book and my "Caring for the soul " book lying together on the table, Mom your really gonna take care of things arn't ya, she tells me).

This "Caring for the Dead " book covers every state and what you can and can't do.

This book informs me that in my state of Ohio, there are 1,271 funeral homes, but that the death rate here can support only about 427 funeral homes. So what does that mean, it means that they over price you on everything ,that they convince you that you need to bury your loved one.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

Answers

I don't think you're morbid at all! I saw that book mentioned inCarla Emery's book and thought it might be interesting. In what part of Ohio are you living? I'm in Ohio also. I'm in the southwest about an hour away from Cinti, almost in Brown County. What does Ohio say about embalming? Because as far as I'm concerned, they can skip that too!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

good morning Denise! We are south of Columbus, outside of Lancaster, right on the edge of the Hocking Hills.

Lisa Carlson informs us that embalming is almost never required. She says that this is the only country where the use of embalming has become widespread. Embalming is only required if there has been delayed disposition, actually refrigeration is a more reliable form of preservation. This book gives you the details and the knowlege that you need to take care of your own dead, you don;t even have to use a funeral home if you dont want to. I know (heaven forbid!) if any thing ever happened to one of my children I would not want them to be taken to one. You can be buried on your own property if you desire, as long as the burial is 150 feet away from a water supply and has two feet of dirt on top of it. Of course there are permits that must be filed by the family member that acts as funeral dirctor.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

Hey... Trendle and Denise... I was orginally from the Darke County, Ohio area.... then 20+ years ago ended up in central Wisconsin...

nice to see fellow Buckeyes!!!

agree Trendle on the casket... buried my hubby 7 years ago at a cost of over $5.000.00... hate to see the price today... and we skimped on everything...

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

I also like the idea of a wooden coffin and had no idea it was possible in Ohio. In fact, I called a funeral home and they told me it was illegal to bury a family member outside of an "official" graveyard. I wonder if the rules are statewide, countywide, or township? PS... I live in Licking County so we are almost neighbors.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

Chris Howdy neighbor, Hm you didn't happen to work at Rural Action in Athens county a few years back did ya? Well the Lady that wrote this book says not to ask funeral homes these questions, they are out to make money. Lets see on page 472 about Ohio burial she says "check with the county or town registrar for local zoning laws regarding home burial."

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Give me a shallow grave, NO casket, and a tree on top of me. I'll promise to take good care of it!

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Julie has a book about apples, with a true story in it about a person buried beneath the apple tree. The tree's roots had grown following the bones of the body (for the nutrients, I assume). Wouldn't that be a cool way to return to Mother Earth?

I wouldn't rely on any funeral home to tell you the straight story on regulations on burial. They're in the funeral business, not the information business. I do know that the cemetary in our little hometown has regulations requiring a concrete vault. I believe this is to prevent collapse of the grave -- like having a groundskeeper and his mower fall into it. I don't know if the vault has to have a concrete floor or not. I think the wooden coffin would be allowed.

I certainly wouldn't want to have a well next to a cemetary as my water source! All that embalming fluid leaching into the ground -- eventually. Even the tightest coffin in a concrete vault will eventually leak. Maybe we have yet to see the worst effects of this pollution.

Cremation is often thought of as an alternative to conventional burial, but that also pollutes the air. And funeral homes will charge a lot for them as well, in most cases.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

I hate to sound even more morbid but if it weren't for the fact it might be distasteful for my loved ones, I wouldn't mind feeding some coyotes or ??? perhaps a tree or???. They say goes around comes around and I think of all those things that fed me for all these years, it's the least I could do. After all , I'll be done with the bod.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

While we're on this cheery subject, I'd like to encourage everyone who is medically able to consider organ donation. I worked in a cardiac transplant lab for 6 years, and I've seen the miracles that can come out of tragedy. Be sure to inform your next of kin of your wishes as well as signing a donor card. Even if you have a signed donor card, the hospital will not harvest your organs if your family objects. I"ve already told my family that they are to give away all my organs, tissues, eyes, bones, and anything else usable, and if there's anything left over just cremate it. Also, please don't be afraid that you will receive substandard care if you have a donor card, that simply isn't true. I'm sure Polly can back me up on this point.

When I worked in the transplant lab we used to pass out buttons that said "Don't take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here"

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

jz, we think along the same lines. I've thought the same thing. As a matter of fact, any of the critters that have died here get buried either beneath a tree or in the flower beds, etc. Sherri, I hate to admit it but I have had that feeling in the back of my mind about being given up on to early because of donating organs. I know it probably isn't true but it just seems to be a thought I can't get rid of. I'll just have to keep thinking about it and try to keep an open mind.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Yup, I'll definately back Sherri up on her words that you do not receive substandard care if you are an organ donor. In fact, I never know if someone IS an organ donor until I have to approach the family. My family knows that they are not to have any heroic measure taken - no respirators/vents etc.. with me. When it's my time, I wanna go peaceful. I'll came back and haunt 'em if they don't!

In fact, my experience is to the opposite - we seem to carry on treatment far past any hope of resusitation, or continue on when we know there ain't a snowballs chance in hell that the patient will survive - ARDS for example.

Every time I get in a non-responsive, little old 90 year old, 90 pound nursing home resident who is a full code, I want to drag the family in and make them watch the code - see Granny lying there naked while 3 people try to jam an IV into non-existant veins, someone else trying to put in a catheter to see if there is any output to see if the kidneys have shut down, another guy trying to draw arterial blood for gases, RT bagging her 'til the ER doc can get a tube in her, then listening to the ribs break during CPR 'til we can defibrillate.........Yeah, everyone has a success story of "someone brought back from the edge of death" but for each one, I've got 20 more of someone dying ugly.

Dang. Who touched THAT nerve? Sorry for the graphic description, but please be aware that sometimes it's not even that pretty.

Sort of on the same note; When I took my daughter in to get her drivers liscense, there were about 8 other kids in there getting their's at the same time. The DMV staff was asking the kids if they wanted to be organ donors - most said no, and a couple of mothers were very vehement about the NO! When Jes said yes, one of the Moms said "Oh honey, you don't want to do that." Jes just pinned her with a look and said "You obviously don't know what you're talking about - why would I want to keep someone else from dying too?" The lady started to argue and Jes pointed over and said "Talk to that lady over there in the nurse suit - that's my Mom." She didn't seem interested in talking to me, for some reason.

As for the wooden box - no thanks. I have no desire to be in a damp, dark hole in the ground. Just cremate me and let me float away on the breeze or dump me on the compost pile!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Hey, Sherri, I worked as a program assistant (the clerical side) in the cardiopulmonary transplant program at UW Madison for about 5 years. Small world, eh?

Thanks, Polly, for the graphic description -- I think more people should be aware of what the patient (victim?) goes through!

My mother has a horror of being kept alive my extraordinary means, and has spoken with all of us to get our assurance that we won't subject her to them, and that we have the nerve to ask for the "plug to be pulled". Of course, now that she's been assured we're up to it, she's suspicious that we're TOO agreeable! ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Ooops - Sis says she said "keep someone else from living." Does make more sense that way, doesn't it!?

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Wanted to post these resources here too, for when people are searching through our archives. :-)

http://www.memorialecosystems.com/
http://www.naturaldeathcare.org/
http://www.reclaiming.org/dying/greenburial.html
http://members.aol.com/pantheism0/death.htm
http://www.hemlock.org/


-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001