No Tombstone

I hate funerals. Not just because I hate losing people I love, but I absolutely cannot stand the rituals we have surrounding death.

Viewing the body-talk about morbid and sad. The body is just an empty cold box that once held someone indescribably beautiful, creative, complex, beloved. That entity is gone and we put make up on what’s left and dress it up like a Barbie doll, and then stand around and talk about how real they look. Very strange custom indeed.

Another bizarre tradition is burying the decaying body in a $20000 box- we worry if the box should be white or cherry and how many pillows should be included. We fret over burying in the ground or in stone, and what amazing things should be written on the tombstone.

Church dinners-ok not gonna lie this is necessary. Gathering with live people who knew the deceased is important in the grief process. And the food is incredible.

When I die I will be immediately incinerated in the cheapest way possible. My ashes will be spread in my favorite places. There will be no monument or tombstone, I don’t want anyone going to a place expecting me to be there.

“In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24:5‬ ‭

I hope by the time I die I will have lived a life worthy of the tears of anyone I may have been privileged enough to know and serve. I hope there will be laughter in the sorrow as my many eccentricities are recalled. I hope I am missed and not immediately forgotten. But I will not be here. I will be too busy hugging my dad, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my brother in law, my beloved dogs, and anyone else that has gone before me. I will be laughing and sitting at a banquet table with WINE and fabulous food celebrating Christ’s conquering death and sorrow. I will be free. And I will be waiting to hug you when you meet me on the other side.