A son made it from Texas GOOD MORNING!!! to you all! Yup, the boy drove 18 hours yesterday to get from Abilene to Corona CA. One speeding ticket in New Mexico for his troubles. Gave the “My Grandfather is Dying” excuse and got it down from $82 to $75. Not too bad!
What Would You Do Wednesday Ed-vise today. Cause it’s WEDNESDAY! And I do love WEDNESDAYS!
Name something that should be easy that isn’t easy. I’ll go first: setting up for final disposition of the dead loved one.
Seriously.
One of those things that is NOT taught in school. And probably won’t. Can you imagine the trauma that such a class would cause? Like if it was taught to first graders. OK KIDS! Imagine your favorite puppy has just died. What would you do? But I digress
Back in the day, before regulations and such, when a loved one passed, they were put into a pine box with some lime (not the fruit). Put into a 6 foot hole and that was that. Native Americans had burial grounds they would take their loved ones. Build a little platform and lay them down. Other cultures would set up a pyre and burn it. Great big cremation. India burns them and throws them in the Ganges River. A morbid fact: some families don’t have enough money to buy enough would to completely burn the body to ashes.
Anyway…
Now, there are places for the remains to be buried and getting the backyard declared a gravesite is not as easy as T-Rump made it seem when he buried his ex on his golf course.
So, now days, if your loved one passes away at home, you have to, basically, “Phone a Friend.” That “friend” is hospice.
Before that, hospice will ask you what you want to do with the body. In our case, we wanted to donate the body for research purposes and then do a cremation.
Hospice does NOT set that up. Learned that the hard way. Apparently there is a detailed process of application and screening to have any body donated to science.
Something else we learned down here in So. Cal: there is a backlog of funeral/ memorial type service providers. It will take at least two weeks from time of passing to memorial service time.
Want a flag for being a veteran? You have to apply for one. However, you cannot complete the application UNTIL you have a death certificate.
And here’s the last little nugget for today to mull over: Doctor’s don’t readily sign off on death certificates. MANY times it can end up being a while before they do it AND, they might not in some circumstances. But that is a later conversation.
So, some Ed-vise for you: get with an estate planning attorney to help you in these matters. The more I learn about this stuff the more value I see in getting with them to plan for your future AND to get the family across the finish line entirely.
I’m just saying
That’s it for today. Take care of yourselves. Check in on each other and remember the Dalai Lama is a big time gambler. He loves…TI-BET! HAHAHAHAHAHA…GET IT?! TIBET?!
Peace
Ed-vise 