Hw - 55 Culminating Project - Care of The Dead

Interview with my Mother on what her Death Plans are:
1. Where do you want to be buried and why?
I want to be cremated instead of the traditional burial because my perspective of a traditional burial is that spending large amounts of money to send off a dead body to buried six feet deep into the Earth seems like a waste of money. Cremation is a easier and presumptively a cheaper method of burial that does not cost as much and I suffer from claustrophobia, so being cremated eliminates my fear.

2. What opposition do you find with traditional burial's that other may find useful?
I wouldn't say I have much opposition to a traditional method of burial, but I'm not interested in embalming where they fill my body with formaldehyde only later to finally leak out my casket if I were to be buried in the ground.

3. What type's of methods has your family typically used for a form of burial?
My family is very traditional, and care of The Dead typically dealt by having wakes, going to an open casket, having the bodied embalmed, and then later buried. At points like these, I think the embalming method is useful because it preserves the body to be more of a visible sight, but when it has to be buried, I would prefer the body to be released of any chemicals that will preserve the body from naturally decaying.

4. Last question, Where do you think and how do you think Dad would like to buried?
You know...that's a good question and I think he's a traditional guy, he probably would not like to be embalmed, but he would like to buried and have ceremonies before he is put into Earth.

Interview with Dad on what his Death Plans are:
1. Where do you want to be buried and why?
I would like to be buried, but not embalmed before. So almost a natural birth. I prefer to be buried in the ground where I decay into the ground instead of other alternative methods such as cremations.

2. What opposition do you find with traditional burial's that other's may find useful?
I don't have any type of opposition towards traditional burial's, but embalming is a type of method that I would not like to be done on me.

3.Where do you think and how do you think Mom would like to be buried?
She would like to be cremated but I am going to bury her if she does not like or not! I want her to be buried right next to me in a cemetery either somewhere in New York or in Georgia. I'm opposed to cremations because I feel like there wouldn't be complete closure if my Wife was in urn and then I would end up being buried six feet deep in the Earth. So there is an separation between us that I would not be comfortable with.

To begin with, I feel like both these interviews with my Parents of what their plans are for being buried was necessary and was not as difficult and a little bit comedic than what I thought it was going to be. I feel it was like this, and I expected something different because it was I who was not comfortable with the topic because I'm uncomfortable with the topic of burying my parents. What I realized though is that both my parents come from the same religious background but both have entirely different plans of burial which interesting because before this unit, I always thought that whatever religion you followed, typically you follow the traditional burial that follows. But from this interview, I can see that even though people may come from the same religious background, the perspective of burial is different for everyone and it really depends on what the individual feels. Furthermore, this interesting thing to know looking through the lens of care of The Dead industry where funeral directors have to attend to everyones personal reactions to forms of burial and that there is no one "ideal" burial for a mass of people. Which is an interesting thought, what would be the ideal burial that everyone would prefer?