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    Bear BrianJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:31pm

    Visit your loved ones after they’re gone. Only a few members of my family, including myself, visit my grandparents several times a year, to bring them flowers and make sure their site is well-tended. None of my cousins visit, and I kind of judge them for it. My grandparents were very kind and amazing to us all, so the least we can do is show up a few times a year, bring flowers and prune the area around their headstone.

    But yeah, visit regularly and be the squeaky wheel if something seems amiss. Too many cemeteries probably count on the idea that you bury your relatives and never come back.

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      darleeeeeene aka deraaiilleeeeeeneBear Brian
      4/11/16 12:38pm

      I think that’s a real divide between religious/atheist people. I used to visit my friend’s grave, but I really didn’t know what to do with myself, I mean...she was already gone. The only thing I could think of was maybe leaving flowers so her mom knew I didn’t forget her?

      Sickness/death and dying is all really hard to navigate without religion...

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      GrumpyEagleBear Brian
      4/11/16 12:43pm

      When driving around Germany and Austria a few years ago, we noticed that there was always a steady stream of people going in and out of the cemeteries with flowers, garden tools, etc. They were full of beautiful plantings, and it seemed to be a social kind of place. If you go to an American cemetery, though, you'll get a lot of odd looks. It's a shame, because the place where my father is buried is really beautifully landscaped with ponds and trees (although the management gets testy about doing too much planting on the plots). Even my grandfather's plot at the Veteran's Cemetery is in a lovely lawn area that overlooks the local ballpark and has a nice view of the city. But when I've visited, I've been the only one there.

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    courtJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:25pm

    OK, I am going to be cremated, and I find it rather ghoulish, letting dead bodies rot in the ground. But, stealing bodies from Arlington National Cemetery? Oh, fuck no. That’s sacred ground.

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      JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes herecourt
      4/11/16 12:32pm

      Counterpoint: The Mushroom Death Suit seems like a great idea as well as the name of my new band. I would definitely consider this. (hopefully not for a loooooong time tho)

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      darleeeeeene aka deraaiilleeeeeenecourt
      4/11/16 12:33pm

      all cemeteries are sacred ground tho, no?

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    Ginger Is A ConstructJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:31pm

    I don’t entirely understand how this could be pulled off. I see a lot of funerals (not to be all Wednesday Adams, there’s an old cemetery near my house, it’s great for jogging) and it appears in each of them that a coffin is being lowered into a specific plot. I’m not trying to go into the shady undertaker business, but how exactly would one be able to be not burying bodies if people are watching it happen?

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      AnnieBodyGinger Is A Construct
      4/11/16 12:32pm

      Also how the hell would you bury 200 bodies on a neighboring plot of land you didn’t own and just nobody noticed?! Nobody noticed the disturbed ground. The digging (I imagine machines were used)! That also seems weird to me.

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      darleeeeeene aka deraaiilleeeeeeneAnnieBody
      4/11/16 12:34pm

      prob one at a time over years and years

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    LuaJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:31pm

    The idea of rotting in the ground after I die has never sat well with me. I’m not particularly sentimental or religious but I’ve always had an opinion on this for whatever reason. I’d love to be cremated and buried underneath a Sequoia and live forever as part of the tree.

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      AnnieBodyLua
      4/11/16 12:34pm

      Tree pods!

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      darleeeeeene aka deraaiilleeeeeeneLua
      4/11/16 12:36pm

      I feel the same way. Plus, it may be victorian, but there have been enough cases of people being buried alive that I would rather be ash. thanks.

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    mazzieDJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:45pm

    I think people take it for granted that we will always have land to bury them or their loved ones. In parts of Europe, where there is much less available land, they’ve been dealing with this for much longer. I think in Germany, your family has to continuously pay rent on your burial spot, and once they don’t pay, they take you out and I don’t know, cremate your remains or something. It’s a type of space usage we don’t think about often. Also, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you buy a burial plot now for the older folks in your family. We got three a couple years ago for my (then) remaining grandparents and it saved us literally thousands of dollars when my grandmother died.

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      CarlySparklesmazzieD
      4/11/16 1:12pm

      i was thinking about this the other day since there’s like 4 different churches/cemeteries near my house. what are they going to do when they run out of room? what will we do when we develop all of the land and there’s none left for cemeteries? obviously this won’t affect me in my lifetime, but it’s still definitely something that needs to be given some thought.

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      Talking HeadmazzieD
      4/11/16 1:12pm

      Or in New Orleans, where if you bury someone there's a good chance you'll see them again the next time it rains particularly hard.

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    randilynisFINDILYNJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:30pm

    Even the dead want out of Florida, Texas and Tennessee.

    “Cemetery regulation is almost uniformly awful, where it exists at all,”

    But this is true. Abuses are legendary. Taking advantage of the bereaved and showing such callus disregard for their loved ones is shameful.

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      bonnismournedinterruptedorgasmrandilynisFINDILYN
      4/11/16 12:46pm

      plus, expensive af

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      randilynisFINDILYNbonnismournedinterruptedorgasm
      4/11/16 1:19pm

      Very true.

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    KatMarloweJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:39pm

    When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes blown in the face of my greatest nemesis.

    Who, as we all know, is Thelma Hopkins.

    She knows why.

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      wafflesfriendsworkKatMarlowe
      4/11/16 12:57pm
      GIF
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      flatwhiteKatMarlowe
      4/11/16 1:26pm

      I feel like there are so many wasted opportunities when it comes to scattering ashes. Why go for a boring old boat or in a field when you can force people to obey your final whim? My goal has always been to insist that my sister scatter mine on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. She is horribly out of shape, hates traveling, and is a total homebody. She would hate every minute of it.

      * I came up with this idea because I was on a boat in Antarctica with a group of people who were scattering their friend’s ashes. And I thought that was equally awesome and terrible. Awesome because it forced them to have a singularly amazing experience that was far out of their comfort zones, but awful because it forced several of them to go into debt to do it.

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    SprocheteJoanna Rothkopf
    4/11/16 12:26pm

    Ok, really. How hard is it to do your damned job? If your cemetary’s not making ends meet, the answer is to get help, sell out or close the business, not cram people into common, unmarked graves.

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      TheBurnersMyDestinationJoanna Rothkopf
      4/11/16 12:25pm

      Did we miss the Rapture? Quick, someone try to get a hold of Kirk Cameron!

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        Octopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.TheBurnersMyDestination
        4/11/16 12:35pm

        No one has ever, EVER, wanted to get ahold of Kirk Cameron including but not limited to Jesus/God.

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        TheBurnersMyDestinationOctopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.
        4/11/16 12:36pm

        Man, I was hoping we were going to get rid of him. Seven years of plagues and Horsemen seems like a fair trade. (Why, yes, I am reading the Slacktivist’s Left Behind review, how did you know?)

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      ThisIsAnExParrotJoanna Rothkopf
      4/11/16 12:25pm

      When I read the headline I wanted to say ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE I’ve been waiting for this my whole life!!

      Except this is awful.

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        Octopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.ThisIsAnExParrot
        4/11/16 12:33pm

        I was thinking of an army of Frankenstein’s monsters!

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