It's Been a Year

12 November 2017

Grumpy, Auntie M, and I made our way down to South Georgia yesterday to take Grammy's ashes to her final resting place . . .

Funny thing about death . . . there's really not much "planning" involved. About the only way you can plan ahead is to make your wishes known about what should happen after the eventuality of your death: choosing between burial, cremation, or donating your body for scientific study.

I read a book years ago: Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral. Yeah, I know, how can a funeral be "traveling" . . . much less "fabulous?" Well, Annie Freeman was determined to make hers both! Here's a synopsis of that story:

I actually thought about donating my body to science, and there are several places that take bodies. One of those places happens to be The Body Farm on the UT campus in Knoxville where they study decomposition to help doctors, scientists, and criminologists in their line of work. Turns out, that thought didn't last long at all . . . who wants to sit out in the elements while people come poke and prod you?!?!?

Since I started my education in pre-med, I even thought about donating it to a medical school so medical students could study the intricacies of what makes a human body work. But as I listened to medical students discuss their studies, I decided I couldn't lay on a cold table while they poked and prodded either. Besides, I don't have any unusual diseases that might be of interest!

That left cremation because the thought of being buried just seems so morbid. After all, once your soul leaves your body, what's left? It's just a vessel . . . an imperfect shell. I believe I'm going to Heaven, and the Bible promises a new body, free from pain and suffering; you'll find that passage in 2 Corinthians.

I also know I want my ashes spread in two separate places . . . Annie chose more than that, and her friends honored her request. Part of me belongs in Santa Fe, NM . . . a place I've always wanted to live. I figure if I never get to actually live there, at least I'll wind up there. The other part of my belongs in Spain . . . the Mediterranean coast . . . where some of my happiest childhood memories were built . . . another place I'd love to live again.

I hope that my girls will honor that request, but once I'm gone, I suppose it doesn't really matter, does it?

So that brings us back to how we decided where Grammy should go. She chose cremation, but she never gave us any instruction on what to do with her once that was completed. After a very lengthy discussion, the only place that Grumpy felt was going to be right was to take her back to the one place she loved the most . . . and she loved going to school . . . in her childhood home . . . in South Georgia.

At first we were a little dumbstruck about how to accomplish this since doing ANYTHING on school grounds requires permission from someone of importance! My cousin Karl advised against it . . . cameras now record everything . . . we could be arrested for trespassing!!

Happenstance changed it all . . . seems the original location of the school (the school had been torn down years before and a football stadium was built) was turned into a public park earlier this year. I guess it's a good thing it took us so long to make the trek . . . timing is everything. We all thought that would have made her happy . . . to know that she was "home."

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.^[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. ⁵ God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. ⁷ For we live by believing and not by seeing. ⁸ Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. ⁹ So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. ¹⁰ For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.