Category Archives: Funerals

Can you listen to music after you’re dead?

If a deceased loved one was a music lover and you’d like to treat that person to an eternity of music (and we don’t mean from heavenly harps), now you supposedly can.

A company in Sweden, Pause, just released a new product called the CataCoffin and its CataCombo Sound System. It’s a $30,000 coffin that delivers “godlike comfort and heavenly sound”. The luxurious coffin includes “a revolutionary customized sound system for audiophiles on the other side”. You can customize playlists and let the music play for as long as you want.

How do you do this? A special tombstone above ground displays the playlists that can be customized by the deceased’s loved ones.

The commercial promoting the CataCoffin is a little eerie but you can judge for yourself. It will give you a good idea about the quality of the coffin and how the sound system works.

Pause company CEO, Fredrik Hjelmquist, owns the first manufactured model and says customers should feel free to add track to his playlist “Pause-4-ever”. If you’re in Stockholm, he invites you to head down to the Pause store at Norrlandsgatan 14 to see it for yourself.

Is this a real product? Supposedly it is.

For more information about coffins and other topics related to planning a funeral, go to www.diesmart.com.

Is planning your own funeral a good idea?

You may not know when you’re going to die, but you know for sure it will happen.

A little advance planning of your own funeral — or that of a loved one — can make that traumatic time when you die a little easier on your loved ones.

Pre-planning funerals is getting more common as many people prefer to decide on the details of the last celebration of their life themselves. If you decide to do this, talk to your parent or spouse or other family and friends about your funeral wishes at an appropriate time, probably not during an argument or over a holiday dinner. Tell your adult children what you’re thinking about.

Here are some things to consider:

1. Are you thinking about a standard viewing and funeral?
2. Do you have a cemetery plot?
3. Would you prefer cremation?
4. Do you have enough money to pay for big event?
5. Do you want your death notice to read like a biography or will you be satisfied with a published statement of your dates of birth and death?
6. Do you want a video or slide show to be shown during visitation hours? Or do you want a photo board to help mourners remember earlier times?
7. Do you want masses of flowers or would prefer that money be donated to a charity instead?
8. Is there something special you want at your funeral – like your grand piano or motorcycle?

All of the above comes at a cost. A funeral varies depending on the services provided. Cremations generally cost about $4,000. A burial the day after a viewing can be as much as $10,000. The cost of cemetery plots today begins at about $900, but can be several thousand dollars in a major metropolitan area. And you can spend $8,000 or more on a casket.

If you decide on cremation, your ashes can be placed in an urn and then in a mausoleum, or stored or disposed of however you wish.

Whatever you decide to do, if you preplan and let your loved ones know your wishes, you know that your last celebration of life will be the way you want it to be.

For more information about funeral planning, go to www.diesmart.com.

Green funerals – Make your last act a “green” one.

Just as people have become more environmentally conscious and have focused on living “green”, many are thinking about a last green act – a green funeral. This is one where the end-of-life ritual does as little harm to the environment as possible.

It can include such simple things as reducing carbon emissions by carpooling to the funeral, encouraging charitable donations instead of cut flowers and selecting a funeral home that has energy efficient methods, recycles and is energy conscious.

Burial can be in a traditional or a green cemetery. If you choose to have a greener burial in a conventional cemetery, you can do so by opting to use a shroud and a simple, biodegradable casket. An eco-friendly casket is usually made of bamboo, sea grass or willow. It can also be made of heavy cardboard or a soft wood such as pine.

May conventional cemeteries require either a vault or a grave liner but there are some conventional cemeteries that are beginning to allow vault-less burial. A compromise is the liner with no bottom, which allows the body or casket to rest directly in the earth.

In a green cemetery, trees or shrubbery is often planted in place of headstones or other traditional markers. This creates a living memorial instead of a “dead” one. A green cemetery is basically a nature preserve that has trails to walk through. There used to be very few of these green cemeteries but the number is growing.

If burial is in a conventional cemetery, choose the smallest headstone allowed and try to find a monument builder who uses indigenous stone to reduce the carbon footprint of production and transportation.

Full body sea burial can also be made greener by not embalming it but merely wrapping the body in a shroud.

If you prefer cremation, there are biodegradable urns that can be used for ground or water burial. They are often made from sustainable, recyclable materials such as Himalayan rock salt and handmade paper. These urns degrade in a matter of days once they are placed in the earth or the sea.

For more information about green funerals, there’s a video from KQED that might be of interest.  You can also check out the information from the Green Burial Council.

Have you planned your funeral in advance so your wishes can be followed?

Some famous people have had unusual wishes but, because others knew what they wanted, they were carried out.

Hunter S. Thompson, an American journalist who died in 2005, wanted to be cremated and then shot out of a canon. A 150 foot high canon was constructed and his ashes were blasted out of it while friends sipped bourbon and watched.

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, died in 1991. He requested that his ashes be placed on a shuttle and sent into space. Some of his ashes circled the earth 160 times on the shuttle Columbia in 1992. Earlier this year his wife Majel died and plans were made to send her ashes into space along with more of his.

Liberace was very flamboyant in life and was the same when he died in 1987. Per his request, he was buried in a gold coffin, wearing wig, a white tuxedo and full makeup.

What you want to happen to your body after you die and the kind of rites you want may be very important to you. If they are, make sure you document them and discuss them with close family members. Your wishes may not be as bizarre as Hunter Thompson’s, Gene Roddenberry’s or Liberace’s but, whatever they are, they need to be clarified before you die or you may not have the send off you want.

For more information about planning a funeral, go to www.diesmart.com.

How about a QR barcode for a love one’s tombstone?

Traditionally, the deceased have been buried in a grave which is marked by a lifeless granite tombstone. The tombstone conveys just basic information – the name of the person and his or her years of life. Sometimes it also includes a short phrase about the person, such as “beloved parent” or “lived life to the fullest”.

If you’ve ever walked around a cemetery, you’ve probably looked at many of these stones and may have wished that you could know more about the people buried beneath them.

Now there is technology that will enable you to learn more. A QR barcode sticker can be affixed to an individual’s tombstone. Then the family of the deceased can link the code to an electronic obituary of the person, a biography, a video or images and much more. Finally, if you have a smartphone with internet access, you can walk by this stone, scan the barcode and view the online tribute to the person.

Some companies, like Digital Legacys, a Pennsylvania company, sell the QR barcode sticker and the online tribute link for $99.99 per year or $149.99 for a lifetime subscription to the service.

Living Headstones®, Seattle, Washington, is a monument company. Thru them, you can buy a headstone that has an embedded QR barcode and a code link to their memorial site for $75. However, if you already have a tombstone, you can purchase a QR barcode and a link to their memorial site for $150.

These QR barcodes can also be attached to memorial benches, plaques or even trees in a memorial garden.

With a QR barcode, a deceased’s legacy can live on. Isn’t that better than just seeing their name and date of birth and death? What do you think?