Bury Me at Wounded Knee

So Elle has a post up about her dad and his funeral planning.

Is that morbid?

I don't think so.

Death is a natural part of life and ya'll know I've planned the HELL out of life... why wouldn't I plan death?

And I come by it honestly.

My Gram was a great planner. 

One day when she was, oh, 85 or so, she and her girlfriend got gussied up, made reservations for lunch and headed over to the local funeral parlor. 

She picked her service & her casket.  She ordered the headstone.  (Her husband passed away in 1972 and she wasn't convinced she wouldn't marry again so she was very careful about the headstone.  And she, unlike so many, did consider she would live into the 2000's.  So many headstones with the name, birth date, and 19xx on the death date side.... oops.) 

A blue casket.  Baby blue.  She always loved blue.

She planned her service... the music and the readings.  She wasn't interested in fussy or dramatic.  She wanted simple and memorable and touching.  She didn't go so far as to pick an outfit but she requested a nice shade of pink... she knew what she looked good in... and something that would look good with the baby blue casket.

When it was actually time to make her arrangements the casket she requested was no longer available (clearance!  She would have loved that.) so she got a free upgrade (also... would have made her very happy). 

And at the viewing I laughed out loud.  Because she was right.  She did look good in pink and the casket was pretty classy.

I hope I am as well prepared.  When Hot goes I'm taking his ashes to several places....  the basin, the Blackfoot and maybe down the Smith (oh... he'd be ticked to know if I went without him).  If my dad is ashes I'm sprinkling him off the bluff (by the Indian grave) over the Marias.  My mom is trickier....  She loves the wild but also where she grew up.  She's going to go some to the wheat fields, some to the Marias, some to the horse pasture/places she loved to ride, and some to the green places she grew up.

Me.  I want to be recycled as much as possible.  Everyone heard that, right?  I will haunt your ass if you don't donate my organs and corneas and tissues.  Then cremate me and scatter me in the basin or over the Marias or under the apple tree.  Put some of me in the soil by my beloved peonies.