Dead ought to be buried where they live

[TennesseeTuxedo]

My brother and I, are care takers of sorts for the church cemetery. It's filling up quick. The majority, have never stepped in the church. I guess they have some connection through family already buried there. We have what we call "cemetery dues". It's $25 a year. The money goes in an annuity that will hopefully maintain the cemetery. Probably only about 5% of the bodies buried there get their dues paid.
It gets hard at sometimes, to keep up with complaints of sunken graves, leaning tombstones, many lament the use of glyphosate, but you'd never get done weedeating that place without it. I often wonder why, they don't bury dead in town, as opposed to small cemetery at a little country church. We have two big work days a year there. Yet to see anybody show up that wasn't a member.

Why would a non member show up to work on the grounds of someone else's church?

Maybe out of respect for their dead loved ones who are buried there?? Bigfoot said in his statement that the majority buried there have never stepped foot in the church (I am assuming that they are/were not members but someone back in the day probably was at one time).

Gotcha.

 

[Bigfoot]

My brother and I, are care takers of sorts for the church cemetery. It's filling up quick. The majority, have never stepped in the church. I guess they have some connection through family already buried there. We have what we call "cemetery dues". It's $25 a year. The money goes in an annuity that will hopefully maintain the cemetery. Probably only about 5% of the bodies buried there get their dues paid.
It gets hard at sometimes, to keep up with complaints of sunken graves, leaning tombstones, many lament the use of glyphosate, but you'd never get done weedeating that place without it. I often wonder why, they don't bury dead in town, as opposed to small cemetery at a little country church. We have two big work days a year there. Yet to see anybody show up that wasn't a member.

Why would a non member show up to work on the grounds of someone else's church?

The work day is for the cemetery, not the church. Remove old flowers, fill low spots, trim trees, that sort of thing.

I believe I researched one time, and there are 1800 and some odd cemeteries in our county. A very small number are tended.

 

[pdfangus]

THIS IS THE VERY SORT OF THING THAT made me want to be cremated....I have been enough of a pain in the rear to those who know me....I don't want future generations to hate me who never even knew me...
I am rational enough to know that there is nothing left of my loved ones in the ground except some preserved organic material and what ever is left of the coffin and vault...if there is a spirit it is not sitting in the ground and idling away...waiting for the trumpets to blow...
I have known folks who visited family graves with great regularity and spent fortunes on flowers for the graves...the ones they made feel better were themselves...didn't help the dead much...a few decades later there is no one left to care..even the great are soon forgotten by the masses. didn't mean to write all that but the thoughts just flowed out...have some folks who are ill and my own mortality is approaching rapidly...been contemplating the meaning of life lately .

 

[callmefence]

We have a family cemetery on family owned land. Everyone pitches in with work or money. Each tribe has its on little section to plot out how they like.
Some graves in there go back to the late 1800s.
I've planted me a tree. They had me laid out in the sun....

 

[Silver]

After they part me out my unwanted remains will be cooked at a high heat and spread on the point of the ridge overlooking the place. At least that's my plan and everyone I think will let me believe that that is how it will go. And really, that's the point isn't it?
I've got no desire to leave behind a rock with my name on it.

 

[ga.prime]

We have a family cemetery on family owned land. Everyone pitches in with work or money. Each tribe has its on little section to plot out how they like.
Some graves in there go back to the late 1800s.
I've planted me a tree. They had me laid out in the sun....

That's a great idea, but in my experience one of 4 things will happen (1) a right of way crew will come through and shred that tree into oblivion or (2) a drunk driver will lose control of whatever he's driving and roll his vehicle over it or (3) somebody will unilaterally decide that all trees in the cemetery need removing or (4) somebody will hang a corn feeder from it and subsequently the tree will die from having it's roots trampled and scratched into smithereens.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

We have a family cemetery on family owned land. Everyone pitches in with work or money. Each tribe has its on little section to plot out how they like.
Some graves in there go back to the late 1800s.
I've planted me a tree. They had me laid out in the sun....

That's a great idea, but in my experience one of 4 things will happen (1) a right of way crew will come through and shred that tree into oblivion or (2) a drunk driver will lose control of whatever he's driving and roll his vehicle over it or (3) somebody will unilaterally decide that all trees in the cemetery need removing or (4) somebody will hang a corn feeder from it and subsequently the tree will die from having it's roots trampled and scratched into smithereens.

you've really put a lot of thought in that ain't you.... :lol2:

 

[ALACOWMAN]

After they part me out

if you gotta couple good kidneys,maybe we could speed this thing up.. :cowboy:

 

[greybeard]

(4) somebody will hang a corn feeder from it

Fence may insist on that being included in his Last Will and Testament.

 

[Silver]

After they part me out

if you gotta couple good kidneys,maybe we could speed this thing up.. :cowboy:

Kidneys might be salvageable, no warranty. Liver probably about miled out. :nod:

 

[ga.prime]

We have a family cemetery on family owned land. Everyone pitches in with work or money. Each tribe has its on little section to plot out how they like.
Some graves in there go back to the late 1800s.
I've planted me a tree. They had me laid out in the sun....

That's a great idea, but in my experience one of 4 things will happen (1) a right of way crew will come through and shred that tree into oblivion or (2) a drunk driver will lose control of whatever he's driving and roll his vehicle over it or (3) somebody will unilaterally decide that all trees in the cemetery need removing or (4) somebody will hang a corn feeder from it and subsequently the tree will die from having it's roots trampled and scratched into smithereens.

you've really put a lot of thought in that ain't you.... :lol2:

It would seem that way, but no. Real things I've had to deal with in three different cemeteries that I have ancestors buried in.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

There is a knocked over headstone marking the resting place of the brother to the man who once owned our farm and passed it down through the years and now my wife and her sister own it. The property has been in the family since the early 1800's. I've been saying for years I intend to set that stone back on its base for old Oliver. I'm going up to the farm this weekend and make things right for him. He deserves better.

 

[JMJ Farms]

We have a family cemetery on family owned land. Everyone pitches in with work or money. Each tribe has its on little section to plot out how they like.
Some graves in there go back to the late 1800s.
I've planted me a tree. They had me laid out in the sun....

That's a great idea, but in my experience one of 4 things will happen (1) a right of way crew will come through and shred that tree into oblivion or (2) a drunk driver will lose control of whatever he's driving and roll his vehicle over it or (3) somebody will unilaterally decide that all trees in the cemetery need removing or (4) somebody will hang a corn feeder from it and subsequently the tree will die from having it's roots trampled and scratched into smithereens.

you've really put a lot of thought in that ain't you.... :lol2:

And this ^^^^^, is why I love CT :lol2: :tiphat:

 

[Dave]

A friend was falling timber on a hill near the mouth of the Columbia River. He was about to fall a tree and he noticed a head stone. He go to looking around and found 30-40 head stones. A hundred years ago there was a logging camp, sawmill, and salmon canneries close by. There is nothing in that area now but second growth timber for miles. The cemetery had long been forgotten. He quit cutting trees and let the landowner know. They worked around it and somehow recorded it with the state or the county.

 

[GMN]

How do u know that they have no local ties?

 

[BlondeD]

I've arranged to go back to "school' and become an anatomy lab cadaver. I learned so much from my old "buddy" there.
So my return will be ok.......then it's off to cremation and a sprinkle of me in the doorways of 40 pubs in Ireland.....tracked in and out for years to come.....!!!! A toast to me....and more

 

[GMN]

I'm unclear as to where I will end up just not sure yet

 

[JMJ Farms]

I'm unclear as to where I will end up just not sure yet

That's something I wouldn't leave to chance :tiphat:

 

[hurleyjd]

I think the problem that cowboy is discussing is that the small community cemeterys do not charge for a grave site and the grave sites are getting fewer and fewer and no room for many that live and support the cemetery. In my area the funeral homes in the larger cities would show up with the body and a grave digger and bury you never knew who the body was sometimes the metal marker would be there sans the funeral home name. In effect getting a free grave site that they charged for nothing.

 

[GMN]

I'm unclear as to where I will end up just not sure yet

That's something I wouldn't leave to chance :tiphat:

I've lived in MO for awhile but can't shake this feeling that WI -my original birthplace is where I may still end up-and should still be