My only experience with the care of the dead is when we went to my grandmother's funeral last summer. The service was in a church but the body was not there since it was cremated. I don't know if that's what she wanted or if it's simply what my father chose for her. After the service, the immediate family went to the graveyard and watched the urn get buried in our family's plot in Fayette, MO. Her husband was cremated after he died around 17 years ago so they brought up his ashes to be buried next to my grandmother's. My mom once told me that she wanted to be an organ donor and then cremated when she died. I was too young to really understand the full context of what she was saying, but it struck me as strange that a person would want their body to be cut up and have their organs ripped out and then be burned to ash. However, I think her beliefs in afterlife differ from mine so maybe she has a reason for it.
In my family. people are kept alive after they've died. In my grandparents' case, my mother is constantly talking about them and stories about their lives. So even though I only met one of them, I feel as though I really know who the others were if I were to have a chance to meet them somehow. If the person is not a personal part of my family, it usually takes me a wile to realize that that person is no longer in existence and won't ever speak or smell or laugh or cry again. I don't really think about their bodies, but more of what they did or didn't do with the time they had. Whenever my family hears about someone who has died, we mourn for a little while and then begin to discuss all the great things that they did or all of the great stories that people will always remember about them. I think this keeps them alive in our family for a very long time.
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