RE: A Strange Wake

RE: A Strange Wake (Full Version)

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windchymes -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/7/2007 5:41:20 PM)
My grandmother took pictures of EVERYTHING, including the funerals of her closest family members and friends. It's just something they did.

imthatacheyouhav -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/7/2007 5:45:11 PM)
I'm Irish so i know that answer to this...but whats the difference between an Irish wedding, and an Irish wake?.......1 less drunk at the wake....

adoracat -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/7/2007 10:16:52 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: thompsonx For myself I want to be cremated and my friends will put my ashes into a bottle of Massingale's so I can be recycled one more time. thompson ok so james once said he wished to have his ashes incorporated into a dildo for me. he was a bit of a sick man. smiles kitten, who giggles because a re-run of Ripley's believe it or not that was aired today had a man's widow that had his ashes incorporated into frisbees....

needDomme -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/7/2007 11:14:36 PM)
If people go to the trouble and expense of a funeral and/or wake, my thought is they just want something to remember their last days with the decedent and how well they said good bye to them. When John Kennedy died, I remember news cameras made it possible for millions of people all over the world to watch live and also on subsequent newscasts. Also, people "celebrate" lots of different things in different ways. need

KMsAngel -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 3:34:32 AM)
actually, my father died in the states just days before i could get there. one of my brothers had a pda and skype and i was on the phone with him during his last 2 weeks (he had a stroke and later died from sepsis). i asked my brothers to take pictures of him just after he died. and there were many pictures taken at the wake (i got off a flight from australia just hours before the funeral - a 17 hr flight) and the funeral. i don't remember a lot from the funeral, and totally missed the wake. its still too painful to look at them, but eventually i hope it helps me to finally grieve.

Level -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 3:42:58 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sinergy After Graham Chapman died, they had a wake thingie on BBC with the surviving members of Monty Python. Somebody knocked over the urn onto the carpet, spilling his ashes all over. Everybody stared in stunned silence. Until... Eric Idle runs back in with a Dustbuster in his hands yelling "He would have wanted it this way!" Took the cast minutes to recover from their gales of laughter for the wake to continue. Sinergy p.s. Funerals are not really about the dead. They are about the living. I would feel a bit creepy keeping pictures of a corpse in my scrapbook, but that is just me. These people are doing what they need to do to handle their grief over the loss of this person in their life. John Cleese's eulogy at Chapman's funeral - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsHk9WC7fnQ

wandersalone -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 5:09:04 AM)
I had thought that it was just my rellies that did the whole 'take photos of dead people' thing and am pleased/perturbed to find once again on CM that I am not alone. Our relatives are scattered all around the world and family often enclose photos from the funeral in the thankyou cards that are sent out. I have a vivid childhood memory of refusing to have my photo taken with an aunt who had died... and yes, as someone else mentioned they took a whole lot of 'family' photos of her that day with various family groupings.

SeeksOnlyOne -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 5:34:05 AM)
as many have said-its a southern thing. i have no idea why, but when my mom passed away and i cleaned out her house, i found pics of several relatives lying in their casket. and even though i am grossed out by them, they are in my closet now, in a shoe box, because i can not bring my self to throw them away. i also have a stack of pics of tombstones-they were taken to aid her in geneology. what can i say-us suthners are a peculiar folk sometimes. i did just giggle though imagining my son cleaning out my closet and finding the pics of dead folks when i am gone. perhaps that will help push the pictures of my toybox out of his head. everything happens for a reason i reckon. [sm=biggrin.gif][sm=biggrin.gif]

happypervert -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 6:25:23 AM)
quote: The woman who was taking the pics turned out to be the girlfriend of the deceased son. Was she Japanese? They LOVE taking pictures!

Aileen68 -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 7:58:56 PM)
All right...after some email exchanges with relatives, it's unanimous that NY/NJ Italians find it completely bizarre to take pictures at a wake. For any reason. You Southerners with your grits and gruesome pictures.

Level -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:06:41 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Aileen68 All right...after some email exchanges with relatives, it's unanimous that NY/NJ Italians find it completely bizarre to take pictures at a wake. For any reason. You Southerners with your grits and gruesome pictures. "grits" and "gruesome" certainly go well together in the same sentence. [;)] And trust me, not all southerners have Kodak moments with cadavers lol.

SubtleDifference -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:13:35 PM)
As an Italian born in NY now living in Jersey, I agree. It seems bizarre to me also. Then again there are some of our own rituals that seem a bit bizarre to others.

Aileen68 -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:16:53 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: SubtleDifference Then again there are some of our own rituals that seem a bit bizarre to others. Noooo....we are very normal. So said my grandmother who used to put potatoes on her feet and had my sister baptised twice since the first time she felt the priest was Satan in disguise.

MstrssScarlet -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:18:00 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sinergy After I am dead, I want to be put in a boat, lit on fire, and pushed out to sea in the fashion of my ancestors. Still shopping for a funeral home that will oblige me. Sinergy p.s. This is how I feel in life. I imagine after I am dead I really wont care one way or the other. Hey! A kindred spirit! I've always wanted a Viking funeral myself, even though they're not my ancestors. I'll let you know if I find a funeral home that will set it up. Mistress Scarlet

marieToo -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:22:28 PM)
Coming from a whacked out family of italian catholics, they'll do just about anything at a wake. They'll all but pull the dead body out of the casket to party one more time before the burial. But I've never seen anyone take a pic. I've heard of it though, but I don't think its an italian tradition.

MstrssScarlet -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:31:50 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Aileen68 All right...after some email exchanges with relatives, it's unanimous that NY/NJ Italians find it completely bizarre to take pictures at a wake. For any reason. You Southerners with your grits and gruesome pictures. My mother is Italian (Boston area). She married my father who was from Missouri and that's where they retired. My mother always told me how odd it was when she attended a wake or funeral in the area. Somewhere along the line she must have become used to it because she asked me to take pictures at my father's funeral. I tried to focus mainly on the flowers and felt more than a little odd taking them in a church full or people waiting for the funeral to start. (You could have heard a pin drop.) The whole thing just felt creepy to me. When I got home, I downloaded them all, sent them to her in an email and then filed the originals. I've never looked at them since, but haven't thrown them away either. Just can't decide what to do with them. As for the 'family group picture'.....ewwwww! I hope no one does that to me when I pass away! Mistress Scarlet

FatDomDaddy -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:53:32 PM)
Well this post just added something else to the list of my funeral... 1) the cheapest funeral posible 2) a pine box or creamation 3) no cameras

marieToo -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 8:55:00 PM)
I am SO getting cremated. I dont wanna be on display for all those freaks that will sob over my dead body. iggg

earthycouple -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 9:03:39 PM)
I have a personal problem with cemetaries and the amount of wasted land used for them (only my opinion). My family knows if there is expense beyond burning what is left of the body once any and all organs go to donation, I will come back and haunt them miserably the rest of their days. I simply don't believe in mourning parties (wakes), closure parties (funerals and the aftermath of a buffet), pictures or being seen by anyone that doesn't have to see me dead (please remember me like I am today...all hot and stuff), or wasting precious ground space (burial). Burn me and do what you will with what few ashes are really my body. Most of the ashes are cardboard and bone chip at best, since we are so much water anyway..... If you must mourn, just think of me how I was. If you must have closure then write me a letter, if you must see me dead, come ID my body. If you can't live with me donating and burning don't be in the position of making that call. I'm very opinionated about this...but respect other's wishes about themselves (damn nursey side of me) but I respect and expect my wishes about me to be followed to the letter.

dcnovice -> RE: A Strange Wake (6/8/2007 9:12:55 PM)
quote: I have a personal problem with cemetaries and the amount of wasted land used for them (only my opinion). I see your point, but on the other hand they're much needed green spaces.

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