BODY DONATION – No box for the geezer!

Posted: August 21, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: burial, dying, geezerTrips, Out of my comfort zone!, Uncategorized | Tags: , | Leave a comment »

Skip the box! Choose body donation!

Not only are more people living longer; their  older dying age requires more old bodies for medical schools and their budding gerontologists. Body donation is the key; not, medical students going out late at night to source their own cadaver, as was the custom 100 years ago.

The frugal senior will explore interesting alternatives to funeral homes.

A funeral can cost  $10,000; cremation can cost $2000; even green burial can cost $1000 and all these require more hassle than you want to force on your heirs.

Think body donation; it costs nothing and you can focus on a convenient and cheap memorial service at a convenient time and place.

See the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and the states in which it has been adopted.

The best bet may be a medical school body donation. Medical students have become quite civilized. You will not be the butt of their jokes and what was you will be treated with respect. It will be your last good deed.

If you are in New Mexico, contact the University of New Mexico. In other states search the medical school website.

The Mayo Clinic says you are never too old to donate your body;  and they will provide you with a copy of their donation form. Click on Mayo Clinic Form.

Your driver’s license may authorize organ donations – make sure this does not conflict with your body donation to a medical school. Medical students need all of you, not just the left-overs.

Carry medical school contact numbers with you. In fact, tape the name and number on the back of your driver’s license.

Have the cremains, after the medical school is through with you, put in a plastic bag; that way they will be around for a thousand years.

Check these two cites:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/body-donation/making-donation

https://hsc.unm.edu/school-of-medicine/cell-biology-physiology/anatomical-donation-program.html

THIINK OLD!

MUMMY AT FONCK MUSEUM in Valparaiso, Chile – the geezer’s memory, not the geezer!

Posted: February 18, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: burial, geezerTrips, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment »

One of the best things about traveling while old is that you come across something that reminds you of an experience early in your life, allowing you to relive that experience. It also gives you  a new story to tell.

 

Mummy from the Atacoma Desert on display in the Fonck Museum, Valparaiso, Chile.

This happened to us in February 2019, on a Viking Sun Cruise included tour at our last stop in Valparaiso, Chile. We stopped at the Fonck Museum in Valparaiso. The museum had archaeological exhibits from Chile and one of them was a mummy from the Atacama Desert  near Arica, Chile in the northern part of Chile on the Chilean/Peruvian border.

Thirty some years ago we had gone on an EarthWatch expedition in connection with the University of Tarapaca, Arica, Chile. For two weeks, working with a pathologist, professors, and students from the University of Tarapaca, we dug up mummies, measured them, documented the burial cloths and checked them for evidence of arsenic poisoning from the water in Northern Chile.

Some of the mummies were over 7000 years old and due to the Atacoma Desert’s lack of rain, were perfectly preserved.

Years later, the mummy pictured above brought back memories of an early adventure.

THINK OLD!

 

 

 

 

NATURAL GREEN BURIAL – An Environmentally Sound Option

Posted: October 30, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: burial, dying, New Mexico, Uncategorized | Tags: , | Leave a comment »

I attended a Gray Panthers meeting and heard a speaker on Natural Burial.  I was unaware that it was legal, that it was inexpensive, environmentally friendly and for many a better and more natural alternative. I was also unaware how widespread it had become.

Natural Burial of New Mexico, operates La Puerta Natural Burial Ground about 60 miles from Albuquerque.  Natural Burial of New Mexico provides an inexpensive, environmentally sound solution to your remains at death. The body only has to be wrapped in an organic wrap; however, Natural Burial of New Mexico can arrange for an acceptable pine casket made by Fathers Building Futures, which provides training and work for fathers that have been in prison. You can do a lot of good at the end of your life.

Burial has to take place within twenty-four hours unless the body is iced, which can be done with ice packs from Techni-Ice which are available at Walmart.

Once the body is released by Hospice, the hospital, or the Medical Examiner, you can pick it up and take it to La Puerta Natural Burial Ground which is about 60 miles from Albuquerque. If you don’t want to transport the body yourself, and I must admit that I am not sure that I want to load a loved one in the back seat of my car and drive for 60 miles, Natural Burial has an arrangement with a local mortuary to transport the body, or Natural Burial will help you with the transport.

The body can’t be embalmed; if it is, they put it in an adjacent five acre plot so as to maintain the natural burial ground. You can have a natural marker but it has to blend in with the ground.

Natural burial is Kosher.

In addition, they also provide natural burial for pets for about $175.

The cost at the present time for the plot, burial and transportation to the site is $695. This does not include a coffin or cremation.

It relieves one from the stress of the funeral industry and its guilt-inducing arguments.

This is a national thing and a number of funeral homes are getting involved; however, you want to watch out for extras that may add to the cost.

You can read more in National Geographic News.

Natural Burial is available nation-wide and in Canada. You can find a provider on the Green Burial Council Web page.

You can also read up on natural burial on Amazon.

 

THINK OLD!