Embalming your own relatives
- Thread starter Jdeere562
- Start date
Grizzly method for me
To keep the body fresh, of course.
Embalming also helps prevent the accidental burial of people who aren't quite dead. The embalming process will finish a person off. Local laws may or may not require embalming, often dependent on how quickly the body can be put in the ground.
Norman Bates went one step beyond embalming. He taxidermied his mother. Real-life serial killer Charles Albright, the Eyeball Killer. saved and taxidermied the eyeballs of his vics.
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I had some friends in high school who's dad left their family and they needed a cheap place to rent. They ended up renting an old house previously owned by a mortician who worked out of his basement. Lots of creepy metal tables with rims and drains and such down there. Fortunately, no hand tools were left. Come to think about it, it would have been a decent work space to tear down and build transmissions in.
My father died on a weekend. He wanted an open casket funeral with a full body burial, but did not want to be embalmed. My nutty mother decided to not have an immediate funeral because she wanted to give relatives notice so they could come to the funeral from a distance. So the open casket funeral did not occur until over a week after he died.
They had to keep him on ice for that week. And in the casket, he looked like a shriveled prune. His sister touched his body, and remarked how cold he was.
I always thought the purpose of an open casket funeral was so the mourners could have a final visual memory of the deceased. The final memory of my father was rather disturbing. I think neither he nor my mother understood what happens to an unburied, unembalmed body over time.
They had to keep him on ice for that week. And in the casket, he looked like a shriveled prune. His sister touched his body, and remarked how cold he was.
I always thought the purpose of an open casket funeral was so the mourners could have a final visual memory of the deceased. The final memory of my father was rather disturbing. I think neither he nor my mother understood what happens to an unburied, unembalmed body over time.
I remember hearing that doctors cannot treat their own family members. I have no idea if that's true.
I surely do not know the myriad details of various cultures funerial practices nor the variety (state by state) of laws involved.
I have respect for all of them. We say that to keep everyone quiet and at a distance.
An intelligent person I knew accepted funerial practices as "a punctuation mark" to someone's life. OK
Buy whatever you want. I have no use for protracted funerals or elaborate, disposable fixtures.
In my experience, the style of people making fun of tacky wedding receptions has, to a degree, slopped over into funerals.
A family in town kept a stiff on ice for a week in order to have what amounted to a party. 'Twas most disgusting, IMHO.
Consumerism over all!
I want to embalm my brother-in-law
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Mine gets pretty close on his own
It depends on the local jurisdiction whether or not a doctor may treat or prescribe to a family member or himself. Ethics guidelines also pertain to friends and other people a doctor is close to or or has an emotional/ethical conflict with.
Professional moral guidelines discourage doctors from treating family members or themselves based on the conflicts of interest that will arise when professionalism and personal relationships mingle but it is merely a guideline.
Under circumstances where no other doctor is available a doctor is encouraged to do what he can to help a family member and himself.
Then there's the question how do you define family and where do you draw the line with treatment? Giving a tetanus shot and prescribing an antibiotic because Uncle Jim got bitten by his schnauzer isn't the same as prescribing bennies for cousin Tweak.
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Yet another use for JD and coke.
Ya just gotta ask yourself, "What would the Review Board say?"
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Growing up, the local funeral home and sporting goods store were owned by the same family. Just googled, both are still in business, and it says since 1902 on the funeral home and since 1973 on the sporting goods. 4th generation. That defies the odds as most family businesses are gone by the 3rd from what I’ve always been told.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
In college at what is now Truman State University, our fraternity bought a former funeral home. The floor in the basement where we partied had channels in the floor that lead to the drains all around the concrete floor. It made hosing down the beer party from the night before super simple.
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Back when my wife and I were still dating in the late 80's, my wife's parents were best friends with a couple who worked at the funeral home next door, and the wife ended up being the person who prepped my wife's father for burial. His death bothered her terribly, but prepping his body for the funeral apparently didnt in the least. She would talk about people in the most nonchalant way.
"Oh, did you know Frank, your dad's buddy from boot camp before they went to Korea, died a couple days ago.... I prepped his body yesterday. The funeral is Thursday. "
"Wow, sorry to hear about Doris. Please pass the gravy..."
Of course my mother in law, the five foot two inch raging case of oppositional defiance disorder that she was, decided she didnt like the way her best friend combed her husbands hair and whipped out a hairbrush and re-parted his hair, right there in his casket during the viewing. There were almost two funerals that day, I wanted to die from second-hand embarrassment. I told my wife if she did that at my funeral, I would wake from the dead and strangle her right there during the viewing.
"Oh, did you know Frank, your dad's buddy from boot camp before they went to Korea, died a couple days ago.... I prepped his body yesterday. The funeral is Thursday. "
"Wow, sorry to hear about Doris. Please pass the gravy..."
Of course my mother in law, the five foot two inch raging case of oppositional defiance disorder that she was, decided she didnt like the way her best friend combed her husbands hair and whipped out a hairbrush and re-parted his hair, right there in his casket during the viewing. There were almost two funerals that day, I wanted to die from second-hand embarrassment. I told my wife if she did that at my funeral, I would wake from the dead and strangle her right there during the viewing.
My funniest funeral parlor story happened when my brother and I were hanging out at a friends house after school. The telephone rang and my brother picked it up and said, "Thompson's Funeral Parlor, you stab 'em, we slab 'em." My friend's mom was super embarrassed and grabbed the phone from my brother. It turned out it was the mom's best friend who was peeing her pants laughing - her husband was a mortician. We weren't allowed to answer the phone after that.
These days, we skip the wakes and things.
We have an immediate cremation. When the monument is erected, or name added to an existing monument, we have a gathering at the cemetery. Sometimes, the urn is buried privately in advance. People get a month's notice of the gathering.
Then we all go to a luncheon in a private room, and have a celebration of life. We display important pictures and memorabilia of the deceased. No bodies, no embalming, no expensive caskets. And the immediate grief has already passed.
We have an immediate cremation. When the monument is erected, or name added to an existing monument, we have a gathering at the cemetery. Sometimes, the urn is buried privately in advance. People get a month's notice of the gathering.
Then we all go to a luncheon in a private room, and have a celebration of life. We display important pictures and memorabilia of the deceased. No bodies, no embalming, no expensive caskets. And the immediate grief has already passed.
My Aunt Birdie wanted her ashes put in a bottle of her favorite gin, Gray Whale Gin.* I was in favor of her proposition along with my brother and cousin but the rest of the family voted against it. Thanks to my efforts and slight of hand Aunt Birdie's wish was partially fulfilled. Wish I could have done better, Aunt Birdie. Haunt them and not me. 
*not sponsored but open to an offer
*not sponsored but open to an offer
Not sure why gin always makes me think of the BeatlesMy Aunt Birdie wanted her ashes put in a bottle of her favorite gin, Gray Whale Gin.* I was in favor of her proposition along with my brother and cousin but the rest of the family voted against it. Thanks to my efforts and slight of hand Aunt Birdie's wish was partially fulfilled. Wish I could have done better, Aunt Birdie. Haunt them and not me.
*not sponsored but open to an offer
Now, Aunty came in, stinking of gin
And proceeded to lay on the table
She said, "Vava, you met your match"
And Vava said, "Birdie, it's just a scratch.
I'll be better and ride my motorbike as soon as I am able"
