Here’s a New Yorker article, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” on changing death and funeral practices.
The home funeral is making a comeback. I well remember how my beloved maternal grandmother, born in the 19th century, insisted on being “laid out” in her own bedroom on her four-poster bad. Though I was just a child at the time, I can well remember her there in her best dress and wearing her glasses. It’s not an unpleasant memory.
The Colorado funeral pyre option, described in the article, has its appeal. We’ll need to investigate whether this could be done in New York State, or whether it might violate the open burning laws.
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I’ve no doubt that the burning would violate laws in many states, but laws can be changed. I have always loved to walk through old cemeteries but we can’t have them — and I don’t really want them, anymore.
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