Caleb Wilde
(218 comments, 980 posts)
Posts by Caleb Wilde
Digging up Grandma’s remains so you can sell her grave
© 2011 MarineCorps NewYork, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
Grave plots are property.
When cemeteries become full, that property’s value can skyrocket. Supply and demand.
And when you’re hurting for money, and your grandmother’s remains are buried in said property, YOU DON’T SELLOUT GRANDMA!
That is, unless you’re the guy who just dug up grandma so he could sell her grave.
A Darwin, Australia man has dug up his buried grandmother and cremated her body so he could sell off her burial plot for spare cash.
This was revealed by NT News with further reports that Darwin City Council have been discussing whether to review the Cemetery Act, alderman Gary Haslett said.
Mr Haslett said a ‘black market’ has emerged as there are locals who were ‘dying to be buried’ at the city’s general cemetery.
It is unknown which cemetery the Darwin man sold his grandmother’s burial plot, however Darwin General Cemetery is at capacity with the exception of grave sites which were bought in advance.
You can read more HERE.
The Trauma of Closing the Lid of the Casket
This is it.
The casket lid begins to quietly close
Your insides open and yell.
Your memories are now all you have.
There will be nothing new.
Your last look, your last touch
The beginning of your tears.
This is it.
Beliefs attempt to comfort
You cling to thoughts of a future hope
You will see them again.
Or.
Is this it?
The lid shuts.
You grab for something stable
You find an arm,
A hand
A hug.
A family member
A friend.
Two broken trees fall into each other
And hold up the other.
“Control it”, you tell yourself.
Forces beyond you like seismic shifts
Destroy what was once normal
Landscape rendered
Buildings destroyed
Death is creating the new normal
Tears wiped with waiting tissue
The lid is closed.
This is it.
Brown Box Paradox
I remember the first time I used the brown, one foot wide by two feet long, wood, velvet lined box.
No need for the pomp of a hearse. I used my own car to drive to the hospital.
It looks like an inconspicuous tool box, with dings and dents and stains.
No one knows what I’m doing when I carry the box into the hospital. Nobody is supposed to know.
Nobody wants to know.
On my way back from the hospital I thought about that little brown box.
I thought about how it contained all the greatest hopes and fears of humanity.
I thought how it contained the heights of humanity’s passions,
the height of our joys,
the hope of our future,
and the very miracle of God.
At the same time, this brown box contained the impetus to the deepest questions our soul can ask,
the hardest tears we can cry and the profoundest pain we can feel.
All in this little box.
Usually, when we go to the hospital to pick up a body we bring a stretcher to carry the dead weight of a deceased adult, but on these occasions we bring the brown box to pick up the dead infants.
Stupid Death Joke: Sufficient Reason to Dig up Dad
© 2009 Nationaal Archief, Flickr | PD | via Wylio
Two brothers are discussing the details of their father’s funeral.
The first one is trying to arrange everything himself, because he knows that the other one is pretty dim and sure to mess something up in some way.
The dim brother insists that he won’t. Finally the first brother relents and gives him a small task: “Just make sure dad looks nice for the service.”
The day of the service arrives and everything goes off without a hitch. The first brother congratulates the dim one on a job well done.
A month after the service, the first brother receives a bill for $200 from the funeral home. He assumes it was a missed cost and sends the money.
Another month goes by, and again he receives a bill for $200. Thinking something must be wrong, he calls the funeral home and asks why he’s being charged another $200.
The funeral home director replies, “Well, your brother was insistent on your father looking nice for the funeral, so he rented him a tux!”
One Last Trip: 16 Photos of terminal patients on their final outing
There’s a wonderful end of life charity that’s working in the Netherlands called, “Ambulance Wish Foundation.” There’s over 200 volunteers that work with a fleet of ambulances who take terminal patients on one final trip to the destination of their choice.
Their Twitter feed is absolutely fabulous. Here’s a couple pictures that I screen captured from their Twitter page.
I’d love to see charities like this pop up in the United States.
