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BURIAL OR CREMATION?

Apr 02, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

With the rapid pace at which stem cell research is being conducted and the encouraging results which tests have so far yielded, within the next thirty years, unless some cataclysmic event takes place, the global life expectancy will soar.
This research holds out great hope for medical science and for ending deaths due to some of the major medical conditions which today afflict mankind.
Who knows we may even reach the stage where persons will cease to die from some of the major illnesses which today account for deaths. I certainly think that this research will find a cure for many diseases which are now incurable. Perhaps within the next hundred years, scientists may even be able to bring back persons from the dead.
I do not expect to live that long. I do not expect to live another fifty years and therefore I do not expect anything would be able to be done to bring me back from the dead or to prevent me from falling victim to some of the major killer diseases of today.
I expect to die and to be buried. Well actually, I have not made up my mind as yet how I wish to go. I cannot decide at this point whether I wish to be buried or cremated. I am still thinking about it.
I may not have a choice in the matter however. At the rate at which the existing burial grounds in Guyana are being occupied we will very soon come to a stage where some cemeteries will have to be retired.
A few weeks ago it was pointed out that space is running out in Le Repentir Cemetery because of the land that has to be set aside in that area for garbage disposal. And so within the next couple of years, the city may have to look towards a new cemetery. But where will the land come from? There is no land in the city to establish a new cemetery and therefore we have a problem on our hands.
With persons dying all the time, there will come a time in our history where burial grounds will have to be shifted further and further outside the residential areas. And this of course will pose problems for planning and development. It will also pose problems for families wishing to bury their dead.
It seems clear to me that more and more Guyanese will have to opt for cremation.  In fact, I am very surprised that given the condition of some of our burial grounds that we are not having far more cremations these days.
I am certainly now giving thought to requesting that my earthly remains be cremated when I leave this world. I certainly am not enamored with the idea of my remains being sealed in a concrete tomb, with my family having to visit regularly to help clean keep the spot clean and tidy and to have to from time to time come to pay their respects.  When I am gone, I am gone. I do not wish to be a bother to anyone.
And this is why while I am not comfortable with the idea of cremation, I am thinking that perhaps this may be the best option for the disposal of my body. It certainly will be cheaper in the long run. Cremation does not require an expensive coffin and does not require, as is the case with burial, after care and maintenance. I can be put in any cheap box and my body placed on the pyre to be burnt. My ashes can be kept in an urn as a reminder to my descendants that I existed.
No one has to leave where they are living to come to Guyana to pay their respects to me whenever my death anniversary comes around. In fact, my ashes can be taken wherever my children wish them and could even be divided amongst them. I certainly value the thought of my remains moving all around the world with my children. That is far more comforting than the thought of being locked permanently in a coffin and placed in a sealed tomb.But I have not made up my mind. I still wish to give how I wish to be sent off further thought.
Whatever I decide I will write it down and give to my lawyer for inclusion in my will. The rest is out of my control. By the way. How do you wish to be sent off?

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