Chit chat….
I went to a funeral service yesterday. I can’t say it was at all sad, it was more a celebration of life and rebirth. In some ways it remnided me of the service we had in May last year when my Aunt G passed away. Both these people seemed to be so at peace with God from so long ago. They are in a better place.
On Friday night, I had a few VXs with Mad Bull and we were discussing burial and funerals. I stated that when my time comes, I wish to be buried and I do not want to be cremated. Why? Well, I know this may sound stupid to you, but I do not wish my body to be burned. I’m pretty afraid of fire. I’m fully aware that when we die we are simply flesh without feeling, but that is MY wish.
Mad Bull took the other side. He wants to be cremated as he says that he does not want to rot and have worms eat him. That is his wish and he is entitled to it as well.
Financially speaking, cremation is a much cheaper option costing about a third of burial here. I know that this is a morbid discussion, but facing facts, we are all going to end up at that point someday. Do you have a preference for your final disposal? I think it is important that at some point, this is voiced to someone close to you so that it can be done to your liking. Anyhow, I’m going to kill this death and dying discussion….pun intended.
I was chatting with Mad Bull again recently, and the topic of caterers for functions came up. I related a little story that had put my poor Mother into a rather embarrasing situation some years back.
We were having a dinner at our home for some Canadian business associates of my Father. The dinner was scheduled for 7:30 PM and it was being catered. The guests arrived and all appeared to be going well. They were chatting away, enjoying drinks and saying just how much they liked what they had seen of Jamaica.
At about 7 o’clock, there was no sign of the food arriving, so Mummy called the caterer. An elderly woman had answered and assured her that the food had long left and should be here anytime.
Well, we waited. 7:30……no food. At 8 PM my Mother was not at all amused, and Daddy started to get quite concerned as well, and he is not a man that worries easily. You see, he could easily see future business possibly becoming endangered by having invited people to dinner and only being able to offer them drinks. Damn, the people may well have had to go back to their hotel with gas!
Eventually we gave up hope on the caterer. We had to take some drastic action. At 9PM, we called a Chinese Restaurant, I believe the name was Manor Palace. They used to sell good food, but closed down quite a number of years ago. The lady who answered, told us that they were just about to close! Rass! We were desperate, she had to save us. We told her that we were buying food for about twenty people (which was in fact the truth.) All of a sudden, her tone of voice changed. “We will wait pon you”, she said. (Hey, the Chinese are excellent business people.) We went and got the food in less than 45 minutes.
When we returned, I had to reverse the car into the driveway, so that the aluminium containers with the food could be taken out the trunk of the car and into the kitchen. However, there was no way that this could have happened without the guests seeing! 
Dinner was eventually served, albeit about two and a half hours late. We did have to tell our guests what had happened and they were very gracious about it. Needless to say, they were so rahtid hungry when the food came, they had no complaints at all.
The next morning at about 11 o’clock, Mummy was on the back patio relaxing, still unable to fathom what happened to the catered food. The dogs started to bark as a strange car drove in. Out came the caterer. She was very apologetic. What was her excuse? She forgot!
She thought the dinner was the following week. She said that she wished to make amends and offered to cater any function for us in the future at cost. Mummy, still a bit annoyed seemed to forgive her and then she left.
Now my Father is not one to put up with certain types of foolishness. When Mummy told him what the caterer had offered, (though in all honesty, I don’t think she would have taken her up on her offer), Daddy exclaimed, “Who, she? I wouldn’t want her to fry an egg for me for free!”
Have you ever found yourself in a situation that embarressed you and it was not by any means your fault? Feel free to share and enjoy the Sunday. And BTW, I hope I’m not boring you with this post.
April 27th, 2003 at 5:16 am Ahh no boring post at all ~ I was reading and laughing remembering several things that happened just the same in our household. My dad being a preacher and my mama really should have been, and I am my mother’s child after all I found out, I found it easier to deal with cleaning and cooking myself instead of relying on other’s to any capablility to do the job, because I guess God help me, I’m a perfectionist or at least try to be, and do all I can to make everyone feel comfortable in the home, food and drink no matter their preference……but man you brought back some really good comical relief memories!!!!
April 27th, 2003 at 7:22 am Good morning all, let me first apologise to my good bro that I’ve been away from the blog for soooooooooo long, so sorry bro!
April 27th, 2003 at 9:18 am
April 27th, 2003 at 1:57 pm Personally, when I find myself in any embarrassing situation, I always look for someone to pin it on. Your story made me laugh. Your Dad sounds like mine. He’d have never used that caterer again. My Mom, though, would have ordered the biggest pain in the ass foods just to be a pain in the ass. At least I come by it honestly.
April 27th, 2003 at 11:23 pm
Kreuger, you know ’bout!
April 27th, 2003 at 11:43 pm I dont want to be cremated or buried…I guess that is MB’s problem…funny, adding this to your post on catering…food for thought!
April 28th, 2003 at 12:42 am Yes Mad Bull, Manor Palace food was irie.
So Natty, you wish neither to be cremated or buried. What then pray tell? Buried at sea? Or better still you could be mummified and have your remains put into a mini pyramid like the Pharoahs (hope the spelling is correct). Last but not least, perhaps it could be arranged to have your remains frozen forever. Failing that, then I’m very
. I think you should think this over and talk to your family about it. More food for thought….and remember to have your folks ensure that the funeral undercaterers show up!
April 28th, 2003 at 1:25 am Oddly enough, the Greek Orthodox Church doesn’t allow cremation, except in the instances of NEED for cremation. That pretty well messed up my plans. (I’ll still opt for it) Chinese food….was craving that today…
April 28th, 2003 at 11:04 am My parents once had a pool installed by a particulary company. The whole business was a comedy of errors - at one point they actually broke open a sewer line, flooding the yard with..well, um, you know. My mom had some choice words with the owner of the pool company, whom she had only “met” on the phone, never in person. Some friends of our family were having their pool done by the same company, and were having about the same kind of luck with them. The father of that family was so upset, that he actually went to the office of the owner, intending to work the guy over! Much to his dissapointment, the guy was wheelchair-bound, paralized from the neck down!
April 30th, 2003 at 2:28 pm When my cousin Christopher died (my now dad’s son), he did not want a funeral at all. He always believed that funerals were not for the deceased, and were more for the living. He didn’t want a bunch of people looking and crying over him after he died. So he had it that he was cremated and not even present at a memorial service. When he died (he was 16) they had a memorial service that celebrated all the things he likes, and he requested and had my dad take some of his ashes to several of his friends along with a letter to them about how much they meant to him. I LOVED the idea. I don’t want a funeral either. cremate me and have a celebration, not a crying fit. Embarrassing…….hm well, my most embarrassing time was probably when I was about 10, and starting to get those “boy type problems” in the lower extremeties. We had a pool in our rec room and we always swam naked because we would go from hot tub to pool to sauna and back. Well I didnt know that my father had a couple of very important clients over and was having a meeting with them in part of the recreation room. So I come out of the sauna in all my glory wiping sweat off my head with a towel and hear people talking. OOOPS HELLO THERE!!! OOPS hope you didn’t see anything. I caught all kinds of hell for that. hehehe
May 1st, 2003 at 5:15 pm Living near a University Medical School, the “in” thing to do around here (and cheap, Cheap, CHEAP) is donate one’s body to the med school. No muss -no fuss. Satisfied in the knowledge that perhaps someone will learn something from you after all! Hey Z!