No Way

It’s just one of those things I refuse to do. It stems from experiences which happened over 40 years ago. That experience has stuck in my memory for all these years and causes me to have nightmares.

You see, I served on a hospital ship in Viet Nam. Hospital ships are wonderful institutions. They save lives by the thousands. But in war, our service personnel also die by the thousands. I encountered death every single day and handled more than my fair share of bodies; probably more than the average funeral home handles in a couple of years. And they weren’t pretty. They were dead and they thoroughly looked the part.

When I flew home, I flew on a plane with three other service people and a whole load of bodies. We landed at Dover, Delaware. I was to report to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for out processing. How did I get there? I rode in a truck loaded with bodies.

Today when I go to a funeral, there is a body present. My mind has a hard time processing the information in a civilian light. And usually, in the evenings following a funeral, I dream about bodies, lots of bodies.

That’s why I will never have a funeral. My body will be cremated with my ashes spread at sea….in the blue water of the deep sea. The Navy will do it for veterans or my wife can do it if she wishes. I will not have a funeral. I will have a memorial service which hopefully will celebrate my life. But there is no way anybody is going to stuff me in a fancy box and cart me all over creation loading and unloading me and requiring a dolly to set me in the right place and then smothering me six feet underground.

No, I want the open sea with clean air and deep blue water and I don’t want to make a big deal about it.