Kathy, what a beautiful way for the lady to pass!  And what a fascinating 
ride you had!  I've never ridden in a hearse and can't say as I'm eager to 
do so, but it does sound like you had an interesting conversation going on 
during the ride.  I would never say I didn't want a service after my death. 
I'd want to leave a way for those left behind to have some closure, and 
think it would be cruel to them to deprive them of that closure just to 
fulfill my wishes when I wouldn't even be around to know about it. 
Interesting statistics though.

Peggy
http://kernsac.livejournal.com/
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathy Du Bois" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 3:57 AM
Subject: Kathy's first ride in a hearse


> HI Guys,
>         Well, I had my first ride in a hearse yesterday.  It wasn't
> too bad and like everybody was telling me, it least I was riding in
> the front and not the back, which is a very important distinction to
> make.  We had a funeral, of course, yesterday, and I was just going
> to stay back and help the ladies get the reception ready, but Greg
> insisted that I come to the committal service and so there I was,
> being sandwiched between the funeral director and Greg.  He was
> riding in the hearse, so I had to too.  It was interesting
>         Let's see, we talked about different types of funeral
> services from the atheist to the Universalist Unitarians.  We also
> talked about cremation.  Did you know that more than fiftey per cent
> of the bodies in Maine are cremated now?  Cremation is the in thing,
> especially in the blue states.  I learned that the red states still
> prefer to bury a body, but the people in the blue states prefer
> cremation.  He also told us that more than twenty per cent of his
> clients now don't want any type of service at all.  They just want
> the body cremated and be done with it.  That statistic really shocked
> me.  I didn't realize that it was so high and, evidently, growing.
>         Yes, my first ride in a hearse was very interesting.
>
>         I should probably share with you a bit about the lady who
> died, since her passing itself was so incredible.  She was 84 years
> old and had been suffering with heart trouble for quite some
> time.  She loved music, so when her daughter knew that she would be
> passing in hours, she asked Greg and me to come and sing her into
> glory.  We were singing the hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross," and when we
> got to the line, "I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange
> it some day for a crown," she slipped away, right on cue, very
> peacefully.  It was God's timing, of course, but, for some reason,
> that kind of thing just always blows me away.
> Kathy
>