Oh I forgot to tell you a funny story. One parishioner overheard the local undertaker doing a pre-funeral consult-- you know, pre-planning? He was heard to remark, upon taking the dear little old lady's hand and gazing boyishly and earnestly into her eyes:

"Oh, no, Mary-- you'd never choose cremation if you saw how they jump up in the fire!!!"

Well she almost died of a heart attack on the spot!

Cremation, of course, is cheaper.

Anyone going to the Body Farm in Tennessee?

Wait, I have a Red Cross story too. We had a military message to deliver about a death out of state-- getting leave authorized for a family member to attend. We have to verify all deaths, get official word from a doctor, or funeral director, or police, or someone with a title-- so the military family member's commanding officer knows this is not the eighth time dear old aunt Bertha has died in order to get leave for a homesick soldier!!! Well, our caseworker could not find the body anywhere!!!! She had chapters all over the country phoning their funeral homes looking for this lady! It turned out she'd had herself donated to science, and it took us a long time to find the university she'd been sent to!

Death... don't show no mercy.... in this towwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn.......

~Susan