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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

And another thing, one really nice thing that my late husband did was
make arrangements for his own cremation. He hadn't quite gotten around
to paying for it, but all I had to do was call the woman who was on
call in the middle of the night, and she arranged with a local funeral
home to pick up his body after the autopsy. I FedExed her a check for
a thousand dollars the next day.

Illinois -- and presumably many other states -- has a cremation
society. You can pre-pay, and they do all the heavy lifting, so to
speak, for you. They would have written the obituary, but I preferred
to do it myself -- took me a couple of days and I nearly ruined the
keyboard (saltwater not being good for keyboards) but it was better
than a stranger might have done. (A few months later I did my dad's --
that was even harder.)

At this point I've told my sisters that I prefer cremation, and I
intend to pre-pay for it and give the information to my sister who
holds medical power of attorney for me and her daughter, who will be
21 this November. The family is cheap enough that, considering that
the whole thing is paid for, I have no doubt that I'll end up as
ashes. What they do with the ashes is up to them.

My only concern is my animals. All my sisters are on good terms with
dogs and cats, and they know and like my dogs. They have solemnly
promised to take care of them if I die, which is about the best that
can be done. Regardless of what's in a will, the animals can end up
euthanized or poorly treated.

Marie