Cremation ... the final disposition?

I am feeling terribly righteous (oxymoron?) today.

I just escorted a representative of the Neptune Society out of my front door. He was not a door-to-door salesman. He had, in fact, come to my home upon my invitation.

Let's back up a bit. Many years ago (50 or so), shortly after my husband and I were first married, he told me that he had invited an insurance salesman over to our apartment to discuss life insurance for him. I immediately broke out into tears, crying, "Why?? We just got married!"

(As I recall, altho it's been awhile, I was in tears almost the whole time the unfortunate insurance representative was there. I simply could not bear the thought of losing someone to whom I'd so recently become attached.)

Well, fast forward almost 40 years later ... when my sister told me that she had decided to have her body cremated after she died, that she had prepaid all expenses and would be sending me copies of everything she'd signed.

(The fact that death was not far away for her was not really a question. She had not been well for some time.)

What really struck me today was the difference in my reactions to three major occurrences in my life relating to death & finality ... the first two you have already read, and the third just happened.

In the first, I cried. In the second, I was impressed that my sister was so thoughtful. In the third (& just occurring), I felt relief that I had at last taken care of what would have been someone else's responsibility.

In fact, I laughed!! (How does that expression go, "We grow too soon old and too late smart."? -- something like that, anyway.)

I certainly do not mean to make light of death. What I'm trying to say is that I feel really good about finally getting my own affairs in order.