Funerals are for the living

[left-of-center2012]

If you believe in a life after death, as I do, the spirit departs at the time of death.
A funeral is to help the living accept the death.

And to enrich the funeral industry.
A friend of 37 years died recently of a heart attack.
With no plans made ahead of time, it cost his family $7,000 for a simple cremation and memorial service.
Three obits, run in three parts of the US, cost $300 each.

Personally, I've prepaid my cremation ($650); my niece will scatter the cremains;
and I want no service held, primarily because I'm Shin Buddhist and my siblings are evangelical born again Christians.