Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Oven in La Paz
The Big Oven in La Paz
I don’t live in a cheerless world, a world with Mr. Death getting closer and closer to my door, where I’m beginning to think about it more than
usual. But I’m getting a little long in the tooth and I’ve been going over some scenarios about what is going to happen all around me after I reach
room temperature for good.
Latino Catholic funerals are important rituals so I’m being careful to take all the customs stuff into account. I was baptized when I was just a baby
but I’ve only seen the inside of Catholic churches a few times. The custom in this part of Mexico is to wait three days between the death and the
interment. Thanks to donations from virtually everybody in the village, we have a nice velatorium in which to pay last respects, view the body.
My assumption is I’ll die right in this little village. We have no safe and appropriate place to store a corpse while all the paper work is done and
the body is being embalmed and readied for viewing --- and, I can’t predict that it would be in August or January. Part of the problems with the
procedure, the waiting, is that the part of the corpse that must be removed during embalming must be buried with the body. The embalming would take
place in La Paz. When I begin to walk gingerly around that whole viewing subject I get a little edgy. My old suit is still in good shape and they can
make it easily fit me when my organs are removed. Some Mexican guy or gal from the funeral parlor in La Paz will ask my wife for a picture; all my
senior pix are with me sporting a big grin, holding up some fish. My beard hides a lot so the makeup person really just needs to give my hair, beard,
nails a trim and a good cleaning and that should be enough. I’ll admit that if it’s any time soon they’ll have a helluva time getting the blue gelcoat
out from under my thumbnail because I just painted my panga.
It is said “Funerals are for the living.” I believe that and I really don’t want to put all those people to the trouble of that stage setting, the
expensive (or not) casket thing just so I can be remembered a little longer by those I leave behind. The news will get around the village in a matter
of hours. There should be a nice crowd at the church and maybe a few more at the velatorium if they serve the chicken enchiladas.
Fanny, the local pelicura, barber, who cut my hair all these years would surely be at the viewing out of professional curiosity – wondering where that
jerk from La Paz learned to cut hair, do the color from a snapshot. Food or no food there would be a few there just to make sure they heard right,
make sure I was dead.
Then there’s the whole casket thing. They sell caskets at Costco now. You have to buy the two-pack (they’re called Coscets) and maybe Lynda would go
for that. She could take the bed out, store the extra one in my bedroom. Might be worth the purchase to see my neighbors’ eyes light up when the
Costco delivery guys slide the boxes off the truck onto my driveway.
If they do the cremation thing they’ll just have to pay around $1,500 dollars and the whole thing will only take a couple of days, two trips north. We
have a vase for what’s left of me. Lynda’s daughter got it in Okinawa when she was stationed there when she was in the military. It’s big, about 14
inches high. It’s Japanese in motif but what the hell, it’s not going on tour like King Tut.
I can’t guess what they will choose – especially since they know about my anti legacy mind-set. I’m one of the few you might meet who, given the
chance, wants to be born, enjoy life’s pleasures, return to dust leaving no real mark on this squishy little planet. I know there have been billions
before me with a real passion to change the place leaving behind inimitable concertos, indestructible pyramids and keystone scientific formulae. So,
I’m content to visit, enjoy and stay out of the way.
Here’s my plan. I’ll write a 12 page poem about my life and death, leave it with a note telling everyone it must be inscribed on my tombstone. That
should clinch the cremation thing I’ve wanted all along.
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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The canna lillies are in the mail. Adios amigo, it's been real!
I started to have these thoughts in earnest at about age 55. Ten years of it now to hone my swan song....now becoming a sort of pathetic whimper at
this point, not the chart topping solo that I had hoped for....but sic transit gloria mundi as the Romans said it. Thus passes the glory of the world.
Mexico's not a bad place to go.....really go.
Iflyfish
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
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Yet another well-done piece! Uhhhhhhhh...might I suggest without any intended disrespect....if you have any say as to the timing of your
final Bon Voyage....for instance, if you were to start your final decline shortly before a hurricane, then there could be a huge bonfire on the beach,
reminiscent of a....ahhhhhh....'errrrr....pig roast. You'd have it all! A warm fire for the comfort of those who gathered in honor of your life (or
to celebrate your passing, so to speak) , the "pig roast" to provide the cremation
& the hurricane to scatter the ashes in the area you love. Kinda of a multi-functional ceremony! Look at the cost-savings & eliminated travel time back & forth to La Paz & there is also the added
bonus that Lynda wouldn't have to dust your vase on the mantle!
Well, it was just a thought.....
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
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Mood: mellow
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Jorge,
How far are you with that 12 page poem ?.. and do I get it to proofread ?
Kind of a morbid subject wouldn't you say ?
But, then again, it seems that the older you get the time seems to fly by at an accelerated clip and internment thoughts get to be a more frequent
occurance.
A back yard planting has my preference, but I'm afraid that , even here in Loreto, they would frown on that.
So, I will leave it to the better half, on whom ( correct :? I have more than 10
years.
And if I get a chance, I will let everyone know how hot it is down there. Likely somewhat like Loreto in September.
And..btw.. Barb was one of my rare foresights amongst a myriad of hindsights.
[Edited on 4-16-2009 by vandenberg]
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
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Back in the old days at San Lucas Cove, there was an older gentleman, who was mostly blind, who passed away one night in his trailer. After a lot of
paperwork and the help of some great people from Santa Rosalia, he was transported to La Paz or maybe Tijuana for cremation. The group at the cove
were following Don's instructions to disperse his ashes on the yellowtail hole at the north end of the island so following a small memorial service,
the flotilla of car top boats and one small urn started the journey. Now I am sure there were no libations served during the service but a large
number of the boats were having a great difficulty getting all the way to the north end of the island as the water was getting very rough. I think
the final commitee decision was to hold the dispersment a little closer to shore and to allow the current to select his final resting place or places.
Following the harrowing boat ride, more libations followed and the whole thing ended on a pretty happy note.
If Jorge really decides that "up yonder" is really in need of a good storyteller and he really does apply for the job, I, for one, and going to be
sure to make it down to La Ribera with a load of Pacifico's just to be able to tell stories and listen to the stories of others.
This certainly, in my twisted way of thinking, is a much better tribute to a man's life than a short service in a stilted and antiseptic church
somewhere up north.
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