Partner and I are both getting on in age, and have begun to talk about our final arrangements. Naturally we want to be together, even after we’re both defunct. (This is irrational, but we’re human, so naturally we’re irrational.)
We have, unfortunately, discovered that we have a little discrepancy in our final wishes.
Partner wants to be cremated (after he’s dead, I mean, not today) and have his ashes thrown into the water off the Pacific island of Maui.
I want to be buried in a proper wooden casket and put in the ground in Venersborg, Washington, close to where I grew up, in a grave facing Spotted Deer Mountain, in northern Clark County.
So, you see, we have some negotiating to do.
I think we will do a catch-as-catch-can scenario. If I go first (which I think is very possible), I want him to take me with him wherever he goes. It would be nice if some little part of me – even a keepsake – were put in the ground near my parents, but really, it doesn’t matter that much. It matters much more to me that I be with Partner. He can take me to Maui if he likes. There’s enough of me in Venersborg already, I suppose, after having grown up there.
And, if he takes me with him to Maui, Partner and I will be together.
And if (God forbid) Partner goes first, I will carry out his wishes, and he will swim with the fishes off Maui. But a little pinch of him is going to stay with me, and I will be buried in Venersborg with an envelope in my pocket, and that envelope will have some of Partner in it.
And, if I bring a little piece of him to Venersborg with me, Partner and I will be together.
And that’s really all that matters, isn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment