Post Cards from the edge

[Master Dan]

Bet you have not done this? here if you die in the winter regardless of the funeral your put in the freezer and buried in summer when the ground thaws in some cases they build fires and hand chop and dig for 12 hours or more and traditional in some areas they just put your box on the side of the mountain. Well we were laughing today but not funny then two years ago a realative of my wifes huband called and said he had been given the responsibilty to move the body of my wifes uncle from the city morge to the church. I was given specific information of what shelf what color the coffin was and such. I had to sign out and get key from police deparment we get there and right coffin color but name did not match to my memory we lift the lid he seemed to look right but I am not in charge I look to the man closest realative not the brightest bulb in teh pack and say is this right he say yes so we load and away we go. I pull right in front of the large church and the doors are all open and I can see a coffin at the alter? I say stay in the truck I go in part way see another realative who had requested the move and a major emergency and they already got the body. I ask is that so and so she say yes I turn walk out tell everyoen shut up get in the truck and hall *** back to the city morge unload fast and got strait home close the curtains turn off the phone.

My wife still alive then is in another village I tell her what happened and she almost passes out laughing and I say its not funning given who I am famous in this area it does not matter who's mistake Master Dan took somebodies realative for a rid or Master Dan is a body snatcer it would have made the paper and I would have never heard the end of it.

Good Lord fact is stranger than ficition you cannot make this up. Its too horible to contemplate a famly has thier dear departed go on a joy ride around town for no reason. Needless to say I do not remember the name on the coffin and do not care to. Only in the bush does stuff like this happen?

Oh its the little things in life?

 

[Carol]

In northern New England as well. If a person dies when the ground is frozen, their bodies must be stored until the spring thaw to be buried. Graves are not dug by backhoes and earth moves. Although with the cost of cemetery real estate and burial expenses, cremation is more economically feasible and can be essier on the family than a delayed burial.