That's One Reason For Cremation

Yesterday I woke Shorty up just after I did so I could schlep him with me to my bi-monthly hair appointment. Feeling pretty good about not having the SJA in my life anymore, and savoring the midwestern benefits of global warming (and as a FL girl, I am not complaining about the lack of snow & freakishly warm weather we've had this winter in IA), my dial was stuck on silly. He was reading a book (as he's learned to do on the long drives from the remote locations I've chosen as home while raising him) when just outside the city he asked, "Mommy, what's a crematorium?"

"A crematorium?" I thought out loud to myself. I glanced at the book he was reading and scrunched my face up at the series title, CIRQUE DU FREAK. He knows that macabre subject matter like that is low on my literary list, but I'm happy that my son spends his time on the way to my hair appointments reading instead of playing video games.

"It's a place where people go to be burned...dead people. It's for people who want to be cremated," I told him. "Burned?" he asked, with a twisted and almost unbelieving face. "Yes," I said. "Your Aunt Barbara [his god-mother] wants to be cremated. But please," I implored, "put me in a pine box!" I said, thinking like an engineer and expressing my wishes to keep my funeral expenses to a minimum. "Not too long ago she told me she wants to be cremated when she dies," at which point I broke into an uncontrollable laughter. "What?!" Shorty laughingly asked. "Well, when I asked my sister why she wants to be cremated she said, "So my husband can keep me in an urn and carry me around with him every where he goes!" My son broke into uncontrollable laughter. "Really?" he unbelievably asked. "Yes!" I laughingly replied. "Here," I said as I handed him my cellphone, "You can call her and ask her for yourself."

Shorty then pressed buttons and woke my sister from her late Saturday morning slumber. He dutifully asked her about what I'd said and then started laughing again. "Okay, now Mommy wants to talk to you," he said as he handed me the phone. I asked my sister what she'd told him when he asked her about why she wanted to be cremated and she sleepily replied, "I told him so Uncle Marcus could put me in an urn and carry him around with me everywhere he goes!" The funny thing is, she means it and he probably would do it. Well, when it comes to love and marriage, that's one reason for cremation!