My mountaintop town debuted a crematory this week. Before now, bodies waiting to be torched had to be transported elsewhere. And here’s a photo, which gives me the ability to see precisely where I will end up, barring unforeseen circumstances like dying elsewhere, which is highly unlikely.
I find this fascinating. The room has the traditional colonial colors of our area, the red below and the white above, and the oven looks like serious business. I hope it’s going to be the final fire I feel after I die, if you get my drift.
The installation also included related services, an area for wakes and other stuff, and the total cost was the peso equivalent of about $220,000 U.S. It is not owned by a funeral home, which I think is the norm above the Rio Bravo. It’s a municipal installation.
This is yet another beautiful example of the directness of Mexican life. How many of you who are planning to be cremated have seen first-hand where it will happen?
I am taller than most Mexicans, but I think I’ll fit nicely in there.
Why not a few more square feet in the room and a bigger exhaust blower? They might incinerate a few innocent bystanders in the final fire.
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Carole: Oh, picky, picky, picky. First off, we cannot see how large the room actually is from the photo. And I think the exhaust blower will work just fine, thank you.
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Judging by the distance from the walls in that corner, intuition says pretty small. It is a blast furnace in a corner. Read Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
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Carole: Not to worry. I have faith in Mexican engineering.
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My wife’s mom was cremated. How do you know they’re the right ashes rather than some else’s or just some coffee grinds? All my deceased relatives in Europe have been cremated. I’m planning to go underground.
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John: Both my parents were cremated. How does one know if the delivered ashes are the correct ones? I guess you don’t, and does it really matter if you think they’re the right ones? I think it’s pretty likely that one can request to watch here at our new installation. But I won’t be a watcher. I’ll be a watchee.
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I told my wife I want my ashes scattered in Wild Cat Canyon. But after the forest fire, it is all ashes. She says she will scatter them on East Van Buren Street in Phoenix.
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Señor Gill: I tossed a portion of my father’s ashes next to an old tombstone in Big Bend National Park. It provided a great view.
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Our local crematorium building is larger than my house, and that is all that is up there. When I checked, it is much less expensive by far than in the frozen north. As far as my ashes, they can go in the garden. I don’t much care.
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Kirk: I also checked the price here many years ago, and it was remarkably inexpensive. I don’t recall the amount. I just recall being surprised at how cheap it was, so that’s good. I don’t care what happens to my ashes either. That’s something of more interest to survivors, I think.
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Nothing worse than a long commute into the afterlife.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where my own cremation will be “well done” after a lifetime of “rare.”
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Kim: You’re a funny guy. With luck, both of our burnings are a good way off. Yours more than mine, of course.
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P.S. Nice site icon!
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Kim: Thanks to you, but I doubt anyone will ever notice due to its being the size of a pin prick. But still…
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Wow. That looks like an Airstream trailer. I’ve read that carcasses, human or animal, are mostly water, so cremation requires blast-furnace heat to do the deed. Maybe that’s why funeral pyres in India are 20 feet high. What a waste of firewood. I wonder what happens to non-flammables, such as gold fillings, and titanium screws and bolts inserted in your bones while you were still ambling around.
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Señor Lanier: It does look effective, does it not? As for gold fillings, this being Mexico, I suspect the crematory workers pick them up somehow. As for the bolts and screws, I imagine they are raked out to give the ashes a consistent look and feel. Of course, I have no titanium bolts and screws. I am just meat and bone. With luck, I will remain so.
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The metal in the cremains after the burning has cooled are put aside in a pile to be disposed elsewhere. Being the soft metal gold is would render the pickings pretty scarce unless removed beforehand.
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Carole: That makes sense. As for the gold in my teeth — I have some — it would have to be pried out of my jaws beforehand, eh? I doubt I would notice under the circumstances.
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I read that India has switched over to electric furnaces from oil and wood.
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Kirk: I bet that has not happened everywhere over there. I like the idea of wooden funeral pyres. I would not mind being hoisted to the top of a load of lumber and sent to Valhalla via flames.
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Felipe, Have you read “The Cremation of Sam Magee” by Robert Service? But then, I don’t think you are from Tennessee!
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Pablo: I have not read that book, and I see on Amazon that it is unavailable on the Kindle. And I am not from Tennessee, but I lived in Nashville a short time before enlisting in the Air Force in 1962. When I got out of the Air Force, I returned to Tennessee and lived another short spell in both Nashville and Knoxville. It’s a good state without too many lunatics.
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Hmmmm? Interesting facility, Felipe! I’m wondering if it turns into a foundry and will eventually eliminate your political brass balls! LOL! It seems some of your friends wish to be scattered to the winds in scenic locations, I, on the other hand, hope to be scattered over Dolly Parton! Whoohoo! Cheers, your friendly Ukerican…
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Dan: Good to see you’re still kicking, señor. As for your wanting to be scattered over Dolly Parton, she’s about 95 years old now. I would opt for greener lady pastures myself.
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