Before my Dad passed away in June, he and my Mom were diligent in getting “their affairs in order”. Now it’s our turn.
My wife and I made a real estate purchase on Monday for our “forever home”. We bought a couple plots in the church cemetery next to my parents and my brother and his wife.
When my wife’s Mom passed away unexpectedly a decade ago, we had to scramble a bit for her funeral & burial arrangements. There are a lot of options and choices to be made nowadays.
With that in mind, my wife & I decided to get ahead of the planning – we updated our will, revocable trusts, and now have cemetery plots. As my wife says, making these plans ahead of time is a gift you give to those we precede in passing.
Related: Revocable Trust: Leaving On A Good Note
The two plots cost us a few thousand dollars. Included in that is money to maintain the cemetery – somehow in perpetuity. The cemetery was started in 1881, so I guess they have a lot of experience in getting the finances figured out.
Our next step will be to get a cemetery stone. We’ll match one with the rest of our family in color & style. Our last name begins with ‘G’, so I already have the superintendent calling our corner of the cemetery “G_____’s Grove”. 🙂
How much planning have you and your family done for this ‘final act’?
Image: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
Wills, trust, healthcare directives, cremation so no need for plots, life insurance and making sure beneficiaries are always updated,
Al’s have a *when I die * binder for my wife with instructions on accounts, investment philosophy, etc.
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You are super organized! We had the legal paperwork done – just needed to update. We’re going cremation too, but my wife wanted a “forever place”.
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we have donated our bodies to UCSD body donor program. When they are “done with us”, they cremate the body and takes ashes out to sea. They do not let you know when this is happening. The problem is if you don’t meet their qualifications at death, they can decline your body and family would need to make plans.
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That’s an interesting approach! Allows for some good to come of your remains. Good for you!
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We are a bit behind in this area. We need to update our will and trust, but our lawyer retired during the pandemic and we need to seek out another.
We do have living wills and instructions for care or lack thereof. We both want cremation but have not decided on what to do with the cremains. Philosophically I am against skeletons taking up valuable real estate. Few graves are visited after a few years and almost none after the surviving generation passes.
We have not made any type of memorial/funeral arrangements. I wasn’t big on funerals until my parents passed and I realized how much of a healing event it was for both myself, siblings and our children.
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Agree – funerals are for the living. My Dad’s funeral was a very small affair – just immediate family. It was terrific just to have everyone together.
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Lead the way, Chief. We’re actively updating our existing documents to current family size, estate holdings and other circumstances. But we left our “forever home” behind in another state. So we must now decide where our remains will reside. Near our children? Or near our parents. In essence, it matters not, for our everlasting life is secured with God by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Here on earth, we will choose a place, so that our kids don’t have to do it while grieving.
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We weren’t sure where to plant ourselves either. It was important to Mrs Fire Station to have a permanent, marked spot. We’re traditional that way. My brother lost his wife two years ago and organized plots with my Mom & Dad two years ago. At first we were told there wasn’t room, but when we chatted with the cemetery super recently, he said there was. Perfect. Even though we may be in another state, too – we’ll be back here forever, which seems fitting. If not, the church will by the plots back at cost.
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My grandparents bought plots for my parents many years ago. Since my mother was 25 at the time, she wasn’t quite so excited about this; however, it was very nice when my father died to have this part arranged already.
There was quite a scramble when my mother in law died, so the difference in situations was obvious.
My husband and I have different thoughts about where we would like our “last home” to be. I think we will likely kick this down the road a few more years.
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We’ve been talking about it for 10 years. We bought an extra plot for our son (& spouse) when we just bought ours. Why not?
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