I think the old ways are still the best, especially in the very rural areas of the country. There are a lot of places in the country, like Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, etc, where life and death are seen in a different way than the sterilized world of the city. When you live in ranching and farming communities, and hunt and fish as part of life, you have a different view of things.

When my wife's dad passed on we were newly married and it was really rough on their family. They were a farming/horse trading family and did not have much money. He wanted to be buried in another town and the funeral company wanted more than $3,000 just to transport the casket from one town to the next, which was about 70 miles. The family just did not have that kind of money.

Me and a couple of buddies loaded the casket on the back of my old flatbed Ford and roped it down. We then took off for the next town. We had to go down the interstate for a ways and were getting some strange looks, as we passed through a couple bigger towns in Idaho.

Three guys in cowboy hats and our best clothes and a casket roped on the back of the flatbed, going slower than most the other traffic, as I didn't want anything to go wrong.   Fortunately everything went as well as could be expected.

I have some acreage in the mountains and a small cabin on it. I would prefer to be buried there with my children. It overlooks a large mountain range and there are far worse places to be.

I wish to be cremated and my ashes spread over the state park I spent so much time in. When I'm gone I want nothing to remain of me. Funerals, $25k on a burial and wasting a piece of land that nobody will visit in 50 years is stupid IMO.

Sorry for your loss.

I grew up in Alaska and remember going to a friend's grandfathers funeral or wake type event(he was Native).  It was a big meal with native dancing and the Grandfather had willed blankets and rifles to family and friends.  I was only about 13 or 14, but remember there being several lever action rifles new in the box and a bunch of nice Pendleton style wool blankets.  The event went on late into the night.  I'm not sure on what they called it, maybe a Pot Luck?

Often thought that it was a neat way leave a lasting memory for friends and family.

And it makes sense.

I mean what else are they going to do?  Lay the family member’s body outside?

I imagine that wouldn’t go to well...

That's what I did with both parents and grandparents .

Yikes, but definitely not that fucked up of a story by bush standards.

We flew for the same company, I was there after your time though.

Since my daughter is endeavoring to be an M.D., I'm donating to medical science, with the thought that I can help teach the next one, as the generosity of the one before me taught mine.