This won't make sense unless you read the blog done earlier today titled: Button Boxes and Cookie Bowls. Read that first please so I don't have to repeat the background.
My digression on button boxes ended with my wishes to have my cremains placed in mom's buttons box. We have a reserved spot in a columbarium at the Minnesota Veteran's Cemetary in Little Falls, MN., my home town.
We figured the button box would fit in our spot in the wall. That raises the question of what should we put his ashes in? He didn't have a preference or an idea. Then is struck me. The button box has always been kept stacked with my sewing "box". Neither are boxes. They are both tin canisters. They have been together for decades just like Jon and me. I grabbed both containers. My button box looks a bit battered. It has dents and my maiden name scratched on it. I guess I claimed it when I was a kid. The other canister was not acceptable to my husband for his final remains. It is labeled, "Ye Olde English Fruit Cake". I don't think that is how he wants to be remembered, but it sure is funny.
When I told this story to my friend Mary she laughed. Mary loves to travel. In the past decade she has been on around ten foreign mission trips to places like Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Ukraine and Jamaica. Now she is planning to volunteer to help bring in the grape harvest in Israel this fall. She loves to meet new people. I suggested if she were to be cremated she could put her ashes in her travel tote and friends could just keep taking her to new places. She laughed. That might be more fun than being stuck in a wall in a tin can.
2 comments:
I work with a guy who recently recounted his story of making his fathers wish come true: Resting in peace at Wrigley Field. Thankfully he was cremated (rimshot, please). Even then it wasn't easy. But he did accomplish it.
Dad: Ye Olde English Fruit Cake - that's pretty good.
Growing up I always assumed everyone had a sewing tin like this. Nope. And I think I have your mother/my grandmother's tin that she had when she passed. I don't know where else I would have gotten it.
I assume it'll have the same spindles of thread my entire life. I sew on a button maybe once a year, not enough to actually use it up.
p.s. I thought you wanted to be "buried" (scattered) at Arlington?! As for me, I'll have to consider it. Maybe I'll make them recreate some of my trips..Favorite places and all that.
I had forgotten about my stated desire to be at Arlington National Cemetary. Maybe you can take what doesn't fit in the tin canister and scatter that at Arlington. If there is any $$$ left when the estate is settled, the family could take a trip together to scatter part of me there. That would ensure I would always have lots of visitors and be in places where they keep the grass green and cut. Jane
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