The newspaper recently ran a half-page obituary about a race car driver from the 1960’s who just died at the age of 82. It caught my attention because the picture was of an attractive young woman in a race car fastening her helmet. The article said she was the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America national championship. The hook in the story was that she had requested her body be seated behind the steering wheel of a 1979 pink Corvette for visitation at the funeral home. I looked again at the photo and wondered what it would be like to go to a wake and see the deceased ready to gun the engine. I’m laughing right now, but the far-reaching implication of this sort of farewell is kind of spooky.
Do we need to prepare ourselves for the specter of golfers being buried on the 9th hole? Can you imagine popping in to see your insurance agent only to find him propped at his desk with an actuarial table in front of him and a Starbucks in his hand? If he’s not a big talker to begin with it might be some time before you realize you’re paying your respects. I don’t know about you, but I’m skeeved enough by a body laid out for viewing without having to consider the possibility it might be leaning by the door on roller blades. Preparing to have an active death seems somewhat counterproductive. Or maybe I’m just not seeing the bigger picture.
When my grandmother was about 90, which would be ten years before she died, we were at a family gathering down in Florida at her Century Village condo. Husband was saying that his parents had just sold their home and bought into a life community. My grandmother asked what that entailed and maybe she should do it too. Husband and one of my relatives who was in his 70’s explained that the money you invest in the community provides you with living quarters forever with all of your meals included, and a health facility on the premises in the event you ever need nursing home care.
GRANDMA: What does this sort of thing cost?
HUSBAND: For a couple, anywhere from one-fifty to two-hundred thousand.
GRANDMA: DOLLARS??
HUSBAND: It’s for lifetime care, no matter what happens or how long you live. It’s security for the rest of your life.
RELATIVE: Selling this condo might net you enough to buy into one.
GRANDMA: But you get the money back, right? You can still leave it to your family after you die. The community gives it all back in the end, right?
Husband and the older relative looked at each other amused.
RELATIVE: Yeah, sure. They toss a check in your coffin before you go in the ground.
Or behind the wheel.
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