Today’s Close to Home cartoon shows mourners filing past a casket that appears to be the size of a TUFF Shed. A woman comments to another visitor “Frank had claustrophobia all his life.”
This goes way beyond over-sized caskets for the obese! Guess anyone who’s got a fear of small spaces would be in trouble with cremation, too, as they’d be put in a cardboard box and then into a retort.
In today’s Sunday funnies, the Luann comic strip looks at all the details of organizing weddings. What most folks don’t think about is the need to apply the same detailed planning to organizing funerals.
Luann’s brother Brad is going to marry his sweetheart Toni. Toni has been looking at wedding websites and has found a list of things to do before “I Do.” She tells Brad, “Ready for this? To plan our wedding we have 228 decisions to make.” He replies, “Well, I’ve already made one decision. I vow to love you for the rest of my life.”
She replies, ” That’s very sweet, Brad. But you still have to help on the other 227.” He grins, “What if I vow not to interfere with wedding plans? Would that count as helping?”
Now, Brad and Toni are planning their wedding months in advance. Yet most people do not discuss, think about or plan for their own funeral or for anyone else. Would you want to make those 227 decisions in the span of 48 hours?
You might not have as many as 227 decisions to make when a death occurs, but it will feel like it. Being prepared and planning ahead makes it much easier for those you love. If you would like a list of 50 Things That Must Be Done When A Death Occurs, email a note to me care of Gail[at]AGoodGoodbye.com and I’ll send it to you pronto!
Today’s Bizarro has the Grim Reaper at the cleaners, stripped to his skivvies. The lady at the counter is looking over his black robes and says, “What’s with you and the bloodstains all the time?”
How can she tell blood stains on a black robe?
This recent Pearls Before Swine death cartoon eloquently illustrates how individuals all need different amounts of time to mourn – and they grieve in different ways.
The Guard Duck and Pig are putting together a basketball team. Guard Duck says, “Hey, Mr. Armadillo. Care to join our basketball team?” Mr. Armadillo replies, “I’d like to, but my wife just got run over by a truck and I’m afraid I need some time to mourn.”
There is one panel’s worth of silence.
“Okay, I’m good,” says Mr. Armadillo. “He is SO resilient,” marvels Pig.
Okay, so armadillos have a habit of getting run over on the road on a regular basis. Humans, whether they admit it or not, need a bit more time than a moment to process the loss of a loved one.
Don’t be a human armadillo. Take time to recognize that life is changed by loss.
Today’s Death Cartoon: Close to Home takes the notion of green burial a step beyond!
One lady says to a visitor, “The casket is made out of sod to be 100% environmentally friendly.”
Why not just do a shroud burial?
Today’s Non Sequitur provides a heavenly death cartoon – hula hooping with halos! One angel says to another, “Oh, great… Now I’ve got halo envy.” Ha!
But really, there is no envy in heaven, is there?
Today’s Death Cartoon concerns ambulances that get there a little too late. Of course, it’s a Non Sequitur cartoon!
There’s a graveside funeral service going on in the cemetery. A vehicle with the Better Late Than Never Ambulance Service has pulled up and two guys are carrying a stretcher. A third guy who’s holding a clipboard says, “Oh… Ok… But we still have to bill you for the service call.”
Some service!
You just have to look at this snowman funeral death cartoon to get the joke. Thanks to Karl E. Jennings for sending this along!
Do you suppose this snowman was cremated?
It’s been a while since I posted on some Death Cartoons – here are a few recent gems.
In Pickles, grandson Nelson says to Grandpa, “I’ll miss you when you’re gone, Grandpa.” Grandpa thinks about this for a frame and says, “Where am I going?” (I heard this a lot at Christian funerals reading from the book of John.) Grandma says, “I don’t know, but I hope you clean up this mess before you go.” We all need to clean up our messes before we go.
In F Minus, there’s a guy blowing up a beach ball while sitting in a pew. His neighbor says, “No, in fact I don’t think anything goes over well with the funeral crowd.” The moral of the story: don’t try to be entertaining at a funeral. Folks aren’t there for fun.
And lastly, we have a Close to Home cartoon with The Grim Reaper on a couch in a psychiatrist’s office. The doctor is saying, “I think we all have a fear of death. It’s just that in your case, you’re afraid of, well, YOU. Hmm, interesting.”
Whether you fear death or not, consider coming to the first Death Café event in Albuquerque on September 30, 2012, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Discuss mortality over tea and cakes! See the Death Café link at AGoodGoodbye.com for more information.
Today’s Dilbert cartoon has Dilbert saying, “When I die, I want my ashes scattered in outer space.” Dogbert replies, “Cool! I’ll bribe an Elbonian general to strap you to an intercontinental missile when they test it next week.” Dilbert says, “It’s better if the dying and the ash scattering are two separate events.” “Don’t be a burden on the living,” says Dogbert.
Over in the Lio cartoon, he’s fishing with the Grim Reaper. Catch of the day, anyone?
Meanwhile, an earlier Pearls Before Swine has the Grim Reaper getting into a T-shirt that has an awkward message:
Oh, the irony!
