rachelmanija | (Reply)

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When my father died my brother pushed for a funeral home that offered very customized services, so family could be involved more or less with the handling of the body depending on the preferences. We decided to have the mortician do the washing and underwear, but to participate in the dressing and placing grave goods, and then an open casket viewing for the day before the funeral so those who hadn't been in the hospital when he died or shortly afterwards could still see and touch the body. There was no embalming. (I don't think that's allowed here, even if you wanted, since the corpse has to rot in case the relatives don't rent the burial plot for longer than the minimum amount of two decades or so, and of course there's the environmental regulations.)