Let's continue with the theme of Death Month.  A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the living room front window, a large bay window that overlooks the front yard, the birdfeeders, Clay Hill Road, and anyone or anything going on outside my house.  I love to sit in that window, especially when the sun is bright on a cold winter's day, it is almost like being at the beach.  Anyway, I was sitting there, when I got this idea that I would like to be laid out in front of that window, in my own house, with my own things all around me.  No need to make a photo poster, family pictures hang all over the walls.  No cold hard folding seats, there is my wonderful couch of 25 years to relax on.  I shared this idea later that day with Sabra and Laura and they quickly latched on to the idea.  "It would be so nice, so comfortable to be in our own home, for the funeral.  The kids could go outside and run around, you could make a cup of tea in the kitchen, so much better than the coldness of the local funeral home."  At Mayor Koch's funeral on Monday, which I watched with great interest, his assistant remembered that the Mayor had strarted to plan his funeral in the 80's and was constantly updating it.  Can't start too early, better make an appointment with the funeral director to see if he can handle this, I thought.

Then today at Mass, the priest got into "dust to dust" with Ash Wednesday coming up in a few days.  My ears perked up when he mentioned wooden coffins hand made by Trappist Monks as part of their works for God.  Looking the coffins up on the internet, their simplicity, their low price starting at $1,000, sold me.  They even bless the coffins and offer a free Mass for anyone using one.  What a bargain.  I think I am on to something.