I got some sad footage earlier, reminded me of a few places I have been in the past. It was a big pit in Mindanao, filled with the bones of thousands of people whose relatives could no longer afford to pay the rentals in cemeteries and those "Hole in the wall" body slots, what a strange world we live in.
I'v instructed my missus to have me cremated when I pass and do what she wants with the ashes. My nanay and tatay are both together in a tomb, I don't know the terminology of what they are called. Like a detached private hole in the wall. They had to get tatay out of the old hole in the wall to be with his wife. A lot of money wasted in my view. But it's their country and culture.
Yup, burning for me, though to be honest I quite like the idea of a sky burial. As for the philippine burials, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, graves for rent, I wouldn't have thought it fitted in with their Catholic ethos
I took these shots back in 2008 on All Saints day at the cemetery where Tatay's bones were, I'm not posting his slot. I found the experience quite moving, the previous year Ana and I had visited my mum's grave in Hawkhead Cemetery in Paisley.
It's sad how death is such a big money business. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that when I'm dead, you can dispose of my body in the simplest form possible. Chuck it in a hole. Dump it at sea. (in an environmentally friendly manner). Move on. Unfortunately, society would simply not allow this to happen. My family would be shamed all over social media if they actually did that to my lifeless carcass. Instead, they would have no option but to spend a fair chunk of change to make it socially acceptable. At least these photos are in good taste. I don't know whether to laugh or cringe when I see some online photos from All Saints Day with smiling Filipinos eating a picnic at the cemetery and taking turns to have selfies with Tito Marvin's headstone. Maybe the saddest thing is that you rarely see memorials for Lolo and Lola in their 80s, but more often it will be 50 year old Tito or a cousin who didn't reach their 2nd birthday.
We realise just how different life (and death) is in the Philippines. Anyone married to a Filipina will hear and see things that are strange to us here in the UK. The last time I was on my wife's island, she took me to the place where bones were easy to see. She prayed there, telling me whose skulls they belonged to, and does every time she goes home.
when i cleared my old dads house out--i came across a cardboard box--inside it was a wooden box with my mothers ashes in it. She had died 18 years before. i had him cremated--and i never went back to collect his ashes. I think its a macabre practice. The ashes could be anyone--or anything.
