Heidi Aphrodite

I’ve been thinking about this for a few years now–it happens when people from high school die young, I guess–and I’ve decided what I want to happen when I die.  These aren’t funeral plans (I’ll let other people handle those, as long as they don’t sing “Til We Meet” or something equally tear-inducing) but they are plans for disposing of my earthly remains.  I know it’s kind of morbid in some ways but I don’t care; this is what I want:

Take everything you possibly can from me for organ/tissue donation.  Skin, eyes, heart, lungs, liver, stomach, intestines, whatever can possibly be salvaged to keep someone else alive or healthy.

Give my brain to the Harvard Brain Bank.  They do good work and my brain is pretty normal and healthy as far as I know.  Let ‘em have it for research.

And this final request is the really weird one.  We know that our bodies are just temporary houses for our spirits, but we have this need to have something to bury.  However, if my body can help solve crimes and save lives, give it to the Forensic Anthropology Center at University of Tennessee, otherwise known as “the body farm”.  These people do such amazing and valuable research!  They’ve revolutionized forensic anthropology by putting actual bodies in situations where they might have been dumped by criminals.  I really want to add to that research in some way, and the best way is giving them what’s left of me to help put the bad guys away forever.

Since there won’t be a body to bury (unless I change my mind), I’d like a really lovely memorial service.  They can bury some jewelry or something, I don’t care as long as there is music and a truckload of pink flowers.