Ship of Fools: Memento Vita - what would yours be?

Thread: Memento Vita - what would yours be? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on :

One of our friends, who was actually in his eighties, was buried the other day and his children had put together just a very small table-ful of mementoes of his life. A Masai spear, walking boots, secateurs, and the door ornament from the car belonging to a Ugandan President that sort of thing. I told Mr. S his would be a pile of broken laptops, a GPS for the geocaching, and a couple of tinned meat pies for the Food Bank
[Killing me]

Firenze suggested I use this to start a new thread, so - what would that little table carry if it were your funeral?

I think I'd have a heap of books, some CDs and theatre programmes, a puppet, a box of spices, walking boots, something I'd sewn, my sailing hat, a bag of compost perhaps ... another heap of books?

Our friend had done so much - I came out of the church wishing I'd made more of my life, rather as I did when I read Sir Nicholas Winton's obituary.

Anyway, what would you have on your memento vita* table?

* life memorabilia

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :

Hmmm, definitely a heap of books, and some music. And dog poo bags - they seem to be in every pocket of every item of clothing I own, so I'm sure they'd find their way there, too. My binoculars, perhaps. Oh, and definitely my camp blanket - probably with some badges still waiting to be sewn on [Big Grin]

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

Another pile of books here, history and costume ones, and cookery books of exotic recipes. My Moorfield's medal (hospital training badge) and nurse's uniform and silver buckle, with an eye chart behind. My sewing machine and something I've made, perhaps my Tudor kirtle, and glass hair ornaments from my kiln. An early 1970s Laura Ashley maxi dress from my collection, bikers' jacket, Doc Martins and the brightly coloured homemade felted wool dreads I used to wear in my hair - the uniform of my youth. And a recording of me reading silly rhymes and poetry to my children.
Hmm, it seems I don't need a table as much as a collection of mannequins [Big Grin]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Stack of books, stack of mss, a pile of knitting. Probably a home-baked sour-cherry tart in there somewhere, also some faux-painted furniture.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

My favourite shoes; some books (including a copy of The Oxford Book of Tudor Church Music open at the page with Gibbons' O clap your hands, which is my favourite anthem); a few CDs including Praetorius' Christmas Mass sung by the Gabrieli Consort and Queen's Greatest Hits; a few Grauniad crosswords downloaded from the interweb and a pen; my bread-making machine; a cheese-board and knives; and the knitted Piglet from whom I take my Ship moniker.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

I wouldn't just have a Bible but all the other holy books too, e.g. Qur'an.

Photos of people who have influnced me e.g. Bishop Frank Houghton of the China Inland Mission, Fr. Alan Rogers, formerly one of the Bletchly park decoders.

Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on :

A picture of me and Nelson Mandela having a little chat.

Award for Fortitude (Scouts Canada, citation signed personally by the then Governor General)

Head of the Public Service Award (Signed by the then Clerk of the Privy Council) for caring and valuing people in my Public Service Career

Possibly a current picture. Definitely a large plate of cookies for visitors

No clutter of stuff. I hate clutter.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

I have two awards that I will never throw away, which I hope will show up in such a display.

The first is my four-year letter award from high school. In American high schools, if you are a starter on the number one team in a sport, you earn a letter, which is a hard-backed fabric initial of your school, which you can sew on a jacket or sweater. Anyone who makes the top team all four years is a four year letterman, and at my school, you got a special award. Mind you, I was a terrible athlete, and I only earned this award because there were never enough people who signed up to run cross country to merit a number two team. But I showed up every year, I ran every race, and at the end of my senior year, I got up there on the stage with some really talented athletes to collect my award, which I think I earned fairly.

The second is an employee of the month award I earned while working at a ski area after college, where I loaded ski lifts and shoveled snow all day. I may be a desk jockey today, but I think that gives me a little physical laborer credibility.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

Start with the obvious: Diet pop (preferably Coke, but whatever's on sale); diet Vernor's (a Detroit ginger ale); chocolate (probably Hershey bars, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and some Sanders candy and/or sauce). If friends wanted to share a meal for my anamnesis, it might start with Detroit-style pizza or a fried-egg sandwich, but it would definitely involve chocolate and Diet Coke or Vernor's.

A bottle of Michigan cherry wine. Maybe a "girly" mixed drink, too, whatever someone remembers me having enjoyed. (Have you picked up yet that I have a sweet tooth?)

Patchouli oil. Resin incense burning: frankincense with a little rose in it, perhaps.

My poetry books and an unkempt pile of unfinished drafts; the complete works of Plath, Sexton, and Yeats; CDs by Bruce Cockburn, Joy Division, and His Name Is Alive; theological texts by my late professor/would-have-been-mentor, Alex Garcia-Rivera: A Wounded Innocence, in particular, and perhaps his others, too. Maybe some of my favorite books on Detroit, like Jerry Herron's AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History, or The Detroit Almanac.

A Bible (NRSV, with Apocrypha) and Book of Common Prayer (1979, for now). The little portable diptych icon I bought when I was in Manchester, with the Rublev "Trinity" icon on the left, and the Virgin of Vladimir (detail) on the right.

My Pewabic tiles, one with the older (pre Ren-Cen) skyline, that says, "In Detroit Life is Worth Living," and the other that just says "Detroit" with a more modern skyline. And my Heidelberg Project t-shirt that says Detroit on the front. The railway spike or some of the glass I picked up inside the Michigan Central Station. And pictures of my church.

Coins I picked up on my travels to other countries.

My old Mac, perhaps open to my "friends" list on facebook. It will need to be plugged in, as it has no battery; and it will, of course, overheat and shut itself off before the service has a chance to begin.

Just about any of my knick-knacks, 'cause I only keep ones that have a story or are meaningful because of a connection with someone.

None of this should be very orderly. Other elements of clutter might be tossed in, like unopened bills, receipts, scraps of paper with notes on them, etc. A TV remote, 'cause I'm a TV junkie, or a Netflix envelope. Empty Diet Coke cans, even.

[ 08. July 2015, 20:29: Message edited by: churchgeek ]

Posted by nickel (# 8363) on :

No one has mentioned rocks yet; my table would have several. And my favorite coffee cup, whatever it is at the end. A selection of books and music (cd's for new stuff, vinyl for the music of my youth). My kitchen-aid mixer, and an orchid or two. And family pictures, including the dogs. That should be enough!

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

There is one banner of which I am particularly fond. It would make a good funeral banner as it is silver grey with one simple word on it copied from my husband's calligraphy - it says ABIDE. It is very large, so I would like this as a pall over my coffin. There is a matching small lecturn fall with a chalice and wafer that is also one of my creations. On the small table only two things. My Kairos 4th day cross with its rainbow lanyard, and an enormous plate of chocolate to share (all kinds).

That pretty much says it all.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Yarn. Lots and lots in every colour, texture, weave and weight. Fabric - tweed and silk and satin and cottons in every colour but mostly floral patterns. Beads and pearls and semi precious stones and silver in chains and ropes and heaps. Food - maybe a cauldron or two of something savoury and aromatic - with a stack of freshly baked bread to dunk. Watercolours and calligraphy piled on top of the stack of mss. Tucked under the now buckling table, herbs in pots and a trug of newly dug potatoes.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

My trombone. I've finally slid away.

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

I'd have to have my archaeologist's trowel, and my Tardis key, along with my longbow and medieval arrows. And maybe a bottle of my favourite real ale, possibly Aether Black from Hardknott brewery.
I'd also want the blackwork embroidery I'm proudest of making, of a leaping cat with a background of a variety of blackwork patterns in arcs.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Interesting this. My sense is to have absolutely nothing in the way of objects or tangible items. Maybe a computer link where people can look at pictures at most.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Damn, I forgot the drink. You'll find the gin behind the yarn, the Reds beside the potatoes and the fizz (champagne of course, but also Cremant de Limoux and Cava) next the poetry.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

Good point, Firenze - I'll have to have a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

And I hadn't thought to mention a copy of the Prayer Book, but if the service isn't conducted in Cranmer's matchless prose, I'll be coming back to do some haunting.

Churchgeek, I'll have to give your funeral a miss: the scent of Patchouli makes my eyes water. [Big Grin]

Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
Interesting this. My sense is to have absolutely nothing in the way of objects or tangible items. Maybe a computer link where people can look at pictures at most.

NPFISS, I'm not sure what you're saying here. This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing, and it caught the imaginations of quite a few people in the congregation. My impression was that as so few of us know the whole sum of a person's life, this was a way of expressing some of the aspects that would be unfamiliar to some of the mourners. Does that make sense? I'm sure there was no intention to consider them as 'grave goods' or the like.

Mrs. S, who will probably have decluttered all hers by then [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Several piles of ancient, battered paperbacks including language courses. Three quite different cameras, one not working, a bunch of printouts of photographs, mostly of the countryside or of Oxford, and some memory sticks. A half-eaten bar of chocolate and half a cup of cold tea, along with a fork and the remains of a piece of cheese on a plate. A scattering of used railway tickets and another of pens. A stack of unpublished manuscript. Some printouts of century-old poems. A vase of dead flowers and an unwatered houseplant. A small cheap reproduction of a Dutch painting, and a foreign coin with a hole in it.

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

What I love the most - a picture reminder of Mrs M and the three Misses M: I have the right one in front of me now.

I've achieved so little but the picture is a sign of my being loved so much anyway

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Ariel: A half-eaten bar of chocolate

Hmm, this means that as a preparation you'd need to get a bar of chocolate, eat only half of it and keep the rest. I would be incapable of doing that.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Look at it this way: Since "no man knoweth the day or the hour," you are obliged to eat chocolate on a regular basis so as to have a fresh half available. And since we don't want to waste, you will need to eat the old second half while it is still good, plus the new first half, every time. Which equals a whole chocolate bar fairly often, depending on your standards of freshness.

Where's the downside to this?

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

Re photos: at every funeral I've been to recently, hundreds of family pics are played on a screen during various parts of the service - whether in a church, a hall or at the crematorium. The order of service also usually has a favourite pic of the deceased on it.

I cannot see the need for photos displayed on another table - so I am assuming the photo factor will have already been taken care of in various other ways at my funeral.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

There would have to be a pile of music, piano and organ stuff. It would have to be my old favorites, the ones I play over and over again! Can't forget my good lightsaber. The purple one!
Some of the angels from my china hutch need to be there, and a plate of grilled salmon and sweet potatoes. Most importantly, a heart-shaped pillow with the names of my most beloved family and friends embroidered on it.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

My organ shoes, of course; a couple of organ scores (Franck preferred), 4 Rookwood pottery containers (into which my ashes will go); masks (both Peking opera and West African tribal) -- these should shock those unprepared! -- and the quilt my grandmother made for me. AND, playing on a loop, the final trio from 'Der Rosenkavalier' from the movie starring E Schwarzkopf.
(There's probably more .... )

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

I have sheds full of tools and engineering projects in various states of completion, some of which have been inherited from those already dead. Since I hate waste, I think I might make my funeral a kind of hearse-boot casket-top sell up sale - 'He don't go up the chimney 'till all this stuff goes, folks'.

After a few days of unrefrigerated decomposition, I might hope any attenders would feel sufficiently obliged to stump up for a good cause and take home something unwanted and obsolete, after which my job will be done.

Skip anything, and I'll haunt ya - watch the cheap red-tops for gruesome tales of a poltergeist with a brace and some blunt and rusty wood bits.

[ 12. July 2015, 14:03: Message edited by: mark_in_manchester ]

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

Books. Whodunnits, historical fiction, Jane Austen and music. My concertina.My sheep in an apple orchard cardi that I knitted. Friends will be respectfully requested to wear those I knitted for them. My Aebelskiver pan, with the aebelskiver and schnapps/red wine/Guinness as refreshments. Cheese. A cat, probably snoozing on the cardi. My medieval cossie.

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

The contents of my table might well depend on whether I choose or my remaining nearest and dearest do. It might be an interesting exercise for us to draw up lists and see where the similarities and differences are. Or it might be a disaster.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

I've been thinking about this for a while - and not thinking about it.

Within 4 hours of death, my body will be in the local medical college having any salvageable bits removed and then the remainder in the students bit for those remains to be cut up by rank amateurs trying to learn their anatomy & physiology - I suppose that if there are any bits left they can be placed on the table so guests can guess their original purpose.

But really speaking if there is anything left they might just as well pop it into the college furnace just to see if the smoke is black or white.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

On consulting my children, they say there will definitely have to be a basketful of broken spectacles and watches.
[Frown]

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :

I've been pondering this on and off since first posting, and have come to the conclusion that the half-knitted sock should also be on my table. And baking tins. Not to mention some sort of delectable goodies produced by Op 2... [Smile]

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