I have a different point of view when it comes to funerals. When I attend a funeral, which is not very often, I always wonder what actually goes on in people’s minds. Do they really feel sad or do they just pretend. Does the spirit of the dead person move around the moaners like in the movies?

Why can’t people remember that the person has gone onto a better place? Although they have left our world, they have gone onto a new one. We should think of it as a time of new experiences for the deceased, like a graduation.

I often sit and plan my own funeral. I know my friends and family think I’m insane for doing this. I can’t understand why. We plan other major events in our life, why not our own funeral? It’s one more journey we are going on, and it should be carried out to our wishes.

I know I’m going to a happier place. I want those around me to treat my funeral as such. It can be exciting to plan the event.

I want my coffin to be the shape of a guitar. Now I am not sure how they’re going to fit my body into it, but it is my dream coffin anyway. I want the strings to be carved on its upper surface and painted gold. So that I have a black and gold guitar shaped coffin looking just like my present guitar. This will definitely cheer people up.

The music should be fun and cheerful. My favorite song is Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss”. I definitely want someone to sing that. Hopefully my husband or boyfriend.

I want my mother to serve wine that she herself makes because that is my favorite wine and I know for sure people will love it too and will talk about the wine instead of talking about how I died and how sad it is and what a terrible loss it is.

These are things I think about, but the truth is, once someone’s dead, he probably has no idea what is happening around him, probably has nothing to do with his memorial service and it probably is a whole big drama. People go shopping for the best funeral clothing, shoes to match, a hat, the best choir, the best priest etc. But does it make a difference? Well, fortunately I really don’t know yet.