I just got back from the cemetery. It was a long, grueling morning but we had some future planning business to take care of. Way in the future, we hope.

We needed to straighten out all the cemetery records and deeds and to see where our future graves sites will be. We figured it was better to get this grim task done on a beautiful September morning without the grief and hassle and deadline of a funeral. But there's something about seeing your future grave that has made me uneasy all day long.

I was shocked to discover how expensive cemetery plots are. For my Mom, Dad and myself plus the two extra ones, our final eternal real estate racks up to $30,000. And we won't even be in the most prestigious cemetery in town.

Plus I had no idea the graves sites were actually bought by my grandfather in 1919. Thank goodness the cemetery honored what little evidence we had; certificates of ownership, passed down from my grandparents. All we had to do was fill out some extra paper work and we were given the proper deeds.

Then there was the mix-up. Where exactly were the graves?

It was difficult to sort it all out because there are two family plot areas now; for the Turneys and the Williams. My grave site, will be beside my grandfather's first wife, a woman named Myrtle, who died in childbirth on January 16, 1919.

My parents asked me if that was okay, as if I was going to say no to a free grave, that is also tax free, we were told.

However,after it was all over, the salesman reminded us of the grave opening fee. Yep, $1200. Each.

No problem, they'll take Mastercharge.

And we have 90 days to pay them if we want to lock in that price now. (I think in marketing that's referred to as scarcity)

Of course we don't have to pay for that service now. We can wait for our descendants to take care of it "at a difficult, stressful time", as he put it.

So $3600 went on Mastercharge right before we left.

And as we were going out the door, he reminded us we could pre-plan our funerals, which would be generally $2,000 cheaper than the "competition" cenemetery/funeral home closer to where we acutally live.

Even my parents weren't ready for that, thank goodness.

But esitimations are $10,000 each for the funeral and burial services and that's if we don't do it fancy.

All in all, it took an hour and a half because we wanted to actually see the graves in person.

Here's my advice.

Get your cemetery plans done now.

Sit down with your aging parents and talk it all over and get all the necessary business conducted while you aren't under pressure and grief.

Go to the cemetery and look at the records and the graves. Know who will go where. And have it all in writing.

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