Fit, healthy, and happily retired, Marilyn Cornally has no plans of slowing down any time soon. Still, she is empowered to put her end-of-life plans in place with a Will and a Bare prepaid funeral plan for one simple reason.
“Because you don’t know when it’s going to happen, you don’t know what your health is going to be like later on,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll get dementia or Alzheimer’s, or whether it’s cancer or heart disease. Because one of those is going to get you eventually.
“It’s pretty daunting to accept that you’re going to die, that there’s an end to this life,” she said.
Marilyn is in the process of writing down her funeral plans so that her brother, as her executor, doesn’t have to worry if what he’s doing is what she really wanted.
“Funerals are a bit contentious, I think. People are changing their views on funerals. I think more and more, people are starting to switch their thinking and would prefer to have a celebration rather than a service that can be a bit morbid at times,” she said.
With a love of good scotch and a nice glass of red wine, Marilyn wants her funeral to be more about eating, drinking and telling tales. “I hope it would be anyway!” she laughed.
“I want friends to get together for a bit of a party, have a good time. That would be nice… I’ve had a good life, I’ve enjoyed my life, I’ve loved my friends. I want to be remembered as a fun person to be around, and a good friend. ”
Born and raised in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Elsternwick, Marilyn has also enjoyed living in Canada in her younger years. The Rocky Mountains is where the spritely 73-year-old would like to end her mortal journey. That is, of course, if her loved ones would be willing to make the trek across the other side of the globe to scatter her ashes.
“I love the Canadian Rockies, they are so beautiful. It might be an impetus to get somebody to travel and I’d love my ashes to be scatted in the Rockies. Failing that, if they don’t choose to spend some of their inheritance on a trip to Canada, then Elwood Beach would do,” she added. “I find water very calming and relaxing.”
Why prepaid funerals are a great idea
Marilyn chose to prepay her funeral with Bare because she wants a straightforward and simple send-off. She wants her final farewell to reflect how she lived life – fun and low fuss. No formal speeches, or reliving her life’s story.
“I think there’s a lot of waste around funerals and you’re getting people at the most vulnerable time. So they will spend money and not resent it, but then you look back a few years later, you think ‘my gosh, that was an awful amount of money for something that really shouldn’t be an awful lot of money’,” she said.
“My father died in 2008 and it was about $7000 or $8,000 I think, at that time – which I thought was a heck of a lot of money. It’s not that I resented it, I just thought it was a waste. My dad was one of these really practical people who didn’t like waste. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up.”
She encourages others to consider prepaying their funeral too, because she thinks it’s a great way to get what you want from your final farewell.
Marilyn said that friendships and people have brought her the most joy in life, so prepaying her simple funeral with Bare ensures that she can leave behind an inheritance to those she loved, instead of an elaborate funeral.
To learn how to arrange a simple and affordable prepaid funeral, visit bare.com.au or chat with our friendly prepaid concierge team on 1800 202 901.
