She spent her life by the washing machine. It’s the perfect tribute －彼女は洗濯機のそばで人生を過ごした。それは彼女にぴったりの賛辞だ。－

Do you have any romantic notions about what should happen to your body after death?  Perhaps you would like to be cremated, and your ashes scattered into the sea.  Perhaps you would like to be buried next to your lover, so you can spend eternity in each others’ arms. 

I have decided what should happen to my body after death.  I want to be given a final spa treatment, my body washed so clean that only white bones remain.  Actually, according to a BBC article I read about “water cremation”, only my white bones and my surgical implants would be left.

This new treatment has started in Canada and America, and will come to Britain soon.  The body is treated with chemicals at a high pressure and temperature.  This causes the soft parts of the body to dissolve.  As with cremation by fire, the bones are left and are crushed into powder.  But while cremation by fire leaves black, burned ashes, the water cremation leaves the bones as white powder.

It sounds lovely and clean, doesn’t it?  In some ways it makes me think of a final spa treatment, cleaning the body thoroughly.

On the other hand, in some ways it makes me think of a trip to the launderette.  According to the BBC article, the body is placed in a huge tank.  Then to activate the machine, someone presses a button marked “cycle”, like on a washing machine.  The machine then beeps twice and the tank starts to fill with water, again like a washing machine.  The treatment takes about three hours, including a final rinse cycle.  The waste water, including the chemicals and the dissolved parts of the body has a kind of soapy smell, like you get in a launderette. 

Perhaps your loved one deserves a final spa treatment after death.  Or perhaps they have diligently washed your clothes so often that you feel a final trip to the washing machine would be the perfect tribute. 

Either way, it will be interesting to see if water cremation catches on.

Vocabulary:

a notion – an idea or thought

to be cremated – for a body to be burned after death

to scatter – to throw over a wide areaa surgical implant – a medical device or artificial body part put into one’s body

to dissolve – of a solid object, to break down and become thoroughly mixed with a liquid

 launderette – a place with coin operated washing machines for people to wash their clothes

diligently – with care and hard work

to catch on – to become popular