“There are two Taipei City Government funeral homes. Both are equipped with cold storage facilities. Remains can only be preserved in good condition for a maximum of ten days. Neither funeral home is adequate to prepare remains satisfactorily to be returned to the United States. Shipment must be arranged with an undertaker who not only arranges with the funeral home or crematorium for the preparation of the remains, but also prepares the required shipping documents, e.g., cremation certificate, quarantine certificate, embalming certificate, inspection certificate, export permit, etc.”
“Unless the next-of-kin has someone in Taiwan who can act on its behalf in locating a burial site, local burial is not recommended. Local burial is expensive because cemetery land is at a premium. If the family insists on burial in Taiwan, local churches and other organizations may be able to arrange for a suitable location. The cost for preparation and burial in Taiwan can run as high as US$25,000.”
“Taipei has only one public crematorium; it has ten incinerators. It usually takes three to five days before cremation can be completed. A notarized affidavit authorizing cremation, signed by the next-of-kin or legal representative, must be sent to the Consular Section before we can arrange for cremation, which costs about US$1,700. Shipping the ashes in an urn to the United States will cost an additional US$800. Local interment of the ashes can be arranged, but the price will vary depending on the location.”
Based on the original article I understand that they want the body, not ashes. It’s not for us to tell them to cremate the body here because it’s cheaper. What they later do with the body is not our business either, even they are not financially well of we should respect their wish if they want to have a proper burial.
If they indeed want a cremation I also think it’s reasonable to assume they want to be there, which most likely may not be possible if it’s done here (financial situation does not allow for them to travel to Taiwan).
Edit: actually we do know:
[quote]Now, Jana’s family needs to rely on the generosity of others to help
them give their daughter a proper burial, …[/quote] forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … highlight=
Well, its all rather moot. According to that link, they’ve already raised the money they need. And I noticed this post from one of her friends:
[quote]Jana is the second friend I have watched go down in an alcohol-fueled
mass of flames. Needless to say, you take your life in your hands
whenever you get on a bike in this city. If you throw alcohol into the
mix (which most of us have done) the odds of not making it safely home
increase ten fold.
People will probably think this a callous remark, but I won’t shed a
tear for Jana as I didn’t for Chris (although both of their deaths have
have seriously fucked me up). Gambling with your life is a calculated
risk - my sympathy goes out to the devastated people that both Chris
and Jana have left behind.[/quote]
I think he or she said it pretty well. Tragic but so, so avoidable. Stupid kids.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Hang on Sandman, before these threads became seperated there was some mention she was hit by a drunken driver while walking down the road.
HG[/quote]A mention, a rumour. And they only say that alcohol was “involved”, some say she was drunk, some say the other party was drunk. How about some facts first ?
And in the event that’s not what happened, in the event that the bf and gf were both killed because they themselves were driving drunk (I have no idea whether that’s the case or not), I would still feel badly for them. I would still feel badly that they each screwed up and made such a stupid decision that resulted in them throwing away the bulk of their lives – never to have children, grandchildren, a family, a real career, and so many other things. Just because their deaths may have resulted from their own stupid act is no reason not to feel it’s a shame they blew it so badly.
I had a roommate who went rockclimbing at age 19 alone, without being roped in, free climbing 60 feet up, and he fell, smashed his face on the rocks and died. Maybe what he did was dumb, but I think it’s tragic he threw away his life with one foolish decision.
Of course I agree with the comments by others about what a tragedy it is for the survivors, too. I had to notify the kid’s parents that he was dead at age 19 and comforted them through various conversations before, during and after the funeral service. I think it’s fair to say something like that will be devastating for them for many many years, perhaps (or maybe probably) for the remainder of their lives.
So, it’s true that one who drives drunk makes a stupid choice and if he/she dies doing so it’s his/her own fault. And it’s true that the drunk driver might suffer only a very brief period of pain before everything goes black, whereas his/her family and friends may suffer greatly for years. But I still find it tragic for the young fool who blows it and throws away his/her precious life in a moment of stupidity.
I’m just going by what’s on that other site, which are mostly posts by their friends as far as I can see, and which point pretty squarely to drunk driving on both their parts.
And nowhere did I say its not tragic – it surely is. It’s also pointless, avoidable and utterly stupid.
From an uninformed point of view it seems highly illogical that a girl who had just lost her bf in a drink related accident would have anything to do with alcohol and vehicles. It is possible that she would have nothing to do with either for some time in fact.
True, but at the same time . . . it seems highly likely that a girl who just lost her bf in a drink related accident might also have a problem with alcohol and vehicles. None of us knows what happened with either of them. Anything is possible. Aside from some Internet chat we’ve read by people we don’t know, we just don’t know.
I do, having made a phonecall to a friend down there who knew 'em both. Both were utterly, utterly wasted when they were killed. Both had been warned by other friends not to drive.
If they drank and drove and got themselves killed, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. They had it coming. Just hope they didn’t hurt any innocent people in the process.
I do have sympathy for their families, though.
Honestly, is it that hard not to drive when you’re wasted? Especially when we’ve been told from birth that it’s a stupid thing to do?
I dunno, I just think of the number of times either I or mates have sped off to a distant party in Taiwan while completely wankered. The invulnerability of yoof. There but for the grace go most of us I dare say. Doesn’t make it in any way less tragic.
Spot on. Although I have to say that no matter how fucked up I get, if I’d buried my girlfriend a few weeks previously as a result of a drunken crash, I’d like to think I’d be a bit more circumspect than usual and a bit less likely to ride the bronco while bladdered.
Could it be that she loved the guy so much and found it so hard to come to terms with his death that she consciously or unconsciously put herself in a situation in which she’d be likely to meet the same fate and perhaps be reunited with him in the afterlife, if she believed in or wanted to believe in such a thing?
It reminds me of that tragic case a few years ago where a foreign guy went badly to pieces after his girlfriend was killed in a jetski accident in Kenting, and ended up getting in some kind of train accident (falling under a train?) and having both of his legs amputated. Does anyone else remember that? He wasn’t able to pay his hospital bill (pre-jianbao days), and people were trying to raise money to pay it for him. I wonder what happened to that poor fellow?
[quote=“sandman”]I do, having made a phonecall to a friend down there who knew 'em both. Both were utterly, utterly wasted when they were killed. Both had been warned by other friends not to drive.
Yes, I was thinking that. I’ve known of a couple of cases where the one left behind turned deliberately reckless in an angry “fuck you God” kind of way, too. One got stuck into mixing tranquilisers and booze and is now in and out of mental asylums. The other ended up a Holy Joe.
I have ridden around Taipei paralytic on several occasions and I’m sure had I ended up brown bread some people would have been very angry. They only get angry when you’re dead though. Some of you might be forgetting that we ALL used to ride around completely trolleyed at night at huge speeds with no lids on and most of use survived. Sad and all as it is, it’s human nature, especially when you’re young. Very, very, bad luck. I hope they both had a good innings while they were here.
[quote=“Lord Lucan”]
I have ridden around Taipei paralytic on several occasions and I’m sure had I ended up brown bread some people would have been very angry. They only get angry when you’re dead though. Some of you might be forgetting that we ALL used to ride around completely trolleyed at night at huge speeds with no lids on and most of use survived. Sad and all as it is, it’s human nature, especially when you’re young. Very, very, bad luck. I hope they both had a good innings while they were here.[/quote]
I disagree with you completely. It has very little to do with human nature and being young. It has everything to do with being selfish and uncaring about endangering the lives of others.
I have NEVER operated a car or scooter when drunk…not even a bicycle. I would never even think of it. It is simply so stupid to do so that I can’t get my head around people who do. Especially here where it costs virtually nothing to get taxis.
Thinking back on what was said in two instances in this thread. Free-climbing and racing at stupid speeds on a motorcycle are things of the past for me, something I attribute to youth and the feeling of being invincible. Short of feeling invincible, I blame ignorance.
I’m still ignorant but there are things I have learned. Running into the ditch at 160 KMH on a motorcycle really hurts. Falling off a boulder and shattering bones in my feet or running into a bees nest at 25 meters off the ground hanging off a rock cliff where it’s a bit hard to run away also hurt a lot. These events(and many more) in my life led me to be more careful.
I am more conscious and aware of certain dangers compared to say, 20 years ago and I have a few scars to show for it.
I do agree that it is a selfish thing to do but one can not possibly be selfish without this awareness of clear and present danger. You would think that having lost her boyfriend very recently, she would indeed be more careful but who knows what went on in her head when she drove off that night. Maybe she did miss him enough that she wasn’t sure she wanted to even be alive anymore. Add alcohol to that and you’ve got a recipe called disaster.
I lost friends before and three months is not enough to regain mental and emotional stability. So while I would normally agree that driving drunk is extremely selfish, I would hold that thought in this particular case, Indiana.
