Being able to bring your father's body to UK

Hi, hope you are all well.
I haven't been able to post for a while as we are in the process of moving house and I am also working away from home.

I was in a Travelodge this week and had a chat with an English lady who works there.
She told me her father is about to go to join his wife in the Philippines soon. She wasn't sure which place over there.
She said she was worried that, if died over there, she wouldn't be able to get his body back to UK as she was told the wife has total control over this. Is this true?

Thanks for the quick reply, Jim. I will let her know today. Cheers

A friend of mine died in the PI, went for a months holiday with his wife, she brought him back in her suitcase ashes to ashes style, his service in the UK was really sad she collected his insurance and was never seen again

Would the British man want his body to be brought back to the UK?

We all know that funerals are an expensive business at the best of times, and transporting a corpse from one side of the world to the other would be a massive expense. It's one thing if you die on holiday, but after emigrating it would be a bit selfish if you wanted your body to come back to the UK without setting funds aside for this. It might also be a bit selfish on the family's behalf to assume the man wants his corpse back in the UK?

The common sense solution would surely be to maintain cordial relations with the Filipino side of the family and attend his funeral over there when the time comes.

No different to a pinay wanting their bodies returned to the PI and there are quite a few who would like it to be so.

Possibly depends on age. An old Filipino man/woman who croaks in the UK will hopefully have made their wishes known and prepared for the eventuality. I would be more forgiving of a younger immigrant just as I would for one of the thousands of younger (usually) foreign men who live in the Philippines.

However, if a family member is already thinking about the final curtain it would indicate an older gentleman and there really is no excuse not to have your final wishes known and plans in place to execute those wishes.

I'v instructed my wife when I die I want to be cremated and do whatever she wants with the ashes. No point in flying my corpse back to the UK. I live here I will die here.

Dead is dead. Cremate the body..stick some ashes in an envelope and post it. Dont forget to put a stamp on.

Could be worse, I have seen some grim sights in pinoy cemeteries,even in death they need cash.

My wifes first husband(deceased) was buried in a private graveyard his side of the family didnt keep up with the ground rental payments my wife got the call to go and collect her husband (bag of bones) to be put in a public graveyard!

Yup, you wouldn't believe the size of this pit filled with skeletons, I have seen clothed skeletons, fair enough the clothes were rotted, but what used to be people folded up in sacks and stacked because the rent hadn't been paid

That's the sacks they stick them in, rice sacks, what a sad ending for the dead of such a pious country.

My wifes husband didnt end up in a heap, shortly after he was placed in a public graveyard similar as to what has been posted my wifes eldest sister passed away so a plot in a private plot was purchased they were both laid to rest in there since then the eldest sister grandchild and most recently her son are laid to rest there 5 is the limit. A further plot has been purchased.
As for me, my will instructs no funeral I want to go from death bed to crem then ashes scattered at La Motte Fouquet the pond near the sawmill d202.

I

That's my problem, I always see the reality
Monks ashes in Dough, about to be baked for a river burial it would be nice to get up a height, some remote valley, and just sleep the eternal sleep

and what is it in this country about ashes ? Whose body was it ? Was it a human body at all ? Why not have a thumb chopped off before the cremation as proof of who it was ?

The moment my dad died he was gone. I organised the funeral--told no-one about it and his body was cremated. I never collected the ashes, any more than i would have kept his thumb.