A.

Her mother asked to be buried beside her husband. Her mother asked to be buried with socks on, in case her feet got cold. Her mother asked to be buried in her girdle. An embalmer worked through the night. It seemed that certain parts swelled. The feet eased into the socks. But the waist and hips of the mother no longer fit the girdle. Since the girdle could not be placed on the mother, the daughter placed the girdle beside the mother, edged neatly between the mother's torso and the casket's quilted satin, so that when the mourners approached the casket to view the mother's body, they approached the mother and they approached the girdle. 

B.

Her mother asked that her ashes be scattered in Central Park. The daughter carried the urn filled with the ashes to a secluded section by a stream. She had no thought of emptying it. Raising her arms high, she threw the urn into the stream. It floated slowly. . . . Soon some kids playing by the stream spotted the urn and fished it out. They've got my mother! The daughter ran full speed. She grabbed the urn from the arms of one of the children, who fled toward the safety of the street. This time, when the daughter returned to her original spot, she carefully checked downstream before raising her arm to throw her mother in.

from All of Us (White Pine Press, 2011).