My husband is dying of stomach cancer. There is much left of him now. His family is around all the time. I get the impression that they think I'm not attentive enough. I'm not ignoring him. Most of time he is sleeping or staring at the tv. When he asks me for something, I get it for him. I can't stand watching him "shrivel up". It completely freaks me out to see him to think of seeing him dead.
I don't like my last memory of him is of him being dead. I want to remember him being alive and happy.
I have never been to an open casket funeral. That would be too eerie.
Here's an example of what I mean. When my grandfather died many years ago, they had a closed casket funeral. My brother was telling me how they offered to let him and other male cousins who helped bring him in to let them look at him. They declined probably because like me, I wanted to remember grandpa alive being himself.
Fortunately, my husband wants to be cremated.
If people want to have open casket funerals and viewing bodies is fine. It's just not for me.