Now that they’ve reached a certain age, Glenn Close and Martha Stewart are giving some thought to how they want to leave this world and are happy to open up about their thoughts about dying.
Given that they are both accomplished, wealthy and independent-minded women, it shouldn’t be surprising that Close, 78, and Stewart, 84, also have unusual and rather elaborate ideas about how they want to die, or how they want their remains to be handled.
Close has actually gone to the trouble and expense to build the place where she wants to die, according to the Daily Beast. It’s a stone cottage she’s erected on her property near Bozeman, Montana, which she said is inspired by the cottage that her maternal grandparents had on their estate in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“I have decided that I am going to end my days in that cottage,” the eight-time Oscar nominee said to Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her “Wiser Than Me” podcast, the Daily Beast reported. Close said her grandparents’ cottage sat in the middle of a hay field and woods and also was made of stone. It also had ivy on it and was surrounded by a white picket fence.
“So I decided when I was building this house, because I’m living my life backward, that behind the house I was gonna build a cottage, a stone cottage,” Close said, according to the Daily Beast. “Because the happiest and most inspiring years of my life was in that place.”
The thrice-married Close said she even designed her cottage to be big enough to accommodate a caregiver. “There are two bedrooms for me and my caretaker, eventually. And that’s where I’m gonna die,” she said.
Close is probably aware that she might not get to choose how she dies — especially if death comes suddenly or when she’s away from Montana. But she sounds eager to prepare for the possibility that she’ll have time to live in her cottage and could perhaps receive hospice care there.
Meanwhile, Stewart reportedly shocked some fans by revealing the unusual way she’d like her remains to be handled after she dies, according to the Daily Mail. Perhaps not surprising for the Stewart, who built a business empire by producing books, TV shows and a magazine that offered people advice on how to create beautiful homes and gardens, she revealed that she wants her remains to be “composted.”
During an appearance on the “50+ & Unfiltered” podcast, the lifestyle guru responded to a question from host Shawn Killinger about whether she wanted to be buried or cremated after she died, the Daily Mail reported.
Stewart explained that whenever one of her horses dies, she drops them in a “giant, really deep” hole in the field on her property. She said she wants to be treated similarly — to be buried in the field and without a coffin.
“The horse is wrapped in a clean white linen sheet and very carefully dropped down into this giant, lovely grave,” Stewart said. “I want to go there.”
Stewart’s statement prompted Killinger to ask if she was even allowed to bury a dead horse, let alone a human, in her yard, the Daily Mail reported.
“I don’t know, why not?” Stewart said. “It’s not gonna hurt anybody. It’s my property.”
After a clip of this segement went viral, viewers offered different reactions to Stewart’s hope of being composted, the Daily Mail said.
While some branded her idea as “wild,” others thought it had merit, the Daily Mail said.
“As a crematory operator, I love she wants to be composted,” one person said. “There’s a company that composts you and either returns you to your family which can be used for gardening or the family can donate your soil for gardening.”
“This is actually how everyone should be buried,” another person said.