When my mother died in 2005 at Georgetown University Hospital, she chose to donate her body to their medical research department because of the way her cancer has spread around her body. She wanted future doctors to learn from what her body went through. We had a memorial service with no body, no ashes, just memories. A little over a year later, we were invited to a ceremony for families of people who donated their bodies for medical research, so we could finally pick up her ashes. 1/3