CREMATION OPTIONS

The world is going green. From the biodegradable paper diapers that swaddle a newborn’s bottom to the body’s cremation at death, eco-conscious Americans are seeking ways to move through life without increasing the environmental damage to our world. Environmental experts agree that cremation is greener than traditional burial. While it does take quite a bit  of energy to cremate a body, the environmental toll is considerably less than the resources consumed to make coffins and the environmental burden created by the toxic chemicals used during the embalming process.

A December 2008 article in U.S. News & World Report online noted that cremations are increasing in the U.S. Concern for the environment certainly plays a roll in the move toward greener funeral arrangements, but cost considerations driven by the poor economy appear to be the major reason more families are choosing cremation. Just as it took high gas prices to spur Americans to embrace fuel-efficient cars, it may take economic belt-tightening to lead Americans to recognize the environmental — and financial — advantages of cremation.

Cremation options allow families a wide variety of choices in planning the final arrangements for their dearly departed. Cremation permits the use of biodegradable cremation caskets that are considerably less expensive than the heavy, sealable coffins required for burial. Unlike burial, cremation does not require the use of underground concrete vaults to protect the earth from decomposition. Cremains are clean and sterile and produce no risk of toxic harm to the environment. When cremation is selected, families can even choose to eliminate embalming, saving the environment from the highly toxic chemicals released during the embalming process.

Unlike burial, cremation does not require land resources, freeing more land for other uses and decreasing the amount of land needed for cemeteries. If a family does choose to inter its loved one’s cremains in a cemetery, more than one set of cremains is usually allowed to be interred on a single plot, decreasing the amount of land space devoted to burial. Columbariums, free-standing columns or walls located within mausoleums or chapels, allow multiple cremation urns to be stored, each in its own niche,  in a compact space, further decreasing land use. Cremation also allows scattering of the deceased loved one’s cremains, an environmentally friendly option that uses no land space and allows cremains to return to and enrich the earth.

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When your loved one passes away, one of the last things that you want to think about are the funeral plans. The world seems to be turning in circles around you and you may simply just not be able to concentrate on the task at hand. Did your loved one express a final wish for burial or a service? What are your wishes for them? Is there a budget for a funeral? Was cremation an option that was even considered?

Today family members have many options when it comes to selecting the final plans for their loved one. Cremation Options is a nationwide cremation and funeral service firm which provides quality, caring, planning and cremation services nationwide with a personal touch. From your first phone call to Cremation Options, you will know that they are different; just like their name says, they are all about options.

Options like:
• A simple cremation without a memorial service
• A simple cremation with a memorial ceremony
• A traditional funeral with cremation to follow
• A traditional funeral

With sensitivity, their funeral planners will help and guide you in making the final decisions for your loved one. My family chose the traditional funeral with cremation to follow. In fact, I never even knew there was such a thing, but the planners at Cremation Options advised me that many families want to have an open casket viewing for their loved ones final farewell. We also had a closed casket at the church for our religious ceremony. Cremation was then handled after the services by the funeral home in our area in tandem with the help of Cremation Options. The next day we had the interment graveside complete with flowers.

For my family, Cremation Options not only made our Dad’s service memorable, but helped to relieve the stress that accompanies so many of the choices and they handled the details wonderfully. When someone you love dies you may be devastated and unable to handle all the decisions that need to be made, for us, this was their real value and difference. Cremation Options professionally handled the details, guided us in decision making when asked, and took the burden of details and planning away so that we could grieve in peace.

A funeral is not typically a memory that stands out for most people in fact some would prefer to forget it, but I have to say the service for my Dad was one of my most tender and memorable memories. Thank you Cremation Options for making it so.

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It is true that everybody lives a life that is uniquely his own. Unfortunately, all the colorful memories and blissful adventures that he has experienced in his lifetime will have to come to an end one day. And when a person passes away, those who are near and dear to him will be left wondering - what can be done to make a life well-lived more memorable?

I remember the time when I visited a friend of mine, Bill, right after his father’s death. His father had been fighting lung cancer for a few months, and he finally succumbed to the disease the day before my visit. I have never seen Bill look so sad, and when he started talking about the good times he spent with his father, I truly understood how much his father meant to him.

One of the things that Bill talked about was particularly interesting. He said that his father had wished that his body would be cremated after he passed away, and his cremains should be scattered in a few specific places around the country, including his old home in Duluth, Minnesota, his college in Madison, Wisconsin, a spot on Route 66 (I can’t remember the exact location) where he and his friends had visited on a road trip, a church in Boston where he and Bill’s mom got married, a hospital in Boston where Bill and his sister were born, and the family’s present residence in Allentown, New Jersey. All these places truly meant something to him.

I only met his father on a few occasions, and all along, he seemed to be just an ordinary family man. But after listening to Bill talk about his father, I came to the understanding that every person is much more interesting than what he appears to be. And when he departs from the world, the only thing that is left to do to justify a meaningful and irreplaceable life is to give his remains an honorable place of rest.

While Bill’s father had very specific instructions about what should be done to his cremated remains, many people just leave it to their family members to decide. Other than scattering the cremains of loved ones in specific places, you can choose to scatter them in the sea or from an airplane as well. If you wish to keep the cremated remains, you can store them in a decorative cremation urn and keep it in your house or a columbarium. Another option is to bury the cremation urn in your backyard or a cemetery.

Different people have different preferences when it comes to handling the cremains of their departed loved ones. And it is really up to you to decide which is the best way to make the death of your dear one as meaningful as his or her life.

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Cremation does not replace a funeral. A funeral is service of remembrance that may memorialize or celebrate the deceased person’s life. Cremation is simply a method of preparing the human remains for final disposition, like embalming. Cremation does, however, give families tremendous flexibility in selecting the time and place to hold a funeral or memorial service for their departed loved one.

Once a loved one’s remains are cremated, they can be placed in a cremation urn and held by the family indefinitely until final disposition, or even kept in the family home. This can be quite helpful when family members are spread out across the country and have to make travel arrangements or coordinate home/work schedules to travel to the funeral or disposition site. There have been instances when family members have been traveling overseas or are serving overseas with the military when a loved one dies. Cremation allows time for the individual to make travel arrangements and return home to grieve with his family and share in the remembrance at the funeral service.

Choosing cremation does not obligate the family to hold a funeral service, nor does embalming. The decision about whether or not to hold a funeral service for a departed loved one is strictly a matter of personal choice. Cremation allows families the freedom to choose the time and place of a funeral or memorial service without worrying about the condition or storage of the body until family members can gather.

Grief is an intensely personal experience. Many families find emotional release and solace in the shared grief and remembrance of a funeral service held shortly after the death of their loved one. A funeral service can be a respectful way to honor a departed family member. A funeral planner can discuss available options, help plan the service and make the appropriate arrangements. Sometimes, however, family members or the surviving spouse are so distraught by the passing of a loved one that they cannot face a funeral service immediately. Cremation allows families to wait until family members are ready to share their grief. Cremation provides families with flexibile options when a loved one passes away.

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Although it is a common belief that the first cremation funerals were performed in the Middle East and Europe around 3000 BC, there is evidence that the practice of cremating human bodies actually started very much earlier. The cremains of the Mungo Lady were found in Lake Mungo, Australia in the year 1969, and it clearly showed that human beings had started burning up the bodies of their departed loved ones some 20,000 years ago.

However, the discovery of Mungo Lady was too singular for historians to ascertain that cremation was actually widely practiced among the early inhabitants of Australia. On the other hand, elaborately decorated pottery cremation urns that were found in Russia showed that the Slavic population had been quite advanced in the practice of cremation around the time of the Stone Age. Later on, from around 2500 BC to 1000 BC, the people in the British Isles started to embrace cremation, and the practice spread to other European countries, such as Hungary and Italy. Cremation was introduced in Greece around 1000 BC. During the time of Homer, around 800 BC, the country was ravaged by war, and cremation became a most convenient way to dispose of the bodies of slain soldiers. 

After the Greeks, the Romans were the next major civilization to practice cremation. Cremation became so popular among the Romans that the government issued a decree to prohibit the practice within the limits of the city. The Romans continued to cremate the bodies of their deceased loved ones until the end of the Roman Empire, using finely-crafted urns to store the cremated remains of their departed loved ones and keeping them in buildings with columbarium niches.

Although cremation was widely practiced during the time of the Roman Empire, it was regarded as a paganistic ritual by the Christians and Jews. When the Christianization of Europe came about around 400 BC, people throughout the continent were not allowed to cremate the bodies of their deceased loved ones. Instead, burial became the only option for them, and they did not practice cremation for the next 1,500 years, except for times when wars or plagues broke out.

The birth of modern cremation took place when Brunetti, a professor from Italy, exhibited his model of a cremation chamber in Vienna in the year 1873. One of the people who saw the model was Sir Henry Thompson, surgeon to Queen Victoria. Thompson was so impressed with Brunetti’s model that he started the Cremation Society of England the following year. In 1878, the first crematory in England was established in the town of Woking.

The practice of cremation in the United States officially started in 1876 when Dr. Julius LeMoyne set up the country’s first crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. Within the next decade or two, crematories were being opened in major cities around the country, including Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Buffalo, and Cincinnati. The Cremation Association of America was established by Dr. Hugo Erichsen in 1913, but it changed its name to the Cremation Association of North America in 1975. By 2000, the number of crematories in the United States had increased to more than 1,500, and approximately 600,000 cremations were performed in that year alone.

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