What You Can Do to the Cremains of Your Loved Ones?
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.