CREMATION OPTIONS

When it comes to burials, is it “all green” or “no green”, and nothing in between? There is no doubt that we need to protect Mother Nature and it is important to us that our loved ones are protected also.  Contrary to some beliefs, there are ways we can protect both the environment and our loved ones; not sacrificing one for the other. Most green burial, direct cremation, cremation costs, cremation or cremation services include the following standards: no burial vaults, no embalming, and no markers. In their initial enthusiasm, new movements may go too far in the opposite direction, just to be different from what they oppose.  Such “green cemeteries” may really be green but will they really be cemeteries?  I think there is a way to compromised, and discover different “shades of green” in burial. When it comes to burial choices, a lined and sealed concrete burial vault is most definitely an environmentally friendly option. Its main two purposes are to protect the contained deceased from outside elements and protect the surrounding soil and chemicals. A properly sealed burial vault keeps everything from escaping out into the earth, including embalming fluid.  It also prohibits anything from entering the burial vault, thus protecting the loved one from any animals or outside pollutants. A burial vault is made from concrete - which is made from cement, ingredients mined from the earth and Mother Nature’s own water.  Burial vaults aren’t considered “green” in the eyes of some, but when you really break it down; a burial vault is actually protecting the environment. If a burial vault is going to protect the environment from any chemicals, the effects of embalming should not be an issue, Even though embalming is not required by law, (with the exceptions of special cases involving contagious diseases in which it is required) no public visitation with an open casket can take place without embalming.  Don’t your families deserve to see their loved ones one last time to say their final goodbyes? As a result of not embalming, your family could be missing the only opportunity they have to remember the time they had with their loved one, celebrate memories and heal emotionally after time. A natural burial ground also does not allow the use of grave markers. However, the attempt to leave a longer mark than your body’s lifespan goes beyond saving the environment. We need to also sell the view that the well-being of the individual and collective human race should not be forgotten, for the green burial movement only sells to the public its view of embalming the earth’s well being. A memorial not only marks the final resting place of a person, but it can now tell a story with engraved pictures. Markers can be so much more than a text-only headstone. Flat bronze markers also make for a beautiful cemetery, a place to go in remembrance of them.  Without markers, graves in green cemeteries   need to be mapped with GPS systems. I worry about that current  technologies like GPS are not going to be reliable years from now. It is hard to be sure that this software will be compatible for centuries, when software generations are measured in months or years. With the potential obsolescence of GPS technology, will we have a lost generation when families go looking for their relatives, decades down the road? Will we know where to take our grandchildren, and will they know where to take their children to go visit us? Just as there are hundreds of ways to go green during our daily lives, there are many ways to go green at a funeral. As with any event, much of the environment impact is in the details. You can still make a funeral greener by incorporating the following practices in the gathering.

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Even as a cemeterian, I look forward with interest to the arrival of The Director magazine every month. I am always interested in knowing more about what my funeral profession “cousins” do. I can communicate so much better with funeral directors when I understand the tremendous amount of detail and all the legalities they must tend to in the sort of timeframes they must work within. Thus, last month, I read your apprentice-training article with my usual cemeterian eyes. I was disappointed to see almost no mention of cemeteries in the funeral-planning process. Good funeral directors always strive to provide as perfect and beautiful a funeral as they possibly can, and in as lovely a setting as they can afford to build. Quality is constantly stressed. Cemeterians, like funeral directors, want to provide the same thing: a perfect and beautiful interment or entombment services in as lovely a setting as we can afford to provide. And our cemeteries must complement the quality that families decide to purchase at your funeral homes. Therefore, it is important that funeral directors remember that we, too, have many jobs to do in our cemeteries. What time of year is it? This can affect the setup at the graveside, and even the time of day for a service. (It gets dark early in winter!) Is it springtime? A cemeterian is likely very busy preparing the grounds for Memorial Day and will need solid notice of upcoming services. Has it been extremely wet? This can cause difficulties preparing graves- very soft turf, mud, cave-ins- that might require extra time to address before the committal service. In addition, at any time of year, it is important to check with the cemetery before scheduling a time and day for a service. If the cemetery is a small one like mine, with two operations people (and only one on Saturdays and Mondays), it is extremely important to plan ahead. Even small cemeteries can have three or four services in one day. This has happened to us many times, and it is a major stretch of our manpower to provide those services as requested. We do not want to be the ones to disappoint families! (”The last to let you down,” as the old joke goes.) We all know that while the funeral home provides the funeral service and the cemetery provides the interment service, the family’s lasting memory will focus on the “package deal.” They want and deserve seamless service from the first call to the last square of sod tamped down over their loved one’s grave. Finally-and many funeral directors have difficulty remembering or understanding this-families must meet with the cemetery staff to make their arrangements. Families need to see what the property looks like, and survivors must feel reassured that their loved one chose a cemetery that will give them a beautiful, dignified, peaceful resting place. Many of the families we serve might never have been involved in planning a funeral and might never have even visited a cemetery. Thus, they must feel familiar enough with the cemetery so that on the day of the service, they do not feel as if they are part of a procession to the “Twilight Zone.” In addition, families need to meet the people who will care for their loved ones’ remains for eternity. They need to know that after the funeral, there will be that final goodbye at the cemetery but that their loved one will remain in good hands. These observations have evolved during the nearly 30 years I have served in the memorialization profession. I have worked as a cemetery receptionist up to cemetery manager; I have worked as clerical staff in a funeral home; I have worked for the state of Washington, auditing cemetery and funeral trusts and care funds; I served more than five years on the state cemetery board; researched and edited a comprehensive directory of every funeral home and cemetery that ever existed in our state; edited an exhaustive index of all Washington-state laws and rules having anything to do with death; and for 16 years, I have served as the executive director of the Washington Cemetery and Funeral Association, as well as for the Northwest Cremation Association. I have put together more than 40 conventions and conferences, and ever since my first one, I have included funeral directors among the guest speakers- even when our membership was 90-percent cemeterian. It is that important to me to see our two “factions” work closely and professionally together. I understand the tendency of funeral directors to want to put a “wall of comfort and protection” around the families they serve, but do not forget: we cemeterian can offer complementary comfort and protection to those families, too. Get to know your colleagues at the cemeteries that serve the families you serve. The better we know each other, the more symbiotic our professional relationship will be, and that can only benefit families. (Not to mention our bottom lines!)

How Did You Make Them Feel?

In the June 2009 issue of The Director, I read the letters from Doug Wilson, Thomas Schwartz and Claudette Zarzycki, as well as Alan Wolfelt’s interview with Greg Henderson. Wilson urged selling services, not merchandise; Schwartz said other funeral directors are not as wonderful as he is; Zarzycki said NFDA should not pander to ethnic groups even though she admitted pandering to her local Polish community; and Henderson advocated “educating” the public about how wonderful and necessary funeral directors are.

It is good to learn that nothing has changed.  My family owned and operated funeral homes for 62 years (we sold our business in 1986), and funeral directors were making the same claims, suggestions and complaints in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.  When the “discounters” began  offering funeral  merchandise, funeral directors claimed, “This will ruin our business”, but it did not.  As each ethic group became large enough to demand funeral services that more closely fit their culture, funeral directors claimed “This will ruin my business:, but it did not.  There  have always been funeral directors that fell superior to their fellow peers, but this is true of all people in all professions and trades.  Moreover, there have always been funeral  directors  that fell the need to educate the public about the importance  of what they do.   (But are they trying to convince the public or themselves?).

We had a sign on our office e wall that read:  “People will not remember for long what you did or did, but they will remember forever how you made them feel. “  If today’s funeral directors make certain that whatever  they do  makes  a family and their friends feel better ( e.g. in Polish, print booklets in Spanish etc..) , then they will enjoy a long, profitable career in the funeral business.  If they worry about  “selling” anything, or spend time criticizing other funeral directors or try to “educate” the public, then their career will be short and unpleasant.  If you do not believe that public already knows what  you do is important, then what are you doing in the funeral business.  You do not need to educate the public, you need to believe that what you do is important - the public will get the message.

Trade calls

After reading  “Trade Calls” by James P. Keith  (March 2005, page 112). I wanted to share an interesting story.  We were contacted to do a trade call and, in the process the family asked us to place an obituary in our paper, asked us to order a number of certified copies, and wanted to pay the airfare to the destination.  They wrote a check for the three items.

Well, when we forwarded our trade call bill to the receiving funeral home, he deducted the total  of the three items from our statement.  To this day, he does not understand and repeatedly refuse to pay our trade call charges in full.

Values vs. Disposition

How often have we seen signs outside of funeral homes or ads in newspapers that say “John Smith Funeral Home and Burial Services” or ‘”John Smith Funeral Home and Body Donation Services”? I have seldom seen them, yet both are ways of disposing of a dead body after grieving and reality purposes. Why, then, do we constantly see “John Smith Funeral Home and Cremations Services”? Cremation is merely another  means of disposing of a body, yet today, it  gets top billing.   It seems we have forgotten that burial, donation or cremation is what one does with the body at the end of the funeral service. Let us return to the realty of talking about and teaching funeral values not disposition methods.  If  you place “cremation” on the side of your building, then you also need to out “burial” and donation”  on it as well. If you advertise “celebrations of life” then you might want to advertise “end of life service” too. The funeral is about grief resolution - not about being easy.  funeral services, cremation cremation costs, direct cremation and cremation services incorporate many things in order to assist people in the grieving process, and one of these is the end of the cemetery where final disposition takes place,  i.e burial, entombment, donation or cremation.  None of these actions is the funeral, however.

Stop comparing funeral services to cremation service, and perhaps the clientele will stop choosing one over the other, or one instead of the other.

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Seminars on “green burial” were available in May at Kessler Woods at Washington Park North Cemetery and Funeral Center.  The seminars, conducted by Barb Milton, a Certified Celebrant and Vice President of Community Relations, Buchanan Group, were free and open to the public.  Milton provided details about Kessler Woods, the pastoral green burial site on the grounds of Washington Park North, and shared pre-planning information with her audiences.  With 14 funeral centers and seven cemeteries, Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers and Washington Park Cemetery Association are the largest privately held cemetery and funeral complex with a natural burial site in Indiana, according to Joe Sehee, Executive Director of the Green Burial Council.  “Flanner and Buchanan is one of the most well regarded firms in this industry”, Sehee said.  “They have connected this idea to the fact that they are known for always standing for serving families in the manner they choose.  This embracing of eco-friendly death care is yet another example of the options they offer families.”  Milton discussed and answered questions on this “retro” burial method, becoming more popular throughout the country, which is a return to the burials that were standard practice up until the mid-1800s.  She provided details on such funeral homes,burials, cremation, cremation costs, cremation services and direct cremation the ecological factors involved, and the requirements that need to be met both by the cemetery and funeral center and by the families in order to qualify for burial at the site.  Kessler Woods represents one of many “green” programs offered by Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers and Washington Park Cemetery Association (WPCA).  Kessler Woods will not have a formal, manicured appearance, but will be maintained in its natural rustic state.  In a rustic setting, located where farmland was many generations ago, the green burial site is accessed by a gravel road that leads from the main part of the cemetery.  “This new green burial site goes along with the conservation efforts we have been involved in for years with such groups as Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Indianapolis Downtown Inc., in the tree-planting efforts of the city and state, as well as our own Gift of Life program, where Flanner and Buchanan plants a seedling in the Hoosier National Forest in memory of every person whose funeral is handled by the firm,” Milton said.  “We have already planted hundreds of trees in our cemeteries,” she added.  “Our motto for a long time has been Community, Commitment, and Compassion.  The natural burials embrace our belief in conservation and preservation.  Much like we facilitated cremation for our Indiana consumers in 1904, Flanner and Buchanan is poised to facilitate natural burial for our environmentally committed Indiana families from today forward.

If you or a family member have any further questions or concerns with respect to cremation, cremation services, cremation costs or a direct cremation please feel free to contact Cremation Options toll free 24 hours daily at 1-877-989-9090.

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As human values change, society seeks new methods of final disposition of the human body.  The family centered cultures devised funerary customs to remember the dead.  Many customs and rituals varied within and between cultures and religious affiliations.  In the United States, the rituals are divided into parts:  visitation, funeral, cremation, cremation costs, direct cremation, cremation services and burial service.  The body may or may not be embalmed to create a memory picture.  Embalming sanitizes (cleans), preserves and provides a base for restorative treatment which may be classified as minor or major in its nature.  Even though many methods of final disposition are not commonly practiced, it is important that the funeral director/embalmer has a basic understanding of their methodology.  There will be individual families asking about the cremation options available to them for final disposition.  The transient population influences these decisions.  The process of embalming is temporary, which may begin with refrigeration followed by formalin or a non-formalin based solution.  The formalin interacts with the protein converting it to an inert substance.  The non-formalin solution interacts and neutralizes the enzymes that cause decomposition.  Today, environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional burials and cremations are being offered.  These are recommended to induce rapid return to the elements in a sanitary manner.  Promession:  eco-friendly “freeze -dried” method of final disposition.  The body, after viewing is submerged in liquid nitrogen at 196 C then vibrated until it shatters into small particles.  Resomation: an environmental method of alkaline hydrolysis sometimes referred to as “biocremation”.  This is a process of accelerating natural decomposition.  Prelude forty-seven will deal with general funeralization from a historical and cultural view point.

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On the one hand, we have funeral home A.  They provide annual renewal training on Formaldehyde Safety, Bloodborne Pathogen Safety, and Needle stick Safety at least every twelve months.  They may even include an annual review of Hazard Communications Training, which Federal OSHA does not even require.  They also offer Hepatitis B vaccinations to new employees.  On the other hand, we have funeral home B.  They are doing everything funeral home A does.  In addition to that, they provide Initial Employee Training on Bloodborne pathogens and Needle stick Safety, Formaldehyde, and Hazard Communications.  They too, offer free Hepatitis B vaccinations to those new employees.  Now I want to make some assumptions.  We can assume that this training was offered by a qualified instructor, and that the presentation was on a level the employees could understand.  We can also assume that the training was interactive and employees had an opportunity to ask questions.  And finally, let us assume that this training was documented in a way OSHA would find acceptable.  The question then becomes, what kind of compliance grade would funeral home A earn?  What about funeral home B?  For the purposes of this discussion, let us assume that the written programs, the housekeeping, and the documentation are in order.  Most people would award funeral home A with a grade B.  They would turn it around and award funeral home B a grade of A.  Many of you would be surprised that most inspectors would give a B to funeral home B, and a C- to funeral home A.  This is because when it comes to implementing OSHA’S mandate, they both missed out on the real meaning.  We will assume that these funeral homes, cremation, direct cremation, cremation costs and cremation services are typical.  In addition to first call and preparation room exposures, there are other hazards.  Some of those might include: Exit and Egress, Fire Safety and Fire Extinguishers, Office Safety, Housekeeping, Ladder Safety, Painting Safety, Back and Lifting Safety, Starting batteries, Working Safely in Extreme Hot or Cold Weather, Mowing, Tree Trimming, Edging, Roof Safety, Application of Herbicides, Insecticides, Pesticides, and Fertilizers.  The OSHA mandate is simple.  The employer or a representative should survey the workplace and search for hazards that might cause a death or serious injury.  Any of those listed could do that, and I could have listed a lot more.  The trouble with funeral home A and B in the above examples is that they have industrial and office workers that have been employed for ten and fifteen years, and they have never had a minute of safety training.  In that regard, neither can or should pass an inspection.  If you find you have a lot in common with the two examples, it is not that difficult to achieve an A grade.  Most of the lessons your workers need are short ten minute lessons and only a few require renewal training.  In other words, you can plug these inequities in a few minutes.  All of the lessons are available on Safety Training CD’s from Compliance Plus and other vendors.  Both NFDA and Compliance Plus have issued alerts for “increased OSHA inspections”.  Now is the time it pays to be in full compliance.  Make some phone calls. Look at some proposals.  Talk to your employees.  Do what is required to CYA in the atmosphere of increased inspection activity.  For what it is worth, Compliance Plus had more customers inspected in January and February of 2009 than we did in all of 2008.  You can’t tell me that more isn’t on the way.

If you or a family member have any further questions or concerns with respect to cremation, cremation services, cremation costs  or a direct cremation please feel free to contact Cremation Options toll free 24 hours daily at 1-877-989-9090.

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