The High Cost of Death

Bozeman residents rushed to the cemetery this Halloween, but it wasn’t for a scare.

They went to buy a grave.

People have been hurrying to get a plot at Sunset Hills Cemetery before prices doubled Nov. 1. The cost of a casket-size plot went from $647 to $1,200. An urn plot went from $424 to $900.

“I visited with three families today alone to show them areas in the cemetery,” Chris Remely, owner of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service, said last week.

He usually takes four or five families there a month.

Burial costs at the city’s only public cemetery have gone up four times in the past five years.

Now, Bozeman charges more for burials than Missoula and Billings. In Missoula, a casket plot costs $720 less. In Billings, it costs $465 less.

Yet, none of the cities are making money.

“It’s an issue everywhere,” Missoula Finance Director Brentt Ramharter said.

Bozeman city officials had worried that if they didn’t increase fees now, there wouldn’t be money to cover the cemetery’s “forever” costs — decades of watering, plowing and mowing graves.

“You have a forever and ongoing maintenance responsibility, and you only sell the plot once,” City Manager Chris Kukulski said.

Located south of Lindley Park, Sunset Hills Cemetery contains the remains of more than 15,300 people. About 150 dead are buried there each year.

These days, cremation is popular.

Roughly 70 percent of the families served by local funeral homes opt for cremation, said Remely and Irene Dahl, owner of Dahl Funeral Chapel.

That’s twice the national rate.

Montana has the seventh-highest cremation rate in the United States, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. The states with the highest cremation rates are Nevada (74 percent), Washington (70 percent) and Oregon (69 percent).

“The reason it’s so high is a lot of Bozemanites are from other places,” Dahl said. “They don’t have the same roots as you might find in say Eastern Montana … (Bozeman has) a more transient population.”

Primary reasons for choosing cremation are: to save money (30 percent); because it is simpler, less emotional and more convenient (14 percent); and to save land (13 percent), according to a 2005 study commissioned by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council.

The study also said people who favor cremation tend to be better educated and from households with higher incomes.

Bozeman’s cremation rate has been steadily climbing for years, Dahl and Remely said, and higher burial prices are likely to make it an even more attractive option.

“It might make it easier for people to say, ‘Well, we’ll just scatter the ashes instead,’” Remely said.

Scattering ashes is cheaper, but a connection to the past will be lost, he said.

“(Burials) provide a place for family members to come back to for generations and say, ‘This is your grandfather,’ or ‘This is your great-grandfather,’” Remely said. “I suppose you could point to the Bridgers and say, ‘Grandpa was scattered up there,’ but obviously, it’s not quite the same.”

The dead in Sunset Hills cost the living in Bozeman about $275,000 last year.

That’s the amount that taxpayers contributed to cover cemetery costs that weren’t paid by fees. Last year, the city collected about $125,000 in fees and paid $400,000 in expenses.

Sunset Hills has been “hemorrhaging red ink” for years, said Russ Tuckerman, chairman of the Cemetery Advisory Board.

“The cemetery has never covered itself,” he said.

A superintendent, foreman, two full-time employees and about six seasonal employees make up the Cemetery Department.

“We maintain the cemetery like a park,” said Ron Dingman, city superintendent of parks, recreation and cemetery. “So there’s mowing, irrigation, weed trimming, tree trimming … road maintenance, plowing, fence maintenance, grave maintenance … It’s a lot of hands-on, time-consuming work.”

It takes about a week to mow the entire cemetery. By the time workers are done, it’s time to start over, Dingman said.

“It’s pretty much mowed continuously,” he said.

City staff members help people shop for graves and find relatives buried in the cemetery.

Plus, when someone is buried, city crews dig the hole and fill it in. City gravediggers use backhoes and other heavy equipment. The average burial takes about four and a half hours to excavate and complete, Dingman said.

The price for opening and closing a grave rose last week from $484 to $605 for a casket and $242 to $303 for an urn.

Bozeman has a number of options for funerals, caskets and urns, but there’s only one public cemetery in town.

A traditional funeral and burial, plus extras — like flowers, obituary notices and limousines — can cost around $10,000.

“Funerals rank among the most expensive purchases many consumers will ever make,” the Federal Trade Commission, which monitors American commerce, notes on its website.

If you’re planning a traditional burial, caskets can run anywhere from $600 to $10,000, according to local funeral home price lists.

Then there’s the cost of an underground vault to surround the casket. That runs around $500 to $2,500 – depending on whether you plan to use plastic or steel.

One cheaper option is donating your body to Montana State University.

The university uses a cadaver for one to five years to teach anatomy to medical students. When they’re finished, the body is returned to the family or buried in a common grave at Sunset Hills.

There are environmentally friendly burials, too, though funeral directors said they’re not necessarily less expensive.

For a “green” burial, the deceased is wrapped in a simple shroud. There’s no embalming or underground vault.

After the body decomposes, the grave caves in. Cemeteries charge an upfront fee knowing the plot will eventually need to be filled.

Basic cremation — without any extras — generally costs at least $1,200. That’s the most Gallatin County will pay when someone dies without any money or family.

Last year, the county paid $9,600 to cremate eight people, according to Glenda Howze, assistant to the Gallatin County Commission. The number of people buried has fluctuated in recent years, but there has been no clear increasing trend, she said.

In some cities, cemeteries are a business.

Bozeman has one privately owned cemetery, Sunset Memorial Gardens, located on frontage road in east Bozeman.

Sunset Memorial Gardens charges $300 more for a casket plot than the city. The cemetery also charges another $225 for long-term care of that plot.

Some people said public cemeteries should be free to taxpayers.

Tom Olsen, owner of Bozeman Granite Works, which makes headstones, argues that long-time Bozeman residents have already paid for their spot in Sunset Hills.

“The cemetery is paid for by our taxes just like any other park and recreation-type facility,” Olsen said. “If we’re paying those taxes, I don’t want to have gates go up on the parks and have to pay $20 to get in, so I don’t think there should be financial gates on the cemetery either.”

And like the funeral home owners, the price increase won’t help Olsen’s business.

“It’s going to be a hit,” he said. “People are going to opt not to use the cemetery and therefore, I won’t be able to sell tombstones to those people.

“I think (the city) is going to lose so much business … that the net gain will be negative,” Olsen said. “People who otherwise interred will just opt to put an urn on the mantle.”

Public cemeteries operate in the red, city officials said. That’s just part of the game.

In Missoula, Finance Director Ramharter said cemetery fees only cover about 18 percent of the cost there. That city has commissioned a study of cemetery budgets in Montana and may raise its prices, he said.

“We’re looking at what an appropriate level of subsidizing is,” he said.

Under Bozeman’s new fee structure, taxpayers will actually pay about 12 percent more to subsidize annual cemetery operations, Finance Director Anna Rosenberry said.

However, all revenue from cemetery plot sales will now be set aside to build a nest egg for the cemetery’s long-term care, she said.

Sunset Hills spans 56 acres now. Another 60 acres is available for future development.

Dahl, whose grandfather started Dahl Funeral Chapel in 1939, said when she was growing up, the cost of a funeral and a car were roughly the same.

“If you think about what you pay for a car now and the cost of a funeral, you pay a lot more for a car,” she said. “When you’re looking at a diagram with all those other things … it’s not out of line.

“Bozeman had it really great for a long time because (cemetery) costs haven’t been what they should have been,” Dahl said.

SOURCE

Should Cremation in City be Mandatory?

There are some topics that are difficult to talk candidly about, let along think about, among our family and friends. One of them is discussing our eventual death and the specifics that accompany end of life. Issues like a will, trust, medical power of attorney and funeral preparations are sensitive things to prepare for but prudent to do while we are still of sound mind and body.


The above discussion relates to the new General Plan adopted by the City Council last week. Beyond being a document that celebrates New Urbanism, the plan also has strict regulations on hillside development outside the urban growth boundary. Since these regulations were not an absolute abolition of changing the landscape, this led some to believe it was an opening to develop in the hills. This notion is incorrect.

Some of the regulations include: only large parcels over 200-plus acres can apply; no more than 2 percent of the land can have a structure and no more than 10 percent of the land (which includes the 2 percent of structures) can have non-permeable materials (walkway, driveway, parking); no irrigation systems are allowed; and only native vegetation is allowed. This leaves 90 percent of the land as open space for animals to roam and for nature to remain in charge.

These restrictions really only allow for one viable option and that is the potential for a future cemetery. Cemetery? We certainly do not vote on these often at the City Council. In fact, this makes sense since cemeteries in San Jose were established well over 100 years ago. Oak Hill cemetery on the west side was established in 1800, and Calvary on the east side was established in the same century. Both of these facilities are 90-95 percent full and will soon run out of space.

Thousands of San Jose residents pass on each year in the cycle of life, and even more will as the baby boomer generation ages. It is a very personal choice to be buried and for some it is dictated by their religion. Most of the families in Santa Clara County and the United States choose in-ground burials versus cremation.

Although the majority of the members of the General Plan Task Force may agree that burial is a personal choice, some felt that burial is “old fashioned” and people should be cremated. I do not believe the city is the appropriate level of government to dictate that all people should be cremated by not allowing for the land use opportunity of a new cemetery. Mandatory cremation attacks individual rights about a very personal choice that a family may make. We should plan now, so that as Oak HIll and Calvary cemeteries reach 100 percent capacity there is another option to service families of the locally deceased.

One may argue to let family members be buried elsewhere, having them send their deceased family members to lower cost areas, where there is more land. But that seems odd. Locating a new cemetery within the boundary of an existing city is not an easy task. For one thing, it would bring out the “anywhere but here” crowd. Many people would not want a new cemetery near their home, just as much as they might not want a group home. Also, when looking for cemetery location, you have to make sure the water table is low enough to avoid the New Orleans issue of floating caskets. I would estimate a new cemetery would open just as the other cemeteries reach capacity.

A tombstone, cross or Star of David is the marker for the love left behind. As awkward as the conversation may be, we should value that love and plan for it. Cemeteries are sacred and a place for living to go to pay respect for their loved ones.

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Cost of Dying: More Funeral Service Providers Shift to Upfront Payment

Death is the price everyone pays for living, but the price of dying can vary.

Although the Federal Trade Commission mandates funeral service businesses list their general prices for services, other services, costs and items can result in a surprising final bill.

The cost of funerals can range from a couple of thousand dollars to upward of $11,000 or more. Traditionally, funeral service businesses issue a bill for services after the survivors settle the estate and insurance. However, many of the services provided come from other sources that demand payment upfront.

Those services include, but aren't limited to, flowers, music, food, obituaries and preparing the grave.

The price of those cash advance items can vary significantly. Flower arrangements can be a few dozen dollars to hundreds of dollars. Monuments can vary by thousands of dollars depending on size and materials. A detailed obituary, at a rate of $20 per column inch, can cost hundreds of dollars. The cost of feeding the mourners can range from a free potluck to a thousand-dollar catered affair.

More funeral homes and funeral service businesses are now requiring payment upfront for those cash advance services.

"Part of it is cash flow," said Shawn Overton, manager at Overton Family Funeral Homes. "Those can involve several thousand dollars."

Funeral service businesses take care of those services as a convenience for their clients, Overton said. However, doing so can leave the businesses open to significant loss.

"My grandfather did that with a handshake," said Eric Locke, a fourth-generation funeral director at Locke Funeral Home. "The national trend is now shifting to upfront payments."

Opting for cremation over traditional burial is another national trend funeral service businesses and cemeteries are seeing. Some trend watchers speculate the choice has to do with cost.

Transporting a body to viewings and services adds to the funeral expense.

A casket can range in cost from about $500 to about $10,000 depending on material. Urns range from about $150 to upward of $1,800. Wooden caskets, because of the labor involved in their manufacture, are actually pricier than some metal models, funeral service providers said.

However, high-end metal caskets, such as polished brass caskets, are some of the most expensive models. Urns have a large range in price because they can be made from a wide range of materials from wood, metal to materials not used for caskets such as marble or other stone. However, urns generally cost less than a casket.

Burial of an urn also costs less. Opening and closing a grave for an urn costs about $400 at Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery.

It costs about $600 to open and close a grave for a casket, said Angela Crawford, administrative assistant at the cemetery.

However, other societal factors are more likely the driving factor in the rise in cremations, said Overton.

"It's a personal preference," he said "Cost is not the primary reason."

The trend also reflects other national trends, Locke added.

"A big part of it is because society is more mobile," Locke said. Generations ago, a person was more likely to be born, work and die in the same area. Today, people aren't as likely to have as deep roots in one area, he said.

Cremations in Iowa are on pace to equal traditional burials by 2020, Overton added. Cremation also gives families a chance to delay burial, Crawford said. Multiple mourners can also have a memento with the deceased's ashes if families opt for cremation.

Like other costs, interring the deceased in the ground can vary. The time of the week, time of the year, can affect the cost to open and close a grave. Beginning in November, most cemeteries add an extra fee because cutting through the frosted ground takes more effort and special tools.

After closing the grave, closing accounts and settling the estate can take legal fees. At the very least, survivors will have to produce a few certified death certificates.

"You really need a certified copy for each place you're going to send it," said Fred Love, an attorney with Iowa Legal Aid. "You can't just Xerox it."

To help prepare for these varying costs, Locke recommends pre-planning a funeral. Talking about our own mortality can be difficult, but it is becoming more socially acceptable, he said.

"Talking about that stuff is by far the most beneficial thing you can do."

SOURCE

Internet Funeral Company Highlights New Way to Make Arrangements with Television Commercial

Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices is once again shaking up industry norms with its new television commercial pitting online versus old school.

In the 30-second spot, it's 'traditional' versus Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices - with the Internet funeral company presenting the many reasons for arranging online. The first of its kind for the Canadian funeral industry, this unique approach puts a lighter spin on a gloomy topic, introducing a new way to look at funerals.

Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices is Canada's first Internet funeral service company, making it easier for Canadian families to arrange funerals from the comfort of their homes.

Licensed in May, 2009, Basic Funerals, www.basicfunerals.ca, charges fees that are roughly half of those charged by traditional funeral homes. The company is based on an entirely different and unique business model, omitting infrastructure costs and utilizing economies of scale.

"We have always been on the cutting edge when it comes to providing services and delivering our message to the public, and we hope the commercial makes it easier for people to talk about funerals," explained Dominic Mazzone, Chairman, Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices.

According to Eric Vandermeersch, CEO, Basic Funerals, "The ease and feel of the commercial really makes sense for our company when you consider that 95% of our families arrange services with us online and over the phone, but we're also happy to meet people in their own home." www.basicfunerals.ca features a 'Real Time Chat' option, providing instant access to a conversation with a funeral director.

The commercials air across Canada on Sun TV and in Ontario on Global Television, starting immediately.

SOURCE

Some Fountain Citians Worried About Impact of Crematory

Opponents of a new crematory in Fountain City are concerned the facility will have a big impact on the living.

"We have a concern that it will be a negative impact on our community," said Charlotte Davis, a member of the Fountain City Town Hall board. "There is a great psychological factor."

But the operators of Gentry-Griffey Funeral Chapel say there is no reason to worry.

"There's a lot of mistruth out there," said Eric Botts, managing partner of Gentry-Griffey Funeral Chapel, which has operated since 1948.

When the funeral home's new crematory begins operating in mid-December, it will be the only one in Knox County. It and other area funeral establishments currently have their cremation contacts serviced by a handful of crematories in nearby counties.

"It's a service no other funeral home can offer. We're very excited," Botts said.

He said many of those who are uncomfortable about the crematory are misinformed about the realities of the process.

Botts said his business at 5301 Fountain Road, which overlooks Fountain City Lake, simply is responding to the national trend of more people choosing cremation for themselves or a loved one.

Only 9.4 percent of those who died in Tennessee were cremated in 2004, according to data from the Cremation Association of North America. That figure jumped to 16 percent in 2007 and 22.8 percent in 2009. Nationally, 37 percent of people who died were cremated in 2009, a 6 percent climb from 2004.

The association predicts that about 56 percent of all people who die nationally will be cremated by 2025.

"We're looking eventually to expand our marketing and advertising efforts across the county," Botts said.

He said the new crematory will not provide the service to other funeral homes.

Gentry-Griffey's current 1,300-square-foot expansion will include a viewing room and a single retort, or cremation chamber.

"These machines are some of the most clean and efficient incinerators made," Botts said. "They have a dual-chamber burning system that burns off any smoke or fly ash emissions."

He said its smokestack emits heat, not smoke.

"From the road, from every angle of our property, you won't be able to tell there's a crematory here," Botts said.

Gwendolynn Broyles, 85, was among those who attended a recent community meeting about the coming crematory.

"It's only a few blocks from where I live," she said. "The sad thing is that so many people that I have talked to didn't know anything about it."

Botts will address residents' concerns about the new crematory during the next meeting of the Fountain City Town Hall at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 5337 Jacksboro Pike.

"There are two sides to everything, and I try to get to the bottom of the information," said Charles Harrington, a member of the Town Hall board.

He said his primary concern is how the crematory's emissions will be monitored. He hopes to learn more about this at the meeting.

Botts, Harrington said, will speak for five to seven minutes at the meeting and then respond to previously approved questions in an effort to keep the meeting orderly and on track.

One of Broyles' top concerns is that the crematory will produce a foul smell.

"It can devalue the property because people don't want to go somewhere where you're smelling this horrible stuff," she said. "If you're eating at Litton's, you don't want to smell the odors. I can only imagine trying to eat in that situation.

"I don't think it would be very tasteful."

Botts said the crematory will produce no odors and no smoke.

"We're very controlled and very regulated," he said. "These machines do not smoke."

He said the systems come equipped with sensors that cause the machines to shut down if there is any trace of smoke or ash from the crematory.

"It's very clean. I think people are scared of what they don't know," he said.

Some residents remain unsure.

"Our thought is what goes up has to come down," Davis said.The crematory must obtain construction and operation permits from the Knox County Health Department's department of air quality management before it can open.

Operation permits are renewed annually.

"There's a visible emission limit on the facility, as well as a particulate matter limit," said William Schaad, an engineer with the department. "These units are designed to be extremely clean-burning units. Anything that can be destroyed is burned up in the incinerator."

Gentry-Griffey has received its construction permit and must apply for its operation permit after construction is complete.

"They come out and monitor our first cremation, basically," Botts said.

Davis, of the Fountain City Town Hall board, said she is unhappy that the construction permit did not require public notification or input.

"Our thought is that such a change should have been something that was not decided on by one person," Davis said.

Another concern opponents have voiced is whether mercury will be emitted as human remains with metal dental fillings are cremated.

Schaad said the department of air quality management specifically looked at this when considering the application for Gentry-Griffey's construction permit. He said the levels of mercury and other toxins were reviewed through a computer model.

"It gives you some idea of what the maximum concentration in the air from the emissions would tend to be," he said.

This was compared to one-tenth of the workplace standard as set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"It's still one-tenth smaller than that," Schaad said. "There was nothing we found that would need them to reduce those emissions any more."

He said the construction permit would not have been approved if the facility planned to be emitting dangerous levels of toxins into the air.

"You're not going to see anything. You're not going to smell anything," Schaad said. "It's for the most part going to be very clean-burning."

Botts set up a website to answer questions that have been raised by neighborhood residents. It can be viewed at www.knoxcremations.com.

SOURCE

Harry Morgan Dead at 96

Harry Morgan, most known for his turn as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the smash TV show "M*A*S*H" when he replaced McLean Stevenson in the fourth season. (Before that he played Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele.) Morgan was also Bill Gannon on "Dragnet", died in his home in Los Angeles. He was 96.

SOURCE: http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2011-famous-deaths-list/famous-celebrity-deaths-list

What I Have Seen and Heard

The month of November has long been associated with the Church’s ceaseless prayer for our faithful departed loved ones, our own dear deceased relatives and friends “who have gone before us with the sign of faith.” Each one of us holds within his or her own heart the memories of some departed loved one. We earnestly pray for our beloved dead, and we keep their memories ever close to heart.


Visiting a cemetery is a tradition for many people as an expression of their love for those who have enriched our lives with their affection and goodness. However, especially over the last century we have become a very mobile people and Atlanta is now populated with thousands of folks who have moved here from many other regions in our nation—and many from countries well beyond. It is not possible for many of us to visit the graves of our loved ones as we might have done in the past or would like to do today. Yet we all seek ways of remembering our beloved departed relatives and friends.

Grieving is a very human and spiritual emotion for it is an expression of the residual love that we have for those who have gone before us. Many families may currently have family cemetery plots in the places from which they have moved and therefore because of distance they cannot visit those sites as frequently as they might want.

Funeral traditions have also evolved over the years, and cremation is now a much more common practice for Catholics. Cremation was once vigorously denounced and normally prohibited by the Church for Catholics in the United States because it was once identified as an expression of anti-Catholic attitudes and beliefs. Cremation has long been a common tradition in many other places where available land was much more limited and the practice was not identified with anti-Catholic sentiments.

The Church still prefers the custom of the burial of the human body but now explicitly permits cremation as another suitable way of disposing of human remains. The question lingers of how fittingly to care for the cremated remains. Catholic teaching insists that even these cremated remains must be treated with the dignity that they deserve as the relics of a human person who has been consecrated by the Sacraments and awaits the fulfillment of life in the resurrection of the dead that we all anticipate and foresee in Christ.

Some of our priests recently have informed me that sometimes the cremated remains of a person may not have been given a final or suitable disposition. Occasionally people may delay in deciding upon a fitting repository for cremated remains, such as a niche within a columbarium or burial in a safe and sacred place in a cemetery or memorial garden specifically designed for their repose. Some people may even keep them at home, trying to decide where they will finally be placed. Others have chosen to divide them among family members or scatter them in a garden; others have even just misplaced them. Clearly, the Church does not sanction such options since these do not respect the integrity and dignity of the human body—even the remains of a cremated human body. We may have all read stories of how the cremated remains of a person have been lost or stolen or simply treated as the residue of a person’s effects—like neglected silverware or crystal—certainly not in keeping with our faith in the resurrection of the dead and our destiny to one day live with God and His saints in paradise.

The Trappist monastery in Conyers has developed a welcome option for Christian burial in a green-space cemetery where the bodies of the faithful can be buried in the most simple and environmentally friendly manner, so that the remains quickly commingle with the elements of the natural earth without disturbing the delicate balance of nature. Cremated remains may also be interred at this monastic cemetery.

Our archdiocesan Office for Divine Worship published a helpful brochure of some guidelines for Catholic burial practices entitled: “We Believe in the Resurrection of the Dead” that can be found on our archdiocesan website at www.archatl.com/offices/odw.

Cemeteries everywhere are sacred places. Even in a secular society such as ours, we respect Arlington National Cemetery as a hallowed federal site and many of us were recently offended to learn that some of those entrusted with presiding over the interments of our military heroes had carelessly lost records and perhaps buried the deceased in the wrong graves. Even those who profess no particular religious faith pause in reverent silence at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

We must care for the remains of those we love with reverence and dignity, and because we are Catholics we also do that with a deep faith in the resurrection of the dead.

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A Cremation Prevented

A few weeks ago, a woman contacted Misaskim with a request for assistance in bringing her sister to kever yisroel. The nifteres had passed away in Richmond, Virginia, while living there with her roommate. By the time the woman learned of her sister's passing, the body had already been taken to the Cremation Society of Virginia.


Understandably, this individual was greatly distressed by the circumstances as she knew that her sister had desired a Jewish burial. In addition, Rabbi Yossel Kranz of Chabad of Virginia, who had interacted with the nifteres before her passing, also confirmed this to be true.

Misaskim representatives, together with Rabbi Asher Vorst of Crown Heights and Rabbi Kranz, immediately began working on the case. They contacted the Cremation Society in an effort to have the body released for burial. However, shortly after Misaskim volunteers from Baltimore were dispatched to retrieve the body, the organization received a phone call from the Cremation Society indicating that the volunteers should not undertake the journey to Richmond. The clerk explained that the nifteres' roommate, who was the designated legal guardian, had requested that the body be cremated. The crematorium assured Misaskim that they had already obtained the necessary legal documents and would therefore proceed with the cremation.

Upon hearing this, Misaskim's representatives requested that the documents be forwarded to them. Initially, upon examination of the documents, it seemed as if it would be almost impossible to prevent the cremation because the designation agreement explicitly stated that it "supersedes any authority or rights which any other person may claim ..." However, after carefully examining the document, Misaskim uncovered several questionable items in the designation agreement. Both the crematorium and the roommate were promptly notified. Misaskim also explained the grave necessity of conducting the entire funeral procedure according to Jewish tradition and declared that it would take all necessary legal action to resolve the situation.

After 48-hours of non-stop negotiation, the roommate released the body to Misaskim, and volunteers from Brooklyn and from Baltimore were dispatched to retrieve the nifteres. The Virginia Cremation Society extended special courtesies to Misaskim and arranged for a staff member to be on call after hours. In this way, Misaskim volunteers were able to pick up the body and transport it back to Brooklyn as quickly as possible for an expedited burial.

Misaskim would like to thank the Hebrew Free Burial Society for donating a plot and arranging for the funeral. Hebrew Free Burial Society also arranged for a rav to officiate at the funeral and for a minyan to be present. In addition, Rabbi Vorst assembled a minyan of Chabad Yeshiva students, and Yereim Chapel graciously offered its services at no charge. Misaskim would also like to make special mention of the volunteers who dedicated 16 hours of travel time in order to transport the body.

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Navy Has Yet to Fulfill Vet's Last Wish

A Virginia Beach family is upset with the way the cremated remains of their loved one have been handled by the Navy.


62-year-old Vietnam War Veteran Walter Ralph West, who also served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, died last December. His last wish was to be buried at sea. Almost a year later, that wish hasn't been fulfilled.

"I signed his wish to be buried at sea, because he spent his whole life in the military," Walter's son Bill West says.

Bill's father, Walter Ralph West Jr., was a fun loving, family man and he loved his country. He served 25 years in the Navy and in the end died of lung disease.

"It's a betrayal for me and my family, for them to let a hollowed tradition in the Navy lapse," Bill exclaims.

In accordance with Walter's last request, the family says his ashes were first brought to the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in January. In October, the family was told the ashes had been taken to sea, but the family started doing some checking and found out that wasn't the case at all.

The remains of Walter West are apparently still at the Naval Medical Center, ten months later.

Bill became suspicious, because he had not received the American flag and the pictures of the burial at sea ceremony, like what he received when Walter's wife had her burial at sea. He called the USS Nicholas, which supposedly took the ashes to sea, and was told there was no record of a Walter West burial at sea.

Bill then called the Burial at Sea Office at the Naval Medical Center.

"The guy there stated my father's remains were still there, and there was a Walter West on the computer above him and those remains could have been sent instead," Bill explains.

Apparently, there were three Walter Wests in the computer for burial. Bill's father was not taken to sea after all and now Bill isn't sure if the remains at the hospital are his father's.

Bill said, "I feel my father has been treated very disrespectfully. If those are his remains, they were either misplaced, lost or forgotten. He was a dedicated Veteran in two wars and deserves better treatment than that. My family deserves better. My family has had no closure."

Wavy.com called the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth. Spokeswoman Deborah Kallgren told us that the Decedent Affairs has the father's ashes, and when they told the family he was buried at sea earlier this year, they had mistakenly pulled the wrong 'West' file.

The ashes are not lost, but wrong information was relayed to the family that made them think the ashes have been taken to sea, when in fact they had not.

The family is skeptical. "Personally I find this hard to believe, because things don't disappear and re-appear. Are these ashes our ashes? Are these his remains?," Bill West asks.

The West family has now been told USS Enterprise will take Walter's ashes to sea if it is approved. Walter West wanted an aircraft carrier take his remains.

The West family said they hope the USS Enterprise or another carrier will take the ashes to sea, fulfilling Walter West's last request.

SOURCE

Holy Cremations Boom in Richer India

Trade is brisk as more people can afford to travel long distances to the cremation site.


India's thriving economy has brought many advantages to the population, including the widening of access to a special kind of funeral at the holy city of Varanasi.

The man swung his heavy bamboo pole down upon the already half-incinerated corpse. It doubled up in a cloud of red embers.

His second blow shattered the skull. Then he used the pole to deftly stack the burning logs on top of the now fizzing and sizzling knot of flesh and bone.

He wiped the sweat from his face with his arm and stood back to survey his work. He seemed content and sat down on his haunches to watch the now blazing fire, encouraging it with a prod or a poke every now and then.

Sacred place

There were nine other funeral pyres burning on the beach of sun-baked mud alongside the swirling caramel-brown waters of the Ganges. Each one was tended by a similarly stick-thin man in a white dhoti armed with a large bamboo pole.

Each one contained its own sputtering, burning corpse.

The scruffy patchwork of cremation fires, busy with mourners and men carrying great bundles of logs, looked to a Westerner like some medieval vision of hell but I was actually in one of the most sacred places in all India.

Manikarnika Ghat is in the Indian holy city of Varanasi. A ghat means a series of steps down to water.

There are 80 ghats lining the Ganges here in Varanasi - many with elaborate temples or palaces.

Almost all are used for bathing, the steps allowing pilgrims to wash in the holy waters. Manikarnika Ghat is one of two which specialise in the grisly business of human cremation.

These cremation ghats certainly do serve as a reminder of just how fragile human life is, though.

The funeral practices in the West insulate us from the reality of death. Here it was all too apparent that we are all just flesh and blood and bone.

The fires coughed out great plumes of sticky, black smoke. The smell - the taste - of burning fat was unmistakable.

Half an hour amongst the pyres was enough for me and I retreated back to the temple complex at the top of the steps to escape the smoke and the ferocious heat.

There I met Gajanand Chowdhary, the man in charge of Manikarnika Ghat.

In the shade of the temple he told me that people bring their dead here because Manikarnika is reckoned to be the most auspicious place on earth for a Hindu to be cremated.

As he spoke, another corpse arrived on a bamboo stretcher. Six pall bearers pushed passed us carrying it on their shoulders.

The body was wrapped in a golden shroud and decorated with garlands of marigolds. We watched as they took it down to the Ganges where they washed it, cleansing the body before it was burnt.

"If you are burned here at Manikarnika Ghat," Gajanand continued unperturbed, "you will achieve moksha. The cycle of reincarnation will be broken and your soul will ascend straight to heaven."

He almost made it sound like an invitation, though not one I want to take him up on any time soon.

Brisk trade

The reason the ghat is so sacred, Gajanand explained, is because the cremation fires are lit by a flame that is believed to have emanated from Lord Shiva himself.

Shiva is the Hindu god of destruction or transformation and one of the most powerful in the entire pantheon.

"You want to see the flame?" he asked.

I nodded enthusiastically and Gajanand led me up a narrow staircase and along a crowded balcony. He gestured to an arch where a small wood fire was smouldering.

It did not look that impressive to me - someone was cooking a pan of rice on it, which rather detracted from its mystical significance.

As we stood talking, one of the cremation men pushed the pan aside and collected a few embers in a small earthenware pot.

"Another fire," Gajanand explained casually. "We now have up to 25 fires at a time."

Indeed, Manikarnika Ghat has never been busier.

The fires now burn 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the reason trade is so brisk is, it seems, simple.

As India gets richer and the road network more extensive and more reliable, more and more people are bringing their dead here to seek moksha.

A decade or so ago, it was only families in the direct vicinity of Varanasi who could bring their dead here.

Now it is not unusual for even quite poor families to travel great distances to bring a body to the cremation ghats.

We are used to hearing stories about how modern life makes the world more homogeneous but it seems that, here in India, modernity does not always undermine the old traditions.

Indeed the problem here in Varanasi now is that the funeral ghats are operating almost at capacity and, as Gajanand put it, the dead sometimes have to queue in the narrow alleyway outside the ghat.

A small price to pay, I reflect, for a swift ascent to heaven.

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Preplanning Funeral Has Several Pluses

Nobody likes to think about his own death, but planning your funeral can both give you control over what happens and relieve your family of that responsibility during an emotional and stressful time.

A preplan can cover all the details of the service — burial or cremation, the type of casket, who will officiate, right down to the prayer cards.

"You get to talk about what you would want in terms of funeral arrangements," said Mary McPhillips, funeral director at the Applebee-McPhillips Funeral Home in Middletown. "The money gets put away ... it gets interest accrued. That interest offsets inflation. So a lot of times, as people age or even possibly have to go into facilities ... (funeral expenses are) all taken care of."

"It gives people that emotional comfort," said Randy McCullough, deputy executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association. "Whether them or their families, people know things are taken care of."

McPhillips said many people choose to preplan when they go in for lengthy hospital stays or rehabilitation.

"That's when they start to realize all of this care is costly," she said. "They're depleting their finances. They're beginning to worry about what comes next."

Becoming more common

McCullough said planning has slowly been growing more common over the years. He said there could be a couple of reasons for this, including New York's laws regulating preplanning, which he said protect the consumer more strongly than in any other state.

McPhillips agreed.

"We gear everything toward the consumer, not toward the funeral director or cemetery or crematory," McPhillips said. "It's treated as the family's money. The interest gained is their money; we just hold it for them until the time of a death. That's not the case in other states. Other states can charge people for making all the arrangements."

Act will expire in June

The Pre-Need Funeral Consumer Protection Act of 2001, which banned the sale of insurance for prepaid funerals, will expire June 1, 2012. The NYSFDA is lobbying for it to be made permanent, McCullough said. The association is also fighting legislation introduced last year that would allow funeral directors to accept commissions for selling certain life-insurance policies.

Under current law, funeral homes don't make any money from prepaid accounts. The accounts are also portable, and can be moved to another funeral home without penalty.

McCullough said changing the law would not be in consumers' interest, and could also undermine trust between consumers and funeral directors.

There are two types of prepaid accounts: revocable and irrevocable. Irrevocable ones are required for Medicaid applicants and recipients, to protect the money from being spent on medical expenses.

You don't have to prepay, but once the amount is paid in full, McPhillips said, then all service charges are guaranteed, except for things the funeral home can't control, such as cemetery rates.

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Clock Timeless Pets In Muskegon Offers Funeral Arrangements For Beloved Animals

When someone asks Jodi Clock what type of work she does, she answers with a question, “Do you have a pet?”


If the answer is yes, explaining she is the president and founder of Clock Timeless Pets, a full-service funeral provider for pets, is easy.

“If they are a pet parent, they get it,” she said.

If they’re not a pet parent, her answer is usually greeted with a pregnant pause.

“They don’t quite understand it,” she said.

Clock has been involved in the funeral industry since 1987. She started on the supply side, traveling nationally to sell products to funeral homes. One client was Dale Clock, the great-grandson of Teide Clock, who founded the Muskegon-based Clock Funeral Home in 1897.

In 2003, after both had gone through divorces, they met again and a romance blossomed. They married and she came into the family business, working in advance funeral planning.

Then an odd thing happened. A woman whose dog died asked if she could hold a memorial service at the funeral home. They said yes to the request, and it got Clock thinking about the relationship between people and pets.

Clock loves dogs, and brings her three rescue dogs to work. She is a board member of Noah Project, a no-kill shelter in Muskegon.

Shortly after the canine memorial service, Clock convinced her husband to let her bring her sheltie, Max, to the funeral home as a therapy dog. Max was certified through Therapy Dogs International.

“I knew she was passionate about her pets,” Dale Clock said.

Initially, he was hesitant to have a dog in the funeral home and was adamant that Max stay on a leash. The first family Max worked with loved him, though, and he was off the leash within 10 minutes. Max was soon a part of the team at the funeral home.

For more than two years, Max interacted with clients when they came to make funeral arrangements and during visitations.

In 2005, when Jody Clark realized the nearest pet crematorium was in Grand Rapids, she partnered with a friend who had a pet funeral business in Kalamazoo. They founded Clock Timeless Pets as a sister company to the Clock Funeral Home that spring. Their offices are separate, but at the same location: 1469 Peck, Muskegon.

“That’s what got me into this,” she said, “but it wasn’t until Max died (in 2007) that I jumped into it with both feet.”

Last February, Clock bought her own pet crematorium.

Dale Clock said pet funerals are becoming a major part of the funeral industry. Trade conferences now include sessions on pets. He said the response in Muskegon has been positive regarding pet funerals.

The cost to have a pet cremated ranges from $175 to $275, depending on the weight of the animal. Clock Timeless Pets also offers plans for tiny pets such as hamsters, snakes and birds. Each cremation is private, meaning only one animal is cremated at a time.

Clock said it’s important to know that people and pets are kept completely separate. If anyone has questions or concerns, she’ll gladly give them a behind-the-scenes tour. Pet parents can witness their pet’s cremation, if they choose.

“We have nothing to hide. We have no secrets,” she said.

The closest cemetery devoted to pets is Sleepy Hollow Pet Cemetery in Byron Center, just south of Grand Rapids. Sleepy Hollow also has a crematory large enough for horses.

Clock Timeless Pets offers a round-the-clock pet removal service, a full line of pet caskets and urns, and keepsakes such as jewelry, paw-print art and engraved stones.

Last month, Clock attended training offered by Pet Loss Professionals Alliance and Two Hearts Pet Loss Center. Among other things, she learned how to help people grieve the loss of a pet. She plans on starting a pet hospice and palliative care network that will provide end-of-life help and grief support.

Clock said a pet is often a member of the family.

“They should be treated with the same dignity and respect as humans for their final care.”

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Basic Funerals Takes Lighter Approach With TV Spot

There’s nothing funny about funerals. But that doesn’t mean that TV commercials about arranging them can’t have some levity.


A new 30-second spot for Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices, a Canadian funeral home, showcases a unique service the company offers that allows people to plan a funeral online. (The company claims it is Canada’s first internet funeral service company.)

The woman, defending online funeral planning, says online arrangements can often cost half of its traditional counterpart. That was an important point to make, said Eric Vandermeersch, chief executive officer of Basic Funerals and Cremation Choices.

“When you talk about funerals, obviously it’s a sad time, but there’s also a great element of celebration. We’re not trying to make light of the serious side, what we’re really doing is showing people that we’ve changed the model—it doesn’t have to be expensive anymore,” he said. “There is a lighter side of the industry and we’re not afraid to show it because it is the most important side of the typical funeral.”

He added that commercials he’s seen for other funeral homes lack in the entertainment department. “Usually, it’s the owner of the funeral home standing by a fireplace talking about how his family has been in the industry for six generations and it’s pretty boring to say the least.”

His company’s spot was produced in collaboration with its agency of record, Toronto-based RedFish Entertainment, who also handled the media buy for the spot.

The initial campaign, said Vandermeersch, is scheduled for three weeks, but will continue beyond that.

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Cremation Rates In South Carolina Country Rising

More of the nation's deceased are being cremated than ever before, particularly in areas with high concentrations of retirees, such as Beaufort County.


The slumping economy and the number of transplants not firmly rooted in a community could explain the trend, some say.

In 2010, the cremation rate surpassed 40 percent for the first time in the U.S., according to unofficial statistics in a recent report by the Cremation Association of North America.

In South Carolina, that number is nearly 9 percent lower, but the rate here has risen more than 12 points since 2005, to 31 percent.

In Beaufort County, the rate is considerably higher than the state average, according to several local funeral homes.

Sheri Stahl, director of The Island Funeral Home & Crematory on Hilton Head Island, said her facility cremates about 80 percent of the bodies it handles.

Copeland Funeral Services vice president Tom Wright said the Beaufort funeral home has performed more cremations than burials since he started working there in April.

"I guess that's just (the families') wishes," Wright said.

But Stahl has another explanation.

"A lot of the people who live around here don't really have roots in the community," Stahl said. "They move here from elsewhere in the country, and so their families are less likely to have them buried here."

The climbing cremation rates also indicate changing family dynamics, according to Martin Sauls, who estimated that his funeral home in Bluffton cremates about one-third of the bodies it handles.

"In the old days, people were born and raised here," Sauls said. "You'd live around your parents and your brothers and sisters your whole life. But that's different now, and everybody can't just drop what they're doing for a funeral."

Funeral homes in communities with a more stable, entrenched population report conducting far more traditional burials than cremations.

Sauls operates another funeral home in Ridgeland and reports that conventional burials there are much more popular than cremations.

In Hardeeville, Rodney Stiney of Stiney's Funeral Home has scarcely cremated anyone in the four years he's worked there.

"About 99 percent of families here choose a traditional burial," he said. Stiney also said predominantly black communities such as his typically opt for conventional burials as a matter of tradition.

Elsewhere, the slow economy is a contributing factor to the rising cremation rate. Several local funeral home directors reported that traditional burials, on average, cost two to three times more than cremations.

It's one of many reasons for the trend, according to Barbara Kemmis, the national cremation association's executive director.

"Cremation is becoming a new tradition for families all over the country," Kemmis said. "It's a more affordable option; families are becoming increasingly spread out, and religious influences are weakening."

Kemmis said her association has trained about 1,000 people in cremation practices each year for the past four years, and the rate could reach 50 percent within five years.

"It's an exciting time," she said, "to work in the cremation industry."

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More South Floridians Choosing Cremation Over Burial

A majority of Broward families chose for the first time in 2010 to cremate their dearly departed rather than pay for the traditional — and more expensive — burial services.


The state's Bureau of Vital Statistics also showed that Palm Beach County was not far behind at 49.5 percent.

South Florida first began cremating in larger numbers in the 1980s. Although the rest of the nation still embalms and buries about 60 percent of the deceased, more than 58 percent of Florida's dead are cremated.

"The biggest reason is the economics of cremation: You can get a simple direct cremation for $700," said Jack Hagin, president of Brooks Cremation and Funeral Services in Fort Lauderdale. Burial will cost at least $4,300, he said.

"Money is so tight,'' he said. "Families just don't have that kind of money."

And most of the elderly who bought burial plots ahead of time have died, Hagin said.

Florida is second in the nation for the number of cremations — behind only California, according to statistics from the Cremation Association of North America.

The exception in the statewide trend: Blacks prefer to follow tradition and bury their deceased — nearly 63 percent — although the economy is forcing more to choose cremation, said Ronnie Berry, who started Global Funeral Choices in Fort Lauderdale and teaches at Miami Dade College.

Blacks who come from the Caribbean opt, if they can, to ship their deceased family members to their native islands for burial, she said.

Daniel Tobin's family chose to have his brother Douglas cremated after Douglas died Oct. 27.

"These days, cost is a concern for a lot of people. It [cremation] is a lot more cost-effective. It's easier to plan and less things are involved,'' said Tobin. His brother, 44, was a Coral Springs electrical contractor.

Many South Floridians like himself, Tobin added, have changed their minds over the best way to honor their departed family members. Tobin considers himself spiritual and does not consider cremation in conflict with his non-denominational Christian faith.

"The casket and grave and that whole thing — it just seemed like it is outdated," Tobin said.

His brother would not have wanted a viewing of his body. A memorial service was held Nov. 5, when people celebrated Douglas Tobin's life, Tobin added.

Since the 1980s, many South Florida families have gradually switched from traditional funeral and burial servides to cremation. Many of the elderly now tell their families that they want to be cremated, funeral director Hagin said.

Most out-of-town family members no longer opt to ship the bodies of their deceased loved ones to hometown burial spots. Last year, the remains of about 10 percent of the people who died in Florida were shipped out-of-state. In Palm Beach County, almost 20 percent were shipped, as were 13 percent in Broward.

The two daughters of the late Kathleen Hermann, 70, who lived in Broward, are having her cremated remains shipped north, where there will be a memorial service, said daughter Karen Hofmann of Delaware.

"It seemed like the most sensible thing to do,'' she said. Traditional funeral and burial services "would have been so emotionally draining to the family."

Hofmann's brother and daughter died months apart this past year, and both were cremated, she said. Her daughter's remains are in a velvet satchel, and she'll receive half of her mother's ashes.

Some South Florida funeral home workers are also choosing cremation over traditional services.

Les Byczkiewicz of Global Funeral Choices in Fort Lauderdale said he and his wife decided on cremation about a year before she passed away.

The savings from not having traditional services allowed the couple to help provide for the daughter in college, he said.

Many frugal-minded people are choosing cremation because it saves money and land, said Berry.

"It's really something how our society is changing."

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Patrice O'Neal Dead at 41

Comedian and Actor, Patrice O'Neal, was pronounced dead from complications of a stroke he suffered back in September. O'Neal had appeared on shows like "The Office" and "Chappelle Show" as well as being a regular guest on the "Opie and Anthony" radio show. He was 41.

SOURCE: http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2011-famous-deaths-list/famous-celebrity-deaths-list

New, Greener Cremation Now Offered In St. Pete

It turns out you can reduce your carbon footprint in life and in death.

A new, greener form of cremation is now being offered at Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St. Petersburg.

It's called Bio-Cremation.

Simply put, the remains are placed inside the Bio-Cremation machine which submerges the body in a mix of water and potassium hydroxide. The pressure is turned up and so is the temperature. Three hours later, bones remain. The liquid contains no human DNA and is then released into the city's sewer system, according to the funeral home.

It basically speeds up the decomposition process that happens in nature by breaking down the body into the basic amino acids.

The technique has raised questions with some USF chemists who told 10 News reporter Chase Cain earlier this year, they can't say what the impact will be on the environment or our drinking water. Their concern is the pH level. In order to make a formal opinion on the process, they told Cain they have to see more research.

John McQueen with the funeral home says he spent two years getting permits to ensure there is no problem with the process.

"I believe it's completely safe for the community and I believe it's safe for the environment," he said.

There is definitely a gross out factor, but McQueen says what they're putting into the sewer system is not liquified human remains, but the basic amino acids.

He says you're not going to one day be drinking grandma.

He added, "I don't view it as flushing dad down the toilet and I'm sure there may be those out there that have that feeling. Really what they do is accelerate the decomposition process."

McQueen says twenty families have already been through the process and more are scheduled for Bio-Cremation. The costs are the same as flame cremation, at about $2,900. The funeral home refers to the process as flameless cremation.

SOURCE

Ken Russell Dead at 84

English Director, Ken Russell, died at the age of 84. He was most known for his films, "Women in Love", "The Who's Tommy" and "Altered States".

SOURCE: http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2011-famous-deaths-list/famous-celebrity-deaths-list

College Students Partner For Advanced Mortuary Training

Mortuary science students from Ivy Tech Community College Northwest and Malcolm X College (one of the City Colleges of Chicago) met on Ivy Tech's De La Garza campus in East Chicago recently to receive crematory operator training delivered by the Cremation Association of North America, a worldwide organization.


Nhemya Ward, program chair of the Ivy Tech program, said this was a perfect opportunity for the two colleges to bring their students together.

According to the association, many states have now instituted training requirements for crematory operators. CANA is recognized and has been selected by several states as the official provider of operator training.

CANA requires a minimum of 40 students in order to provide the training. Together, the two programs met the minimum requirement.

Karen Scott, Malcolm X's program chair, brought 22 students across the state line for the certification.

"We are looking forward to doing more things together in the future," Scott said. "The students seem to have responded really well with the program ... really high marks on evaluations."

CANA has conducted certification programs throughout the country for more than 15 years and has certified thousands of operators in the United States, Canada and other countries.

During the training, students learned technical terminology, scientific principles of cremation, guidelines and instruction for operating a crematory retort as well as legal ramifications when operating in a crematory. At the conclusion of the training, all students sat for their crematory operator certificate. Those who pass the exam will receive a nationally recognized certification.

Many students said they appreciated how this certification will allow them to be more marketable in such a competitive industry, Ward said, and Ivy Tech is looking toward having this certification training become a part of the curriculum.

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Let's Value Our Tradition, Cremation Not the Answer

Harare City Council faces a daunting task in convincing people to depart from the traditional way of burying the dead to cremating bodies in the wake of the rising number of deaths and the growing demand for more land.


Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda says council is exploring prospects of encouraging cremation instead of the traditional underground burial.

"There is a certain timeline where cemeteries will be full and we still need land for development purposes - so cremation is the only possible solution," he says.

While big cities offer people many advantages over rural life, there are some drawbacks and societies and customs often have to change. There is already a problem in housing, while most people would like to have detached houses on decent sized plots, this is impossible for Harare unless the city is destined to expand its boundaries to Darwendale, Mazowe and Marondera.

Flats, terraces and cluster houses are the unavoidable solutions if people are to live within anything resembling a sensible distance from work. The cemetery problem is similar. Even if more land is made available, it will in time be filled with graves and even more farms will have to be bought and filled with the dead. It is impossible for the process to continue forever and sooner rather than later we are going to have to decide whether it would be better for available land to be used to grow food for the living or provide graves for the dead.

One part of the problem is the idea of a permanent grave containing a single body for everyone. In all cultures, on all continents this is a relatively new concept. In the past kings and emperors and the like might have had their own permanent graves, but the ordinary people were never granted this right.

A grave might last a century or two at most and then be forgotten and lost. In time the remains would have been broken down. Zimbabwe is not an exception - but how many graves are more than a century old, which can be identified?

However, modern custom has brought in the permanent grave or memorial for all. City managers, just like Harare, throughout the world now have the problem of finding land to bury the dead.

In some countries cremation has become the accepted way. This solves the problem of finding ever-more costly land, while still giving families the opportunity to erect permanent memories for their deceased relatives. Most Zimbabweans dislike intensely the idea of cremation. The desire for a proper burial is real and legitimate. However, the cost of burial is bound to rise dramatically as land zoned for cemeteries becomes short.

Four of the city's seven cemeteries are all full and the other three are also almost full. The people who can now be buried in those cemeteries are those who have reserved plots, paying the appropriate charges.

We already see families plunge into debt for years to make sure their loved ones are properly buried; it would be wrong to see burdens increase. While cremation is the most obvious answer, the matter needs to be handled sensitively and with great care. Churches and traditional leaders need to think very seriously and carefully about how to help their followers accept the concept.

We are happy to hear Mayor Masunda saying that the council tabled the issue at its recent meeting and that consultations were underway with different stakeholders.

In neither Christianity nor traditional religion is there any theological barrier to cremation: the body is simply reduced to dust quicker in a furnace than in the ground.

Nor should cremation be considered impersonal: the funeral service is the same and little land would be needed to mark the last resting place of the ashes. In other African societies, a symbolic thing, be a stick or a log, has been buried in place of a corpse. Africans are great believers of symbolism. This also shows how far Africans can go even burying the soil, which is taken from the spot they believe their dead relative's body perished. So, it is not only the bones of the dead, which have been buried.

Now that there is a need for cremation, local cultures should adapt accordingly. Of course many burials will be transferred to rural homes for those who can afford the expense and sometimes for the sake of preservation of the so-called unchangeable practices.

In the long run, the escalating cost of transport will force many to have their dead cremated. A number may take the ashes home for decent burial and traditional rites.

It will take time for most people to willingly accept cremation, but we all owe a duty to our descendants and we cannot deprive them of farm and development land and deprive them of so much wealth simply because we want a permanent grave. We therefore challenge the custodians of our culture to find ways of how best we can minimize the inevitable damage to our culture.

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Dissolve When You Die, Help The Garden

Uncomfortable with the thought of being buried or cremated when you die? You could always be dissolved.

At least one local crematorium is considering "alkaline hydrolysis" - or resomation - which dissolves bodies in heated alkaline water, as an alternative to cremation and burial.

Clifton Thomson, general manager of Purewa Cemetery, said he has spoken to its trust board on the possibility of offering it.

Glasgow-based firm Resomation which invented the process, installed its first resomator unit this year at a funeral home in St Petersburg. The process is legal in the American city.

In the system, bodies are submerged in a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide, which is pressurised and heated to 180C for about three hours.

It dissolves the body tissue and the resulting liquid is then poured into the water system, the company said.

And using the same machine as in the cremation process, bones are then removed from the unit and crushed into fragments.

"Just like cremation, the remains consist of bone ash," the Resomation website says.

"These are placed in an urn and returned to the loved ones."

Mr Thomson said: "There has been somewhat of an 'eek' from many studies due to the process of breaking down via [in] layman's terms 'boiling', and eventually leaving the bone shadows which are broken down and returned to families."

The process has environmental benefits. The units are said to use one seventh of the energy of cremation.

"One good opportunity for the water residue left over is to be used as a spray-on liquid fertiliser," said Mr Thomson.

"Otherwise it will just be flushed into the sewage system."

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Missing Girl Surfaces A Day After Her ‘Cremation’

A father cremated the decomposed remains of his “daughter” and performed the last rites in Nagaon this morning, around the time she surfaced at a police station in Tezpur 60km away, boyfriend in tow, to reveal a grand elopement tale.


Indrani, a 19-year-old diploma engineering student at Akash Institute, went missing from her hostel in Guwahati on October 17.

When her family in Nagaon failed to contact her over phone till the next day, they filed a complaint at Bhangagarh police station in Guwahati on October 19, alleging she had been abducted.

On October 25, the body of a girl was recovered at Bilasipara in Dhubri district.

The following day, Indrani’s family reached Bilasipara, identified the body as hers, took it home and cremated it yesterday. “We have heard that she surrendered before the police at Tezpur. But we cannot accept her as our daughter. This girl (whose body was cremated) is our daughter and we will complete all the rituals. We do not want her back now. For us, she is dead,” Naba Kamal Bora, retired ASEB employee from Haibargoan Kawaimari in Nagaon, told The Telegraph.

Indrani is his only child. He said they had identified the body from the clothes she was wearing because the body was decomposed.

Indrani stood with boyfriend Mukut Ali at Kacharigaon police outpost today wearing a pink salwar kameez and gold-coloured bangles. “We did not know about death of the girl or her cremation at our village. At that time we were in Siliguri and we were not in touch with our families. I do not know what my parents will do, but my boyfriend’s family has accepted me and this is good enough for me,” she told reporters.

She had been in touch with Ali over telephone and had willingly gone away with him first to Dhubri and from there to Siliguri. “Now we have surrendered before the police,” she said, adding that they returned from Siliguri only this morning.

According to a police official in Tezpur, 25-year-old Ali had been arrested earlier in a criminal case involving fake currency notes and court stamp papers and was released on bail two months ago by Tezpur court.

The couple have been sent to Bhangagarh police station.

Now that the real Indrani has surfaced, it remains a mystery whose body the girl’s family has cremated.

“We have sent blood samples of the girl for DNA testing and if anybody comes to claim the body, then blood samples of the parents would be sent for DNA test. If they match, the body will be identified,” said Bilasipara sub-divisional police officer, Gunindra Deka.

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Bio-Cremation Coming to the Twin Cities

In a basement room at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine sits a giant squat machine. It is what scientists there call a "tissue digester." To the general public, it is a device for bio-cremation, an alternative to disposing of remains by the standard burning cremation.

Bio-cremation has become a headline in some areas of the United States because it is slowly becoming available for human cremations. One funeral home in Stillwater has been issued a permit for the process by the Metropolitan Council. The State Department of Health's Mortuary Science section must issue a license once a bio-chemical machine is installed.

The process involves a fluid mixture of water and an alkaline chemical. It is heated to about 300 degrees for a number of hours until the soft tissue is dissolved.

"The liquid effluent goes to the sanitary sewer. What is left after that part of the process is the mineral portion of the bone," explained Ron Joki, U of M Senior Scientist and Necropsy Lab Manager. "You can imagine skeletal remains, what look like intact bones, but really, they've lost all their strength. You could take that bone and basically crush it or break it with your hands."

In human bio-cremation, the process involves one body at a time. In the U of M's much larger animal machine, up to 7,000 pounds of remains can be processed at once.

The pulverized bone is the ash from either type of cremation that is returned to the deceased family. In the case of the U of M Tissue Digester, the ash is used for fertilizer and landfill, since it is then considered bone meal, according to Joki.

In a bio-cremation, the effluent is cooled and the Ph level is controlled before it can release into the sanitary sewer. The process is considered far less expensive and environmentally polluting than the burning type of cremation. However, hosting municipalities, like the Metropolitan Council, must certify with a permit, that the sewer system can handle the effluent.

State Health Department officials believe that a bio-chemical device is en route to the funeral home in Stillwater and could be offering the service to the Twin Cities early in 2012.

The process has been legal in Minnesota since 2003. The U of M's animal facility was installed in 2005, as was a human bio-cremation machine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. The Mayo device has been used to dispose of 750 remains of individuals who had donated their bodies for scientific research, according to Clinic officials.

Cremation has become increasing popular in the new Millenium in Minnesota. In 2010, for the first time, cremations exceeded the number of burials. There were 18,905 burials and 19,331 cremations in the state, according to the State Department of Health.

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Vanishing Playgrounds Leave City's Children Shortchanged

It is an eerie place with hundreds of tombstones, a cremation pyre in the corner and a dead body that awaits burial. For Vicki and his seven friends, aged between 11 and 18, it serves as a playground. No wonder that Krishnampet cremation ground in Triplicane has turned into a playground with the Marina beach out of bounds. They assemble in the graveyard almost every evening to play cricket.


A cycle track in the rear of the graveyard is possibly the most levelled surface they can get and it becomes their pitch. At times, people defecate across the ‘pitch,' but the children cannot shift the playing spot. Search for a space to play is not easy for Karthik and his friends too. They get up at 5.30 a.m. on Sundays in order to reach the Lady Willingdon College playground fronting the Marina beach by 6 a.m. “If you are not here by 6.30, you would not get a spot to play,” says Karthik, who works for Neel Metal Fanalca, a private conservancy firm employed by the Chennai Corporation.

“I have a morning shift, so I cannot go to reserve the place, but my friends do and I join them later,” he adds. By the time the sun is up, every square inch of the playground is occupied.

The UN Convention on the rights of Child says children have the right to rest and leisure, and to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to their age.

However, Chennai's civic authorities seem to have overlooked the needs of children and fail to meet international norms.

The World Health Organisation prescribes a minimum of 9 sq.m. of green open space per city dweller. Chennai has only about 0.46 sq.m. per city dweller. The second master plan proposes to increase the city's open space area from 366 hectares (2006) to about 1,000 hectares by 2026. Even this would only amount to 0.83 sq.m. per city dweller – far from acceptable standards.

Old timers like S. Radhakrishnan (66) say that things were much better till the 1970s. “I have seen many playgrounds vanish right before my eyes.” As the built-up area increased, playgrounds along with other open public spaces have vanished.

Mr. Radhakrishnan, who in his capacity as secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cycling Association trying to promote a sporting culture, says: “When I was growing up, I used to practise in the Island Grounds along with my friends. Today, open spaces are either non-existent or out of bounds. Without infrastructure, there will be no interest in sport. Children cannot be blamed for staying indoors to play video games.”

A direct consequence has been the marked drop in fitness levels and a rise in obesity rates among the city's children, which has been highlighted by several studies.

Chennai has only 228 playgrounds, of which around 20 are categorised as major playgrounds by the Corporation. A well-planned city like Chandigarh also has around 200 public play areas, though it is just 25 per cent the size of Chennai. There are a number of Chennai Corporation wards where there is not even one playground.

To add to the woes, even the existing open spaces within the city are being used for development projects.

For instance, recently at least two large playgrounds, one near the May Day Park and another in Saidapet, were taken over by the Chennai Metro Rail, leaving the children, particularly the poor, to scout for places including graveyards to play.

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Anne McCaffrey Dead at 84

Notable author of such Science Fiction book series as "Dragonriders of Pern" , Anne McCaffrey, died from complications due to a stroke. She was 84.

SOURCE: http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2011-famous-deaths-list/famous-celebrity-deaths-list

Resomation - a Process of Chemical Cremation

The process of chemical cremation combines water and potassium hydroxide to quickly turn human remains to liquid.

Anderson McQueen Funeral Home in St Petersburg, Florida has now performed more than 20 chemical cremations, and we're getting a first look at the machine and the process.

Lynn Moshier recently committed to resomation for her 96-year-old mother Katie Fisher.

"After she heard about it she said, 'that sounds good, and besides I didn't feel like going by fire anyhow.' And that's the way I feel. I feel like fire [through traditional cremation] is violent."

Watch the Video

Cremation experts, like Paul Rahilll, agree the chemical cremation process can be considered more peaceful. Rahill also says it's a more "green" process with little impact on the environment.

"Will it be the predominant choice? Not in my career. Maybe in the next one. We'll see, but it depends on how quickly the public embraces this type of a process."

The liquid remains from the cremation process go "down the drain" like any other waste water.

St. Petersburg officials allow the liquid because it has a pH level of 11.5 or less. Many common household products like oven cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and bleach have pH levels even higher than the liquid remains of resomation.

If Lynn and her mother are any indication, the new technology could grow quickly.

"I'm not adverse to change. If it's something that's going to better the environment and our lives? I'm for it! And what a wonderful way for my mother to leave this earth...starting something new to help everybody else."

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Body Donated To Science Rejected

Wife Mourns Loss Of Husband, Worries About Burial Expenses

Kissimmee, Florida -- A local woman was grieving the loss of her husband Thursday and wondering how she'll cover his burial expenses.

According to Judy Frowein, her husband's extremely low weight was the reason that his body was not accepted for scientific research.

But paperwork from MedCure of Portland, Ore., didn't match up with the explanation.


"I was totally destroyed," Frowein said.

Frowein was emotionally destroyed twice. Her husband, John, a man featured in a WESH 2 News 2010 report when he was having trouble obtaining a valid Social Security card died Sept. 9.

A company called MedCure had signed papers to accept John Frowein's body donation for scientific research in exchange for paying his cremation expenses.

But the day John Frowein died, MedCure rejected his donation and terminated the deal.

"I blanked out. I was just totally, mentally destroyed," Judy Frowein said. "My husband was dead in the house. I had no place to send him to."

Judy Frowein said an employee at Vitas Hospice provided her the information on MedCure, even though after the man died, other workers said MedCure had rejected other body donations from this place.

She shared the brochure she received, and it did indicate severely under or overweight people may be rejected, but the donor consent form she filled out only ruled out severely obese people.

John Frowein weighed 95 pounds when he died.

"They said, Sorry, he has to be over 140 pounds,' and they would not take him," Judy Frowein said. "I was upset and angry over the way I was treated."

A MedCure spokeswoman said the consent form is not a promise to accept a body and pay the expenses for cremation.

"We cannot accept a donor until after they pass. When death occurs, that is when we decide ... There is no guarantee of acceptance at the time a donor states his or her intentions," MedCure representative Valere Beck said in a statement.

Judy Frowein was suddenly left with a $1,700 bill for her husband's cremation and had bitter words of advice to others considering whole body donation.

"Beware," Judy Frowein said. "Don't do it."

There was a mix of online reviews for MedCura. One person described the company as the "least respected" in the industry. Another said an experience with MedCure was "wonderful."

A spokeswoman for Vitas Hospice Care said it is not company policy to provide information about body donation.

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