Funeral Planning Can Prevent Problems

I have threatened -- yes, threatened -- my family numerous times that if they do this or don't do that for my funeral, I will "seriously come back and haunt them."

On a serious note, we have nothing written down in black and white. And we're not alone.

"I don't have anything in writing with (my family), but know that I should," said Sarah Christensen, 34, of Wisconsin Rapids. She and her husband, Mike, have three children.

It's something many people don't like to discuss, local funeral directors say. People spend time planning for life's major events -- births, college, weddings, buying a home -- but tend to shy away from funeral preplanning, a service offered by local funeral homes.

"It's human nature, because of the finality of it, we tend to want to put it off, obviously," said Rod Hafeman, an assistant to the funeral director at Higgins Funeral Home in Wisconsin Rapids.

Decisions need to be made quickly -- often within 48 hours of death-- during which time survivors are asked 60 to 70 questions regarding the wishes of the deceased and services, said Bill Lankford, director of preneed for Taylor, Vollert, & Jennings Funeral Home, Wisconsin Rapids.

"There are more details than the individual thinks about," Lankford said.

Christensen has talked about the issue with her husband, Mike, 35, her parents, and an attorney regarding her final wishes.

"Cremation and vaults -- I can't stand the thought of being buried in a box," she said. "I did however, make sure my parents knew my wishes on cremation as well so that there was no fighting if I died.

"I know it's important to have it written down so that everyone knows your wishes and there isn't any disagreement," Christensen said. "It's a stressful enough time when (someone) dies, and not having to add to that with arguments about burial and such would be important."

Lankford designed a preplanning guide to help families through the process, which he recommends they do before the need arises -- often easier said than done.

"Our primary purpose of this whole (thing) was to put something in the hands of the people as a guideline," Lankford said.

Planning could be a good financial decision -- a traditional funeral can cost as much as $10,000.

"If the people preplan and the money is put in an irrevocable trust, that money is protected in case they ever go into a nursing home or assisted living, no one can touch that money; it has to be used for a person's funeral," said Mike Ritchay of Ritchay Funeral Home.

Let your family know where your record of wishes is kept -- including, but not exclusively, in a will.

"That shouldn't be the only place, because sometimes wills aren't read until two or three weeks after the death," Ritchay said.

Death, like taxes, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, is certain.

"You may not go to college, you may not have children, but you will pass one day, and someone is going to be responsible for that," Hafeman said.

SOURCE

The Cost of Death

Grief-stricken when a loved one dies, you want to do the right thing by planning a perfect funeral. But it’s easy to overspend. Patrick Langston talks to the pros to find out how to curb costs.

To paraphrase country singer Hank Williams, none of us is getting out of this world alive. The question is, what will it cost to get out?

In 2010, the average full funeral in Ontario cost $7,500, according to Ontario’s Board of Funeral Services. Add a catered reception, burial or cremation, interment and a grave marker or headstone and that can quickly balloon to $10,000 or more.

But funerals seem to be an essential part of letting go, a way of both managing the chaos of death and celebrating the life that’s passed.

With that in mind, what are your options when arranging a funeral?

Traditional

A traditional funeral usually means a visitation, sometimes with an open casket, in a funeral home. There may also be a church, chapel or memorial service.

This is the most expensive type of funeral and when you’re grief-stricken and anxious to do the right thing, it’s easy to overspend.

“Emotion can be tied up in it,” agrees Brian McGarry, chief executive of Ottawa’s Hulse, Playfair and McGarry funeral home. He suggests renting a casket for the visitation as a way to control costs. The rented casket has an inner liner that is burned along with the body, leaving the fancy outer shell for reuse.

Rentals start around $1,500. That’s a chunk of change, but as McGarry points out “if you buy the same casket, it’s two to three times that.”

Critics routinely accuse funeral homes of charging an exorbitant mark-up on caskets, which can equal one-third or more of the total funeral cost. Companies such as Casket Outlet (casketoutlet.ca) sell visitation-suitable caskets for about $1,200 and up with free delivery. Funeral homes are not allowed to refuse a casket from an outside source like this unless there is a safety or other serious concern, but you are counting on timely delivery with this option.

When it comes to comparing funeral costs, some homes, like Cole Funeral Services in Carp (colefuneralservices.com), publish their fees. Others don’t.

“It’s the Wild West out there,” concludes Mary Nash, president of the non-profit Funeral Information Society of Ottawa. “Funeral homes group things differently so it’s hard to compare costs.”

It costs $25 to join the society (myfuneralplan.org) for 10 years. Members get information about funeral arrangements and options in an annual newsletter, access to a summary of current funeral and related costs in Ottawa and other benefits.

Nash also serves on the board of the nascent Funeral Cooperative of Ottawa (funeralcooperativeofottawa.coop). Following the lead of co-ops in other provinces, it hopes to drive down the cost of death in Ottawa by establishing a funeral home in 2012.

Online funeral services

Operating in Ottawa since 2009,Basic Funeral and ­Cremation Choices (basicfunerals.ca) lowers costs by dispensing with a physical funeral home, offering instead online funeral arrangements.

The Toronto-based service includes an Internet quotation system, which lets you select options. A basic funeral with a casket costs around $3,200.

Since the company does not have its own facilities, it rents space at various cemeteries for visitations and services.

McGarry, who stresses the personalized aspect of a traditional funeral home, scorns companies like Basic Funerals, saying they “shop around” for cremation and other services to get the lowest rate.

“That’s ridiculous,” says Basic Funeral’s co-founder Dominic Mazzone.

“We’re half the price of what they provide and they’re mad.”

No-frills options

The least expensive option is a simple transfer service, where the body goes from the place of death to cremation with no visitation in between. It includes preparation of a death certificate and an inexpensive casket, but not the cost of cremation, normally around $450 to $600.

Hulse, Playfair and McGarry charges $1,635 for this transfer service, which it calls its Simplicity Plan.

Ottawa Cremation Service (ottawacremationservice.ca) charges $765 for a similar service.

While we no longer lay out the body of a loved one in the front parlour for friends and neighbours to pay their respects, some families honour the deceased by holding a gathering at home once the ashes have been retrieved from the crematorium. A transfer service could be appropriate in such cases, although you may want to find an alternative to a funeral home urn, which typically runs into the hundreds of dollars.

Some people, whether for sentimental or financial reasons, either keep the ashes at home or scatter them. For Ontario regulations on scattering ashes, visit www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/Pages/Cemetaries_and_Funerals_Scattering_Remains.aspx.

Other cost-saving tips

Preplanning. Leave instructions with a funeral home and a family member detailing exactly what you want. It can keep the cost down and save your survivors from having to make a lot of decisions at a difficult time.

Don’t fly solo. If the deceased hasn’t preplanned the funeral, bring a friend or family member to the funeral home when making arrangements, says Nash. “You need someone on your side to say, ‘Do you really need this?’ ”

Prepayment. Funeral homes routinely offer prepayment plans. If you opt for this ­­— and critics say you’re better opening a special bank account instead — make sure the home guarantees that the price is fixed and that the money is deposited in a legitimate trust fund.

Insurance. Some funeral services offer insurance policies to cover funeral costs.

SOURCE

Investigation: Company Ignores State Requirements

A national cremation provider is not abiding by a state agreement that requires it to offer choices to consumers.


In 2009, to settle a state investigation into its business practices, Neptune Society entered into a consent decree with the state Division of Insurance that prohibited it from packaging pre-need cremation services with an urn and other merchandise. The decree was designed to make sure consumers have a choice.

A former salesman brought the business practices to the attention of CALL7 Investigators who decided to use hidden cameras to determine if the company is still using the sales pitch that did not comply with the state agreement.

But the hidden cameras caught a Neptune saleswoman telling a producer that the company would not split the roughly $1,800 package into separate parts. The cremation costs about $1000 and the company charges about $700 for the urn and other items.

“So If I sign up, they send this stuff now?” a CALL7 Investigator asked.

“They are going to, yep,” the saleswoman said.

“Is there any way you guys hold on to it until it’s ready?” CALL7 Investigator asked.

“Unfortunately not,” the saleswoman said.

The state requires Neptune Society to put money into trust for anything they are providing to consumers in the future and if the organization held the urn the Society would have to put more money into trust. The trust is set up to make sure the services and items are available if the Society went out of business. But the company agreed with the state's demand to offer three options.

"If Neptune includes an urn as part of any package of services and merchandise that it markets and sells to Colorado consumers, a consumer will be give three options regarding the urn and other merchandise," the consent decree says. Those options allow the consumer to purchase and take delivery at the time of purchase, take delivery at the time the person dies or decline purchasing the merchandise.

But the saleswoman said Neptune does not offer three options.

“This is our cost of getting business done,” the saleswoman said. “So that's why I can’t pull it out, (because) this is the cost of getting business done.”

“So that's your profit that's what you are saying?” asked a CALL7 Investigator.

“Exactly,” the saleswoman said.

The Neptune Society declined an on-camera interview but in a written statement said they do not tell salespeople to package all the options together. “I think it is important to note that the general incident you described is contrary to and inconsistent with our policies and related training materials,” the statement said.

But a sales video obtained by 7News never instructs the sales people to separate the options.

“Once all the paperwork is completed and signed, you can move into the discussion of the delivery of the merchandise,” the narrator on the video said.

The Neptune former salesman said he was instructed to sell the items as a package. After he approached 7News, CALL7 Investigators decided to use hidden cameras to determine if the company is still using the sales pitch that did not comply with the state agreement.

“My experience is the company is still skirting the law, and they are still misleading the consumers," said the former employee who was fired after asking his supervisors why the Society was not following the consent decree.

“If I just wanted to purchase the cremation, you wouldn't do the deal?” Kovaleski asked the former employee.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

And the saleswoman in our hidden-camera video appears to closely follow the sales materials in her pitch.

A mortuary science expert who reviewed the entire pitch captured by hidden cameras said the company is violating the decree.

“By law you have to separate the two," said Martha Thayer. “When they see this, their hand is going to be forced to do something. This is proof.”

Paula Sisneros, director of compliance at the Colorado Division of Insurance, said her office will look into what our hidden cameras found.

"I certainly think Colorado consumers should be offered the choices, offered the choices that we required Neptune Society to offer them,” she said. "Our investigators will consider all the evidence brought to us to make sure Neptune Society is in compliance with the agreement they signed with us."

SOURCE

Cremation on The Increase in Canada

According to Ted McCleister, owner of McCleister Funeral Homes, established by his grandfather in 1925, "Even though we see an increase in Memorial Services without the body being present, we are still getting many requests from family members to able to see their loved one more time before cremation takes place, and they never see them again.


Funeral homes can arrange a brief, private, family viewing in the funeral home at a convenient time. Some family members may only need 5 minutes, others an hour.

Sometimes just seeing their loved one in their own clothes, without any hospital tubes attached, and the absence of any painful expression, is very comforting and is a better last "memory picture" with the support of other family around."

"If you don't believe how important it is to be able to view the body, then you should see the reaction of families when a funeral director has to break the sad news that they cannot see their loved one, due to various conditions.

They become extremely distraught. They may push us to extraordinary measures in order to be able to have the psychological closure that viewing provides."

Funeral directors are trained in the psychology of grief at college and are aware of the unique nature of each death, and that each family is also unique, with individual needs and wishes.

The death of someone we love creates a psychological wound. We hurt in our own way and we heal in our way, and on our own time.

At McCleister Funeral Home, it is our mission to first ascertain those needs, and then try to meet them. We have needs and wishes. Just like I may need my dentist to work on my teeth, I don't wish, but the result is for my better health.

SOURCE

Cremation Costs Rise with Demand

In the midst of the elaborate tombs in Metairie Cemetery is a columbarium. It's a place where people's ashes can be memorialized. And it's becoming increasingly popular as more and more people choose cremation.

"Every year we see the cremation rate increase," said Tiffany Simmons, funeral director and general manager of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home.

But as the cremation rate increases, so has the cost.

A direct cremation can run upwards of $2,600 in New Orleans. Compare that with the national average, which, according to the National Funeral Director's Association, is just over $2,000.

Ron Christner, an associate professor of Finance at Loyola University, recently helped a family friend arrange a cremation and was shocked at the cost.

"There is no way," said Christner. "There is no way that the cost to transport a body to the funeral home or the crematory or the cremation itself should cost more than $700 or $800."

A direct cremation is essentially a basic cremation without any extra services. The price for that service varies greatly between funeral homes in the metro area - from $1,2000 to $2,650.

"One of your largest variances is going to be the facilities of the funeral home," said Billy Henry, general manager of Tharp-Sontheimer Funeral Home in Metairie. "The factor that's going to determine that is going to be the overhead of the building, the facilities and the people."

Henry said the average cost of direct cremation in New Orleans has nearly doubled over the last 10 to 15 years.

Directors at some funeral homes said part of the price increase has to do with the rising cost of fuel, labor post-Katrina, and the increased demand for the service.

"As we see cremation growing in the Southern markets, those labor costs and those overheads will be forced to be passed on to the cremation consumer," said Henry.

Stewart Enterprises, the second-largest funeral provider in the United States, is based in Metairie. One of its funeral homes is Lake Lawn Metairie. That facility has one of the city's few crematoriums.

By state law, families cannot deal directly with an independent crematorium; they must go through a funeral home for the service.

One crematorium owner said he typically charges less than $500 to perform a cremation. That's a small fraction of the cost funeral homes pass along to the consumer. But funeral directors say, after paperwork and services, the mark-up is justified.

"When we quote the family the price, it's not just the price of the cremation, it's the services that we provide to our families," said Simmons.

The state board of funeral directors said no agency regulates price in the Louisiana funeral industry. And Christner believes funeral homes have a price advantage because people typically don't shop around when it comes to funerals.

"If they know a name or somebody else has used them, that's who they go to," said Christner.

So how can you honor your loved ones life without breaking the bank? Funeral directors advise you to meet with them before you need them, so you can consider your choices while you're thinking clearly.

And remember, you don't have to buy an expensive urn or use a casket when cremating, although some funeral homes offer them. State law allows for any sturdy container to be used in the process.

"It's the persons' choice what they want to do, but they at least ought to know what the choices are and most people don't know what the choices are," said Christner.

Funeral directors said many people don't realize how many additional options they have when choosing cremation. Those include a memorial service after cremation or even an open-casket funeral service before cremation. Those options, of course, do increase the price.

SOURCE

Plenty of Options for Funerals

Our stated mode of operation "Celebrating Life", over the last decade and a half, of valuing every life lived and ensuring each family is embraced in care, has built upon this firm's reputation of over a century beginning with the McKillops family. We thank this community for an ever increasing measure of trust afforded to us, as we see this as more and more opportunity to serve.


Our valuing every person means every person is in our care from the moment of removal from the place of death (which may commence in the middle of the night) to the completion of the families wishes ( which may be burial or safe keeping till the family has decided in the case of cremation). We prepare the body of every person to appear as natural as possible including dressing every deceased for dignity. More and more families are choosing to spend private time ie a last goodbye with their loved one before the cremation or service or interment . This honours the right choice of each individual to process their loss and release at that moment.

If cremation is chosen, we dress each person whether or not there is private or public or no viewing, we transport the deceased to our crematorium here in Portage with the choice of being accompanied by the family if they wish.

The funeral services are from beginning to end and are as unique as every family chooses. This community has experienced these services where everyone present is noticed and their needs and wishes accommodated. We facilitate the details for those families who are grieving or releasing their loved one. We register all the data for registering the death as well as completing the CPP submissions for funds, again as one of our expressions of care and support.

Many select one of the options we offer at our cemetery Evergreen Memorial Gardens: body earth burial, cremation earth burial, cremation interred in one of our columbariums, cremations scattered in either our Scattering Garden or Nature Garden.

The life lived can be commemorated by various monuments including level or upright again each one can be quite unique. We arrange for burial at all cemeteries including the surrounding areas and out of province.

Valuing the trust placed with us we have in our selection rooms mid range to modest caskets and urns as we do believe there is no direct connection between love and spending money. If an alternate selection is desired we make it available within 24 hours. We are asked if we're more expensive, in fact when all the bills are totalled there is little difference in the cost between any of the local firms. Our focus is on service ensuring individual processes their grieve which we believe to be the measure of value.

Because we operate as a team, 24/7/365, motivated by our hearts, we continually are improving and upgrading our training and technology. This includes providing more and more safety and comfort at our facility. Many have expressed appreciation for the resource of information and understanding they have gained from our ever changing website. We anticipate this trend will increase several fold asit is a private and again safe means of supporting personal process.

We are experiencing a growing trend of people choosing to register the details and wishes with us in advance of need. This may also include placing funds in place at this time or over a period of time to cover the costs of the goods and services selected. Each of these wishes we honour. Many have expressed a peace of mind received while lessening the weight of their family experience and at same time they save paying some taxes.

The measure of our commitment to value every person and every family is in the experience. We thank you our community for your continued affirmation and numerous comments on what assisted you through your difficult and new reality. The community award we received as "outstanding contribution to the community by a business" was both most meaningful and humbling. It is our honour to serve each of you. We are committed to strengthening our role as a resource to this community.

SOURCE

It's Not Where You're Buried ...

My grandmother's last wish was to be cremated and her ashes scattered into the sea. Her children complied, taking a sampan to the middle of the sea to give her a head start in her trip around the world.

Initially, when she mooted the idea, some of us tried to talk her out of it.

Without a proper grave and headstone, where would we go to remember her every Qing Ming? Where would we take our future kids to "visit" their great-grandma?

But having lived over 80 years, she'd seen many of her relatives buried, forgotten, then later exhumed - so she knew that graves were not as permanent as they once were.

Plus, as her children and grandchildren were scattered around the globe anyway, she fancied the idea of going around and calling on each of us, in a manner of speaking.

It was difficult letting go at first. We lamented the lack of a focal point to mourn her.

Twelve years after her death, though, we've come to realise how wise her decision had been. Every Qing Ming, we throw flowers into the sea - in our respective countries - to pay our respects. We don't need a headstone to remember her as she lives on in our hearts.

Whenever there is a family get-together, she is always mentioned. My uncles never fail to remember her in the grace they say before our Chinese New Year reunion dinners.

The Chinese believe that their ancestors' graves are sacred, as the feng shui or location of the burial sites will affect the fortunes of the descendents. In the old days, gangsters would desecrate the ancestral tombs of rival leaders in the belief that it would bring bad luck to the other gang.

I have noticed no particular changes in the family fortune since my great-grandfather was exhumed from the Bidadari Cemetery in the early 2000s.

Then again, maybe his body has never left, seeing as the only items they recovered when they opened his grave were his spectacles and some shirt buttons.

Those who have been following my column know that I am a strong believer in conservation, especially as modern Singapore has so few places of real heritage value now.

I am not so sure about cemeteries, though. Heritage buildings can be re-purposed into museums, restaurants and shopping malls but you can't very well turn cemeteries into a restaurant, can you?

Yes, Bukit Brown cemetery does hold the graves of many prominent Singaporeans, some people have recently pointed out. But, judging from the condition of many of the graves, has anyone really cared about them until now?

And how are these graves any more important than my great-grandfather's? He may not have been a millionaire philanthropist but he was an important and much-loved member of my family.

There is a Malay saying: "When they die, an elephant leaves behind its tusks, a tiger its stripes and a man his name." The deeds of these illustrious men are already remembered without anyone having to visit their graves.

In Hong Kong, grave sites cost as much as, if not more than, homes for the living. In fact, there is now a push to encourage cremation, with the ashes scattered at sea - as in the case of my grandmother.

Singapore only has about 700 sq km to house its 5 million people. There is only so much reclamation that can be done before its neighbours complain about boundaries.

You really can't have it both ways.

Want more homes? Then something has got to give.

Cemeteries are such an inefficient use of land space. And ironically, for feng shui reasons, they are also situated in amazing locations that are perfect for the living, too.

Take Bishan, for example. Convenient and central, it is no wonder that HDB flats there are going for record prices.

I have no doubt that once people have lost their initial squeamishness, Tengah and Bidadari are going to prove popular places to live in too.

By the way, if an apparition should turn up in Bidadari New Town giving his name as Lee Kim Siang, can you tell him his great-granddaughter says hi and can she have a 4D number please?

Tabitha Wang would like to be cremated and have her ashes turned into a diamond. That way, she'd be adding to instead of subtracting from value to the family fortunes when she dies.

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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.”

SOURCE

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.

SOURCE

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."

SOURCE