ASHES
TO ASHES
As the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer States
"Forasmuch as it hath pleased
Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear
brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to
earth, ASHES TO ASHES, dust to dust;"
(http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/ashes-to-ashes.html)
Today many people seem to be leaning towards cremation as an
alternative to earth burial and think of it as just having the body
"burned", putting the ashes in an urn and then being done with the
process.
In my experience as a Funeral Director
this is rarely the case. For many families Cremation can be an alternative to
burial but it is never a form of final disposition. The ashes must therefore
find a final resting place. They can either be taken home by the family
members, be taken to a special place to the deceased and scattered, they may be
shot off into space, they may be put into a shot gun shell and be shot
somewhere, they may be buried in a cemetery, placed in a mausoleum or many
other things according to the deceased's request.
(http://www.prlog.org/10175787-funeral-urns-for-loving-deceased.html)
From personal experiences with cremation and the placement of the ashes, I
have a few stories I'd like to share.
One day while working at a small funeral home I met with a family who had expressed
their wishes to have a loved one cremated. So I discussed with them the normal
procedure of how cremation normally works and the process associated with it.
When I had finished explaining to them about the cremation process the son of
the deceased told me he had a strange request. The request was that he wanted
to come in early in the morning one day, follow the hearse to the crematory,
help carry the body in the casket to the cremation retort, push it in and then
push the button which starts the cremation process. I told him such a request
was rare at our funeral home but that his wish could be granted. He then told
me that he had another request. The next request was that he personally wanted
to place the ashes into the urn and then place the urn into the Grave. So I
talked to the crematory and the cemetery that would be involved with the
services and they said that that would be perfectly fine.We then set up a date
and time for each of the request of the family to be granted.
When the day of the cremation came, I went up the the funeral home early and
loaded the casket containing the deceased into the back of the hearse and then
drove down to the crematory with the family of the deceased following in their
car. Once we made it to the crematory we opened the back door of the hearse and
son of the deceased, the cremation operator and I carried the casket from the
hearse to a cart which was used by the crematory operator. Once the
casket was on the cart I as asked to open the casket for the last time so that
the family could be sure that it was their loved one in the casket. The Son
then helped us push the casket into the crematory retort and we then allowed
him to push the button. As the flames of the retort engulfed the casket the
family was satisfied and they headed home.
A couple days late the family returned to the funeral home and the rest of
their requests were granted.
(http://www.allfaithsfuneral.com/urns.php)
Another few personal experiences which I've had with regards to cremation
would included:
-Often times family members ask that we place letters addressed to the
deceased person into the urn before we either seal the urn or bury it.
-I've had multiple families ask that I place candies or snacks into the urns
with the deceased's ashes.
-Once both husband and wife have died I've been asked to mix the ashes
together because, "since they were made one in life they too are made one
in death."
-I've had families bring in their own urns including but not limited to
cookie jars, a wine can, a rope box, Jewelry boxes, urns previously used by
others, urns bought at yard sales, and a shoe box.
As for cremation there are many different types of urns and merchandise that
funeral homes offer such as Thumb print jewelry with the print of the deceased
on it, little lockets, charms and rings that can be filled with ashes, keepsake
urns, decorative urns, Urn sets, and some companies even create diamonds out of
cremated remains....All for a price of course.
Overall in my opinion cremation is an alternative for disposing of your dead
but the disposition process never ends at the crematory and may end according
to the deceased's wishes.
