Do you have any experience with cremains?
I do both Father, Cousin and Aunt cremated. Strange both body's delivered to loved ones in a shoe box. Only one of them had a viewing, the other two just disappeared at death. No chance to say good by or allow the reality of the loss to sink in.
The rent a casket thing is now big business, for less then a couple hundred buck ones loved ones can have a very nice casket for a viewing, religious services, no need for embalming expenses if taken across state lines.
There is no need for costs for grave diggers if kept in a above ground vault, some cemetery's have very elaborate public vaults where one can visit a loved one and leave flowers and a read a plaque outside, or view a picture of the deceased. If buried in a family plot the grave diggers need only use a post hole digger to get the box in the ground.
Makes sense to me, Cost to buy a plot, pay for a casket, and all related expenses for a formal funeral for a family with little money and an unexpected death for a family member is no small thing.
Then there is the case of all that land taken up by the deceased that have no family left to visit or grieve as they have been gone 80-150 years. All these city's of the dead, some huge, miles in area with expensive grave stones that are visited but once or twice a year.
Once in a while there are ads on TV for planning your funeral now to cut down on expenses for the family in the future----Some actually say a funeral today has to pay $8,000 +, kind of a bait and switch play here, even if pre-payed when in shock that cost will go out of sight by playing on emotions of the family.
Some time in the 1970's a book came out, the Cost of Dieing.
My Hubby's parents passed away in the early 1970's 3 months apart. One SIL tells me back then each funeral cost over $8,000 and for a poor family with 7 kids, there was nothing left to leave the survivors. Hubby remembers little of ether funeral , he in shock only remembers crying. Non of his 6 siblings remember much either.
We do need an overhaul of our system of the traditions of when time began. I approve of the vault idea, one hundred or two years after my death I am still there taking up a space of 2 feet by one foot. A picture of me and a name plaque, perhaps a small engraved epitaph. I refuse to take up a space of 8x10 that those living may need. Sort of a, what was the name of the grafettie in the 50-60----a cartoon with, -- was here ?
It is the season to think of these things. Halloween is just around the corner.
