Choosing The Right Way To Deal With Your Own Burial

Business Blog

When drafting up your funeral pre-plan, you'll need to specify what you want to have done with your body. Traditional full-body burial was once the only option, but you now have more choices. For example, more people are soon expected to choose cremation over a traditional burial. Here are a few of the options to consider when looking for the right way to have your body dealt with after your death.

Traditional Full-Body Burial is Still a Popular Option

If you take this approach, you'll have to include in your funeral pre-plan:

• the purchase of a full-sized casket
• the purchase of a full-sized cemetery plot
• the purchase of a concrete vault for the cemetery plot, if required by local or state regulations

Green Burials as an Eco-Friendly Way to Dispose of Your body

While some people still prefer the traditional approach, there is another type of burial gaining popularity. A green burial does not use chemicals for embalming or a casket to contain your body. Special parks have been established where your body is specially prepared and buried under a newly planted tree. The body is prepared so that it provides nourishment for the growing tree. These parks do not allow memorials to be erected or the grave sites to be marked in any way. The area looks like a well-maintained public park.

Cremation Gives You Several Options

If you use the cremation services of the funeral home, you have a number of options as to how your final remains are handled. Some of the options you have available to you when you choose to be cremated include:

• You can have your cremation remains, or cremains, placed in a casket and buried in a standard cemetery plot.
• Your cremains can be placed in a simple box and buried in a smaller plot in a special section of the cemetery.
• You can be placed in an urn which is then stored in a private niche in a local columbarium.
• Your family can keep your cremains with them.
• Your cremains can be scattered over a favorite park, lake or other location.

There are also a number of non-traditional ways of dealing with your cremains, such as:

• They can be used to create a vinyl record on which is recorded a message from you.
• The cremains can be combined with graphite and made into pencils.
• Your cremains can be made into jewelry or compressed to create a man-made gemstone.
• They can be made into fireworks and shot off during or after your funeral.

The flexibility that is gained by choosing cremation is making it a popular option with many people doing their own funeral pre-planning. If you're interested in learning more, companies like the Peninsula Funeral Home may be able to help.

6 July 2016