I hadn’t thought about it at all when my Father-In-Law gave me the catalog of cremation urns to hold my Mother-In-Law’s remains. Apparently the family had decided they would vote on the container, then everyone who wanted to would choose a piece of commemorative jewelry or a small keepsake urn.
Some religions shun cremation for various reasons, but it is becoming more popular with the going green movements springing up lately. There is a discussion about how safe cremation is for the environment. It does release toxic chemicals during the cremation process, but cremated remains do use fewer resources in both the container for the remains and the actual space required for interment, if they are buried at all. Some people keep their loved ones remains at home in a decorated container. Some people put the contained ashes in a cemetery or a memorial site. Some people spread the ashes or put the ashes in a biodegradable container return their loved one to the earth.
The biodegradable containers range from a sophisticated paper envelope to woven lidded baskets to urns amde from corn fibers. They also come in small memorial tokens embedded with seeds to be planted. When the flowers bloom, the loved one’s memory is again full of life.
A columbarium space is purchased in a commercial cemetery just a plot would be. It is a building built specially to house loved one’s cremated remains. Some churches also have special storage spaces for the loved ones' remains.
People who keep the cremated remains at home may choose from a wide variety of urns for ashes. They range in price from under $50.00 to as much as you want (or feel you need) to spend. They are cloisonné, pottery, brass, wood, stone, pressed paper and just about any other material you can think of. Some are very simple and some look as if they came from an Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb. The choices are nearly endless.
When I had the catalog in my hands, I was over whelmed with the decisions before me. And of course there were the emotions in the family as well as my own. A couple of my sister-in-laws started a loud debate about whether everyone should order the same style or should each family member choose for him/herselves? I thought to myself, we should have decided this in the months we were preparing ourselves for this day. Finally, my Father-In-Law reminded everyone that “mom” would not want us to fight and that she would have wanted us each to be happy. He encouraged us to each choose our own memorial. He choose the main urn that would remain in his home. It was a cloisonné purple iris, my Mother-In-Law’s favorite flower.
Settled.
I have since found out that there a couple more ways to respect a loved one’s remains while taking care of the environment. One is resomation that is chemical reduction of human remains that results in a in two byproducts. The first is a small amount of green-brown liquid that contains amino acids, peptides, sugars and salts. This can be returned to the environment by using it in a memorial planting. The second byproduct is the calcium phosphate that is all the left of the bones. It can be memorialized if the relatives want to.
Another common means of taking care of the final remains is to allow the elements to break down the body naturally. Most western cultures are reluctant to use this method, although it has been practiced for centuries.
A space burial is a symbolic memorial of a person’s remains. There are so many issues with having this type of memorial. First it is very expensive. Second, only a small portion of the remains are taken to space, leaving the bulk to be memorialized in another way. A burial in space can be sub-orbital – probably only about five years; orbital – probably about 250 years or way out there – no possible chance of return. Clyde Tombaugh, who is best know for his discovery of Pluto, remains were sent out that way in 2006 on the New Horizons which will head out to interstellar space.
What ever memorial method the deceased and their relatives decide on is their choice as long as it is legal in the region in which they reside.
Green Urns for Ashes |
