First of all, in addition to the paperwork the deceased already had on file, in a safe place, that dictated to all survivors that he/she be cremated, there must also be a little more paperwork after the actual death. A coroner’s office must OK each piece of paperwork as well as examine the body thoroughly. Those of you who watch CSI will understand that after cremation, there is no possibility of an examination, JUST IN CASE there is suspicion of foul play.
How hot does the oven in your kitchen get? I bet it’s nowhere near 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, even when you set it to “clean.”
No matter how hot the oven, and no matter how long the body is in there, there will always be a few larger bone fragments, and those go into a processor, which is sometimes call a “pulverizer” for obvious reasons. (Its actual name is “cremulator.”) The process takes approximately two hours.
The mixture of ashes and pulverized bones is called “cremains.” How much does a bag of cremains weigh? Well, a 180-pound person will produce around 9 pounds of cremains.
Unless you live in Wisconsin, your survivors may scatter your cremains to the four winds, once permission from the property owner is obtained. Laws pertaining to state and national parks differ from location to location, and it’s always wisest to inquire before you scatter.
You do not have to purchase the urn from the mortuary. There are no requirements as to shape, color, aesthetics, etc. Please yourself as far as the urn is concerned, but please be sure you are following the deceased’s wishes, as well.
You are not required by any laws to hand over the urn containing cremains to a mortuary; you can carry it home with you and do with it whatever you wish. If the deceased had particular plans in mind for his/her cremains, there had better be paperwork dictating those plans. Otherwise, you can do a “Meet the Parents” with it if you want to.
There are even businesses that will turn some of the cremains into jewelry, statues, and knick-knacks of various shapes and sizes. You can even pull a “Jolie” and put some cremains in a tiny vial to wear around your neck.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 12:05 am
and is filed under Advice.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.