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Dust to dust, and ashes to a shelf in the garage

Written by DeadGirl
Saturday, 17 July 2004
Jul 14 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner GRIEVING relatives cannot decide what to do with relatives' ashes. Cremation remains are in limbo as families hesitate over the location of their loved ones' last resting place. Ashes are collecting in the stores of undertakers, it is claimed - and also in garages and spare rooms at private homes. Michael Brook, who runs Huddersfield's natural burial ground at Rose Hill, Birkby, says: "Some funeral directors keep a considerable quantity of urns. "I estimate there must be 3,000 or 4,000 people's ashes in Kirklees that haven't been buried or scattered. "Why? Because after a funeral, relatives aren't always in a state to make a decision. "So the funeral director keeps the ashes, saying: `Take them away when you feel like it.' And people never do." Sometimes, they get taken home - but not to a final resting place. Mr Brook said he knew of people who kept the ashes of a parent in the garage, originally as a temporary measure - then felt embarrassed about dealing with them later. "It's not something people tend to talk about," he says. An average cremation produces 9lb of ash, collected in a plastic cylindrical urn. Fewer relatives keep the ashes on the mantelpiece at home but decorative caskets and urns are available from funeral directors. Mr Brook continues: "The actor Charles Bronson carried his late wife's ashes wherever he went, but everyone has different ideas about what they want to do with the remains of their loved ones." Mr Brook is now preparing to offer to bury ashes on part of his newly-opened burial ground, at which only biodegradable coffins are allowed, from September. Ashes can also be buried at Huddersfield Crematorium, Fixby. In Kirklees, 80% of people are cremated and 20% buried - a ratio that's remained constant for several years. Brian Taylor, Huddersfield-based regional manager for the Co-operative Funeral Service said: "It's true, funeral directors hold a lot of ashes in short-term and long-term storage. "If we lose touch with relatives after a funeral, we make every effort we can to trace them - sometimes even with an advert in the paper - to establish what they want us to do with the ashes." * Contrary to popular belief, a person's ashes are not good for soil when scattered. * Funeral directors have scatterers they can call on to perform the duty, or clergy get involved if ashes are scattered or buried in a grave yard. * If people choose to keep ashes at home, most do it discreetly - in an ornament that does not necessarily suggest its contents. * More people are set to be cremated in future as burial grounds fill up. Three in Kirklees - Edgerton, Cleckheaton Old Cemetery - and Earlsheaton are now shut. * Ashes are often taken elsewhere in the country, to a person's home land, to be buried or scattered. http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0330features/page.cfm?objectid=14426502&method=full

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)Fro