We are in the early stages of funeral planning. Mary and I visited our first funeral home and toured the cemetery yesterday. We went to this particular one because it was listed in the directory when we looked up crematoriums for our area. It is also in the our daughter’s neighborhood.
Our ideas on what kind of funeral that we wanted have evolved over the years. We have agreed that we want to be cremated now. We also agree that we do not want to be buried. We do not want an expensive affair. We differ on the details after this.
Mary wants to have a viewing of the body, a memorial service, and a place to visit afterwards. I am leaning more towards a green burial or a way of disposing of the body in an environmentally friendly way. I would like the memorial service to be in an Irish Bar where people can have a pint on me and tell funny stories about some of the things that I did when I was still living.
So, how do we resolve this. We got a list of options from the funeral counselor. You do not have to have your body embalmed. However, this funeral home made it clear that their practice is to embalm the body if there is going to viewing, even if the body is going to be cremated afterwards. Embalming is not the most environmentally friendly option for me. Mary and I are still talking about this one.
I asked about the cremation. This funeral home, while listed under the directory for cremations, sends the body out for cremation to one of four crematoriums in the area. The charge for a direct cremation is $2300 plus $95 for the fiberboard container to cremate the body in.
State laws have made it so there is a more disclosure of prices in the funeral home industry. I like it. The breakdown of services will give you a real good idea of where the costs are coming from. It will allow us to shop around and make some informed decisions.
We are still planning. There is no stress. Our ideas still have time to evolve. We can plan a budget and pick the services that we want. We do not have to decide today because the funeral is in two days. That is the beauty of planning ahead.
