4 Reasons Why People Choose Cremation For a Loved One
Cremation is chosen every day by people of all creeds, religious beliefs, and socio-economic statuses. In fact, approximately half of all Americans indicate they would prefer cremation. There are an abundance of reasons to choose cremation over conventional internments and funerals. In this article, we will just focus on 4 of the biggest reasons we’ve found that our clients have chosen cremation for their loved one.
It’s Dramatically More Affordable
A traditional funeral is expensive! Typical funerals cost more than $7,000. Meanwhile, we offer cremation services for under $1000. In an ideal world price shouldn’t be an obstacle to providing post-mortem care and ceremonies for our loved ones. However, the reality is that this isn’t a factor that many of us can afford to ignore. This is one of the most commonly cited reasons that our clients choose cremation over traditional funerals, and it’s important to understand this factor.
This also makes sense in terms of honoring your lost loved one. No one wants to burden their loved ones with a large, sudden expense on top of the terrible emotional and practical burden of their demise. Many of those who indicate they want a funeral before they pass do so in ignorance of the substantial, sometimes untenable financial burden it places on their surviving family members. With most religions accepting cremation as a legitimate and spiritually acceptable process for caring for our dead, there are fewer and fewer reasons to choose other options.
We want to help make a truly terrible event as tolerable as possible by offering affordable cremation services. Far too many people have found themselves in debt to fund a traditional burial. Cremation is simply a much more economical option, and this must be considered when choosing what to do with a deceased loved one.
It’s Simpler and Easier
With how difficult it is to lose a loved one, and how complicated it can be to arrange memorial services in the midst of grieving, the simplicity and ease that cremation offers can be a major factor. While conventional burial, especially with an open casket, requires a lot of extra expense and people to dress and prepare the body, conduct a viewing, purchase a casket, organize pall-bearers, conduct an involved religious ceremony, and so on, cremation can be as simple as you are comfortable with.
Urns and other vessels are small and easy to move and handle, and cremation delays the urgent need for an immediate burial and ceremony. This extra time can make a huge difference to your ability to process your loss, especially if you feel rushed and overwhelmed. This goes doubly for instances where family members cannot agree on where their loved one should be interred, or other specifics about their final arrangements. Your lost loved one loved you, and choosing cremation for your mental and emotional well-being honors the love and concern they have held for you.
It’s a Greener Solution
Many people these days are actively concerned with their carbon footprint and other ecological impacts. After all, the Earth is the most important inheritance we can leave for future generations. Perhaps the best way to honor a loved one who has spent their years caring about and improving the Earth.
Being cremated is significantly better for the environment than being embalmed and entombed. Embalming chemicals are harmful to the environment and inevitably speed into and contaminate the burial site. With new alternatives like natural burial becoming legal in some states, embalming fluids aren’t as necessary to legally bury your loved one. However, human bodies are full of toxins even without embalming. Heavy metals accumulate in the body, along with various other toxins from the environment, our food, and our pollution being concentrated in the body.
Cremation, especially when your remains are permanently stored in an urn or used to make a memorial gem, does not reintroduce these toxins from your body into the environment. This makes your body recapture environmental contaminants and toxins, rather than becoming another source spreading these pollutants. Collectively across all of humanity, this cna make a huge difference. Honoring our beloved dead is not just about celebrating their lives, but continuing to act on their values, this makes cremation a very natural choice in many cases.
Cremation Is a Lot More Flexible
For most of human history, families have stayed in the same homes for generations, farming the same land, and attending to the same family or community grave plot for decades or centuries. In today’s era, this tradition no longer applies. Very few of us live in the same town our grandparents did, some of us live in entirely different countries or continents. With this in mind, it’s obvious that staying close to loved ones and being remembered isn’t compatible with traditional family plots and burial traditions.
Cremation offers living loved ones much more flexibility in how they mourn and interact with their lost loved one. While visiting a grave can be a cathartic experience and help with the grieving process, it requires choosing a single final resting place. With families so spread out, this isn’t always a fair option.
Cremated remains can be contained in several urns or other vessels and shared directly with mourning family members no matter where they live. Similarly, your loved one’s ashes can be spread in many different places that mattered to them in life. If there is any familial conflict over the best place to intur a loved one, cremation is a great way to cut down on the high tensions and emotional pain caused by such conflicts.
Final Thoughts
While cremation isn’t right for everyone, its growing popularity globally and domestically indicate it’s the right choice for many. At Maine Cremation Care, we want to help you make the right choice for your loved one and family. If you think cremation might be right for you in the future, or for a loved one, we want to talk to you and help you make the best decision for your unique situation.
