Yes but.............dealing with the body is the #1 issue and expense and is apparently not covered by this service. It is easy enough to cobble together a time of remembrance at home, but when the guests leave the dead body is still laying in bed upstairs. There is at least full-service good news with vets who will now come to your home and help your pet to pass away in comforting surroundings and take the body afterwards.
1
When my wife died I was lucky enough to find "The Casket Store", which in addition to caskets, offered "Direct Cremation." They handled all the necessary paperwork, picked up the body, had it cremated and gave me the ashes for my disposal. Total cost was $675. My neighbor was shocked when I told her as she went to a funeral home and, for almost exactly the same services, charged her $3500.
My wife's ashes are with me in a warm, dry place of honor, encased in a custom made box that is large enough to hold mine as well. My children will continue to cherish them.
When your time of need comes, by all means search "Direct Cremation" in your zip code.
My wife's ashes are with me in a warm, dry place of honor, encased in a custom made box that is large enough to hold mine as well. My children will continue to cherish them.
When your time of need comes, by all means search "Direct Cremation" in your zip code.
2
Not only funeral directors are teaching families how to care for their own dead. As a home funeral guide in Michigan I've taught many families how to have a home funeral. The experience brings meaning and comfort. Cost is not the motivator.
2
Virginia Senate Bill 595, sponsored by Senator Alexander ( who is also a funeral director) will prevent people having home funerals. Even tho' folks have been caring for their own dead since forever...even in America.... the popularity and publicity that Dougherty has gained by selling home funeral services has prompted Funeral Directors to try and eliminate funerals happening at home 'cuz it means loss of money they think they have a right to.
1
That the company in this article CHARGES for home funeral is the news-y piece. Lots of people out there, mostly women in their 50's and up, have been doing this for free for years for anyone who asks, including getting the loved ones body out of the hospital, nursing home, or morgue. I know that the Nation Home Funeral Alliance (HomeFuneralAlliance.org) has members who have been helping families make home funerals for a long time now, and their 1,000 members regularly help folks learn how to or help them care for their own dead. The first step is recognizing that that most of what you think you know about dead bodies is nonsense hollywood and the Funeral Directors Association have mislead you to believe!
2
As I'm sure you're aware, home funeral midwives often charge for their services, whether they are working with the family or holding workshops. We absolutely value the work midwives have done, but our work is from a secular, funeral industry perspective– trying to change the industry from within the industry. I will try not to be offended by you suggesting that younger women (especially in large cities with extensive death bureaucracies to navigate) should be offering their work for free.
7
Women in the United States have been preparing the dead for burial, including advertising their services for a fee, for centuries. There is nothing new about women charging for "laying out the dead." It is lovely to give away your services for free, but relying upon volunteer death midwives is hardly a comprehensive solution to the American death care crisis. Instead, it virtually guarantees that the only communities that will be able to avail themselves of the services of a death midwife are those with lots of women who can afford to become trained and give away their services for free. We need both more volunteer death midwives and more start-ups like those profiled in this piece.
2
Ridiculous! While I absolutely value volunteer efforts - and put forth many hours of my own time weekly towards causes I care about - there is a difference between volunteer services and professional expertise. If all formally trained professionals were expected to give away their services for free, all the time, our entire economy, and indeed life as we know it, would collapse.
We pay birth midwives, doulas and doctors. We pay care providers and teachers. We pay transportation providers, farmers, restaurants and grocers. We pay for homes and loans. We pay for clothing. We pay for medical care and hospice. Paying for death services is a reasonable part of the cycle of life and in keeping with everything prior to the need for such services.
We pay birth midwives, doulas and doctors. We pay care providers and teachers. We pay transportation providers, farmers, restaurants and grocers. We pay for homes and loans. We pay for clothing. We pay for medical care and hospice. Paying for death services is a reasonable part of the cycle of life and in keeping with everything prior to the need for such services.
4
I am the child of a second generation family funeral home business. My grandfather started it in the depression when home funerals were still taking place. My father raised us to always be reverent of the process of death. Well that was the 60's when the business was not necessarily about turning a profit. Those days are gone as are most family run funeral businesses. I'm so happy to see this article that will hopefully wake up the masses and let them know there are choices and you DON'T have to pay thousands of dollars to a conglomerate to host a funeral. YOU do owe it to your family to write your personal wishes down so you don't end up in a zip lock bag or cardboard box on a shelf in the closet.
5
Canadians are eager to participate in the Home Funeral Movement too!
I administrate a 12 week online program called BEyond Yonder Virtual School for Death Midwifery in Canada where we teach students about reclaiming family and community centred dying, deathcare and grief.
Those interested in the topic might also wish to join the facebook group I host called Death Midwifery in Canada
Reclaiming a more participatory relationship with death is so relevant and potentially therapeutic for bereaved individuals and our culture at large.
I administrate a 12 week online program called BEyond Yonder Virtual School for Death Midwifery in Canada where we teach students about reclaiming family and community centred dying, deathcare and grief.
Those interested in the topic might also wish to join the facebook group I host called Death Midwifery in Canada
Reclaiming a more participatory relationship with death is so relevant and potentially therapeutic for bereaved individuals and our culture at large.
2
There's a lovely film on this subject called "A Family Undertaking." By Beth Westrate.
I find the placement of the deer in the photograph and the look on both women's faces interesting.
6
It seems like a good idea to develop an alternative to the current funeral home system which apparently derives from the Civil War according to the article. Some of the particular services offered by this group - do it yourself body preservation - may be a little hardcore for most - but directionally it seems like there will growing demand for a funereal process that better connects with home or nature. The current funeral home model with its emphasis on chemicals and the unnatural separation of the dead from the living in a special purpose building seems ready for reinvention. The cost differential would also seem to encourage this shift.
1
Nobody has anything to say?
Well, my deceased relatives were cremated for the most part and their ashes were given to the survivors in little cardboard boxes that looked like Chinese restaurant take-out containers. The survivors usually couldn't decide what to do with these and they ended up in a spare room with all the old magazines and other things they didn't know what to do with. I also had relatives who made arrangements for burial in a cemetery, and at least we all had a place to go to put flowers on a grave on appropriate occasions.
I took a portion of my mother's ashes and buried them in a small plot of ground in back of our house where we buried the remains and ashes of the various animals that died in our house and on our property. I think my mother would have been happy about that. My father insistewd on not having any sort of ceremony at all, and his ashes were left in a spare room in the house my brother inherited from my father. My brother has since died, the house was sold, and I have no idea what happened with either of their ashes.
I live in a wonderful house in Ulster County, NY, and there are the remains of four cats and a dog buried here, three of the cats in one place and the dog and one cat in another. I have left a request that I be cremated when I die and my ashes buried or scattered next to the burial spots of the dog that lived with me and the cat that lived with me. So after I die I will be with friends.
Well, my deceased relatives were cremated for the most part and their ashes were given to the survivors in little cardboard boxes that looked like Chinese restaurant take-out containers. The survivors usually couldn't decide what to do with these and they ended up in a spare room with all the old magazines and other things they didn't know what to do with. I also had relatives who made arrangements for burial in a cemetery, and at least we all had a place to go to put flowers on a grave on appropriate occasions.
I took a portion of my mother's ashes and buried them in a small plot of ground in back of our house where we buried the remains and ashes of the various animals that died in our house and on our property. I think my mother would have been happy about that. My father insistewd on not having any sort of ceremony at all, and his ashes were left in a spare room in the house my brother inherited from my father. My brother has since died, the house was sold, and I have no idea what happened with either of their ashes.
I live in a wonderful house in Ulster County, NY, and there are the remains of four cats and a dog buried here, three of the cats in one place and the dog and one cat in another. I have left a request that I be cremated when I die and my ashes buried or scattered next to the burial spots of the dog that lived with me and the cat that lived with me. So after I die I will be with friends.
4
Thank you for your beautiful posting - I'll remember what you wrote when my time comes.
1