WEBBTIDE 2001-2002 @ SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Volume 37 No.13 Apr. 12 - Apr. 25, 2002 [ ARCHIVE ] [ FEEDBACK ] [ HELP ]
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Flames of cremation bring no closure

.
      On a gloomy September day in 1967 I was five years old I remember looking at my daddy dressed in his finest suit--lying in a coffin. It is an image that has stuck with me throughout my life leaving me to think of death and asking many questions about what happens once you die.
      I am thankful for that image of my father looking so peaceful and serene in his final resting place. The mere image of him having to look any different I think would have affected me even more in the journey of my life. When I am no longer a walking, breathing human, I want to know the shell that carried me around will be treated with the respect it deserves. After our deaths we all should have our remains treated with the admiration, respect and dignity it deserve -this does not include cremation.
      The process of cremation may sound like an okay idea for some people. It is a ritual that can undertake taking your loved ones ashes and scattering them in a place they chose for their remains to fly over and land on. We accommodate in some way to carry out a ritual or quest to fulfill the last dream of our loved one. When a loved one dies it is important to have some sort of closure and celebration of life for the deceased.
      Recently a horrific act of inhumane practices occurred at a crematorium in the state of Georgia. Over 200 bodies were discovered on the property of this establishment with some pushed into a lake, while the loving survivors went through the mourning process with a urn of dried cement or wood stove ashes.
      I have felt the distaste for cremation in my system before this happening. Now they are left only to mourn again for their loved ones and live with the fact that they were victim to what many of us are today trusting.
      We trust the professionals to clean, beautify, bury and burn. Many are left out of the cremation process all together, and really do not understand what it entails. We talk of having our deceased family members ashes in urns or other pretty containers, when in reality it is not ashes at all.
      The cremation process is one few people see. There is a big furnace otherwise known as a tort. A body is inserted into this 4000 degree farenheit oven for two and one-half hours. Our bodies are made up of mostly water, so of course our skin and organs will just evaporate. When the cremation step is done, the bones come out of the furnace are cooled and then pulverized into a bone crusher leaving them nothing but sand. So you see it is not ashes that are in a urn, but your bones crushed and pulverized.
      Most people do not know the process that takes place. It is however viewed in a crematorium in St. Peterburg, Florida. The facility has a viewing room where families can watch while the casket or box your loved one is in be inserted into the furnace.
      One particular survivor said his fears of cremation were eliminated because of a nasty vision he held of bodies being in a cinderblock building with rusty metal pipes sticking out of the roof spewing dust in the air. He and his partner chose cremation because the burial process takes up too much land. However, he did not mention if they also viewed the bone crushing part.
      Now being that my husband just happens to be a licensed funeral director and embalmer, who brought me home a copy of a Cremation Authorization and Identification form for the State of Washington. It is a four-page document where you sign at the end of every paragraph just about. The copy is in very, very tiny print, and does have a section on bone fragments and pulverization. Clearly it is stated that some of the product may be recognizable as particular bone fragments.
      So, the bones pulverized may exceed the capacity of the urn or temporary container, and will be placed in another container or be discarded. Well, okay you don't even get your entire relative, just what can fit. The other point I could not find was the explanation that you really are not getting ashes, but ground up bones. We just have the assumption we get ashes. No thanks, I want better for my body than that. It has carried me through a lot so far in my life.
      Many questions have been lingering lately about if what happened in Georgia could happen here in our state. My husband relayed some pertinent information about the rules and regulations that State of Washington has. Mostly decisions and policies are laid out by two state agencies, the Cemetery Board and the Board of Funeral Directors.
      The Department of Licensing conducts annual unannounced inspections of funeral and cremation facilities.
      Washington State has a rule that requires awaiting cremations to be kept in a refrigerated storage, and that comingling is prohibited. In other words two bodies cannot be burned together at the same time, unless both families have the deceased of requested and authorized it.
      There are also strict guidelines for the survivors on how they dispose of remains. The laws clearly state that the remains can be scattered from state lakes, rivers, Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean within three miles from shore, but not within natural resource conservation areas.
      For those who wish to bury loved ones on their own property, you can. it will just cost you a permit of $25,000. The last stipulation for burial is unless you own an island you can be buried on one without a permit.
      The state also has fairly harsh punishments for grave robbers and those who sell a body part to be harvested after death. That particular felony is worth $50,000 and five years in prison.
      The only case that Washington State has that was serious by a funeral home or crematorium was in Spokane when a funeral home cremated the wrong remains. This kind of situation is very pretty rare, considering a very thorough cremation log is kept along with identification records. The percentage of cremations has risen considerably since 1980. Out of 43,933 deaths in 2000, 57.5 percent of those who died were cremated. In 1980 only 28.8 percent were cremated.
      Why the big increase? It is much cheaper to cremate then to pay for a burial service. Cremations run from $395 to $1500. This is where the ball is dropped and people start to look the other way.
      The failure in Georgia came from the funeral director and the negligence of state government officials not handing down better laws and requirements for this type of entity. The state of Georgia has offered to pay the cost of identifying bodies.
      Unfortunately these families have to go through a grieving process all over again. We tend to want to get things over quickly and easily and trust ourselves with professionals who are in a field that is so "hush-hush" to begin with.
      Let's face it, nobody really likes to talk about death. It is a hard situation for people to endure, letting their loved ones go, then having to deal with their remains. Closure is major part of the grieving process, but to me cremation just doesn't seem the route to go. I never forget the story my husband told me about when he took care of this family whose father had passed away.
      The mother and father were so much in love, even in their elderly years. The children decided it would be best if mom didn't see dad lying there dead, so they had him cremated. A few months passed by and mom got a bill from the funeral home. She rushed right down and demanded they hand her husband over to her, that he really wasn't dead. She just could not accept the fact that he was gone because she never saw him dead. Her mind told her he was going to come home any day now.
      Recently, more families in our country have had to endure their family members being tampered with after death. In San Diego a funeral-home owner was charged with 156 felony counts of unlawful mutilation of human remains and embezzlement. This man was dissecting the corpses and selling the body parts to medical researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies without permission of family members. The bodies were waiting to be cremated. I am sure he felt there was no harm to the bodies since they were going to be mutilated anyway. Why not make a buck or two?
      Can you just imagine being that disrespectful to a body? These types of tactics are not new to our society. In 1985 another mortician was convicted of not going through with cremations, but instead he stacked bodies in mass graves. This man served a light sentence and is out now with a new name and moved from Lincoln City, Oregon. He could be my neighbor! There is just no excuse for such barbaric behavior.
      I feel the shells of what was once a beautiful human being should not be cast away into an overly heated furnace to dispose of that shell. Instead it should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity it deserves. Its final resting place should be in comfort and should be adorned with the finest of cloth, just like how I remember daddy. A last resting place should not be a horrific hot hell, but a place of serenity and comfort.

.

by Teresa Sheeley

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Flames of cremation bring no closure
.	On a gloomy September day in 1967 I was five years old I remember looking at my daddy dressed in his finest suit--lying in a coffin. It is an image that has stuck with me throughout my life leaving me to think of death and asking many questions about what happens once you die. I am thankful for that image of my father looking so peaceful and serene in his final resting place. The mere image of him having to look any different I think would have affected me even more in the journey of my life. When I am no longer a walking, breathing human, I want to know the shell that carried me around will be treated with the respect it deserves. After our deaths we all should have our remains treated with the admiration, respect and dignity it deserve -this does not include cremation. The process of cremation may sound like an okay idea for some people. It is a ritual that can undertake taking your loved ones ashes and scattering them in a place they chose for their remains to fly over and land on. We accommodate in some way to carry out a ritual or quest to fulfill the last dream of our loved one. When a loved one dies it is important to have some sort of closure and celebration of life for the deceased. Recently a horrific act of inhumane practices occurred at a crematorium in the state of Georgia. Over 200 bodies were discovered on the property of this establishment with some pushed into a lake, while the loving survivors went through the mourning process with a urn of dried cement or wood stove ashes. I have felt the distaste for cremation in my system before this happening. Now they are left only to mourn again for their loved ones and live with the fact that they were victim to what many of us are today trusting. We trust the professionals to clean, beautify, bury and burn. Many are left out of the cremation process all together, and really do not understand what it entails. We talk of having our deceased family members ashes in urns or other pretty containers, when in reality it is not ashes at all. The cremation process is one few people see. There is a big furnace otherwise known as a tort. A body is inserted into this 4000 degree farenheit oven for two and one-half hours. Our bodies are made up of mostly water, so of course our skin and organs will just evaporate. When the cremation step is done, the bones come out of the furnace are cooled and then pulverized into a bone crusher leaving them nothing but sand. So you see it is not ashes that are in a urn, but your bones crushed and pulverized. Most people do not know the process that takes place. It is however viewed in a crematorium in St. Peterburg, Florida. The facility has a viewing room where families can watch while the casket or box your loved one is in be inserted into the furnace. One particular survivor said his fears of cremation were eliminated because of a nasty vision he held of bodies being in a cinderblock building with rusty metal pipes sticking out of the roof spewing dust in the air. He and his partner chose cremation because the burial process takes up too much land. However, he did not mention if they also viewed the bone crushing part. Now being that my husband just happens to be a licensed funeral director and embalmer, who brought me home a copy of a Cremation Authorization and Identification form for the State of Washington. It is a four-page document where you sign at the end of every paragraph just about. The copy is in very, very tiny print, and does have a section on bone fragments and pulverization. Clearly it is stated that some of the product may be recognizable as particular bone fragments. So, the bones pulverized may exceed the capacity of the urn or temporary container, and will be placed in another container or be discarded. Well, okay you don't even get your entire relative, just what can fit. The other point I could not find was the explanation that you really are not getting ashes, but ground up bones. We just have the assumption we get ashes. No thanks, I want better for my body than that. It has carried me through a lot so far in my life. Many questions have been lingering lately about if what happened in Georgia could happen here in our state. My husband relayed some pertinent information about the rules and regulations that State of Washington has. Mostly decisions and policies are laid out by two state agencies, the Cemetery Board and the Board of Funeral Directors. The Department of Licensing conducts annual unannounced inspections of funeral and cremation facilities. Washington State has a rule that requires awaiting cremations to be kept in a refrigerated storage, and that comingling is prohibited. In other words two bodies cannot be burned together at the same time, unless both families have the deceased of requested and authorized it. There are also strict guidelines for the survivors on how they dispose of remains. The laws clearly state that the remains can be scattered from state lakes, rivers, Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean within three miles from shore, but not within natural resource conservation areas. For those who wish to bury loved ones on their own property, you can. it will just cost you a permit of $25,000. The last stipulation for burial is unless you own an island you can be buried on one without a permit. The state also has fairly harsh punishments for grave robbers and those who sell a body part to be harvested after death. That particular felony is worth $50,000 and five years in prison. The only case that Washington State has that was serious by a funeral home or crematorium was in Spokane when a funeral home cremated the wrong remains. This kind of situation is very pretty rare, considering a very thorough cremation log is kept along with identification records. The percentage of cremations has risen considerably since 1980. Out of 43,933 deaths in 2000, 57.5 percent of those who died were cremated. In 1980 only 28.8 percent were cremated. Why the big increase? It is much cheaper to cremate then to pay for a burial service. Cremations run from $395 to $1500. This is where the ball is dropped and people start to look the other way. The failure in Georgia came from the funeral director and the negligence of state government officials not handing down better laws and requirements for this type of entity. The state of Georgia has offered to pay the cost of identifying bodies. Unfortunately these families have to go through a grieving process all over again. We tend to want to get things over quickly and easily and trust ourselves with professionals who are in a field that is so "hush-hush" to begin with. Let's face it, nobody really likes to talk about death. It is a hard situation for people to endure, letting their loved ones go, then having to deal with their remains. Closure is major part of the grieving process, but to me cremation just doesn't seem the route to go. I never forget the story my husband told me about when he took care of this family whose father had passed away. The mother and father were so much in love, even in their elderly years. The children decided it would be best if mom didn't see dad lying there dead, so they had him cremated. A few months passed by and mom got a bill from the funeral home. She rushed right down and demanded they hand her husband over to her, that he really wasn't dead. She just could not accept the fact that he was gone because she never saw him dead. Her mind told her he was going to come home any day now. Recently, more families in our country have had to endure their family members being tampered with after death. In San Diego a funeral-home owner was charged with 156 felony counts of unlawful mutilation of human remains and embezzlement. This man was dissecting the corpses and selling the body parts to medical researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies without permission of family members. The bodies were waiting to be cremated. I am sure he felt there was no harm to the bodies since they were going to be mutilated anyway. Why not make a buck or two? Can you just imagine being that disrespectful to a body? These types of tactics are not new to our society. In 1985 another mortician was convicted of not going through with cremations, but instead he stacked bodies in mass graves. This man served a light sentence and is out now with a new name and moved from Lincoln City, Oregon. He could be my neighbor! There is just no excuse for such barbaric behavior. I feel the shells of what was once a beautiful human being should not be cast away into an overly heated furnace to dispose of that shell. Instead it should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity it deserves. Its final resting place should be in comfort and should be adorned with the finest of cloth, just like how I remember daddy. A last resting place should not be a horrific hot hell, but a place of serenity and comfort.	.
by Teresa Sheeley