Sometimes, when someone dies, you may need to contact a cemetery in order to take care of the details for a casket or cremated remains burial. Generally, and especially if a burial involves a casket, the funeral home will be involved in this process. There are, however, things that you should know when dealing with a cemetery before their services are needed. The funeral details and the cemetery details are two separate entities.
So, let's start there. The phrase that both cemetery and funeral home staff hear all of the time is “It's all taken care of." I'm sorry, but more often than not, it actually isn't. At the funeral home end of things that phrase often turns out to mean the cemetery stuff is taken care of, but not the funeral stuff – there actually is no funeral pre-arrangement like you thought there was. At the cemetery end it means a lot more. On the cemetery side of things “all taken care of" is only the surface of an iceberg.
PROPERTY & INTERMENT OWNER
Besides the obvious fact that one would have needed to purchase a plot, the number one challenge for cemeteries is often the fact that decisions around interment or memorialization need to be made by the owner of the plot. But what happens when the owner is deceased? Now begins the necessity to present the deed, photo I.D, various letters, etcetera, in order to get the problem solved when all it required was a simple change of ownership or putting someone else down on the ownership documents along with themselves when they were alive.
Like the mortgage on a house, consider the plot you've just purchased as your final home. In order for anything to happen with that home after you're in it, you need someone in line to take the reigns and make decisions. And if you are ill or getting on in years, that means it is wise to transfer ownership. It's a much simpler process than the headache it can be once you have moved on. Doing that will alleviate a lot of stress for the family, same as having your pre-discussion with a funeral home will. So, it is the owner that makes any decision regarding who goes in it, and what is engraved upon the stone. That 'ownership' needs to be passed on.
DID YOU KNOW?
- The owner, through consultation with family, may make “reservations" for other family members, stipulating who goes into the plot! - Each cemetery has its own rules about number of interments in a plot. Here in Avondale Cemetery Stratford, you are allowed one full body burial with four cremation burials. - Digging graves that are termed “double-depth", a burial extra deep and another above, is not the case in every cemetery. Avondale does not do this. - Cemeteries are not connected. The rights of a purchased plot cannot just be transferred to another cemetery and the cemetery where the plot was purchased is not obliged to buy it back.
Again…wills, funeral pre-discussions or pre-payments and cemetery knowledge is essential in making things a little easier for those you love.
CEMETERY STUFF
