THE WIND PHONE
Who Is Coming to Your Funeral?
Not as many as you would think
I work at a large funeral home complex in the midwestern United States, one of the “flyover” states that few pause to visit. It is beautiful, but populated by corn and soybean fields as far as you can see.
This has been a second career. I taught school for many years, retired on a disability pension, and began working in Death Care. I spent twelve-plus years as a Celebrant planning and delivering funerals. I worked with the family of the newly deceased to make sure they honored their loved one well and hopefully eased the transition from the mystery of dying to the reality of continuing afterward.
I have been in the Death Care business for almost 15 years now. I have watched some major shifts in how we cope with death in the United States. In 2009, the rate of cremations at our complex was hovering around thirty-five percent. Currently, we see about seventy percent of our families request cremation.
Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. — EMILY DICKINSON
I know our company is also looking at a type of aquamation in which bodies are dissolved in a fluid over a 5-to-seven-hour period. The bones are then dried and crushed, and the dust is returned to the family.
