There are different options in the cremation services offered in Sterling Heights, MI that you may not be aware of. Many people have the idea that cremations don’t come with any options for paying their final respects to their loved ones.

However, there are several options that can be incorporated to funeral planning that includes cremation. Families can choose from these to ensure that the wishes of their deceased loved one are met and that the needs of the family are met as well.

The options for cremation cover a wide array of choices that spans from basic cremation to cremation that includes everything in a traditional funeral except that the body is cremated instead of buried.

As you’re working with your funeral home director to make funeral arrangements, it’s good to know what options can be included with cremation as the final disposition.

The first option with cremation is to have a simple cremation with no services. This option is known as direct cremation. While choosing not to have a viewing, a funeral, or a memorial may seem, to some people, to be a indication that the deceased person wasn’t loved and won’t be missed by their family, this is seldom, if ever, the case.

Some people specify, before they die, that they don’t want any kind of service to remember them or to mourn their death. The family that honors their wishes is to be commended, because undoubtably there are some family members who would like a remembrance of some sort.

In direct cremations, which happen between 24 and 48 hours after a person has died, the body is transported directly from the location of death to the location where the cremation will take place. There is a rigorous process that ensures that the person’s identity is verified and the family gets the right cremation remains after the cremation takes place.

The second option for cremation is to have a memorial service. This can take place before or after the cremation. Memorial services are often a preferred way to remember and pay respects to someone who has died because they can be held anytime (since the deceased doesn’t have to be present), even weeks, months, or years in the future.

Because family members are so scattered and time is needed to make preparations to meet in one place, having a memorial service gives everyone plenty of time to make travel arrangements and to arrange for the personal time off they will need to travel.

A third option for cremations is to have a private viewing before cremation. These viewings are generally only for immediate family and very close friends, so it’s a very small group that gathers to pay their respects to and says goodbye to the deceased.

Having a private viewing for a small, intimate group before cremation is a way to get closure and to be able to openly grieve the loss of a loved one – without the family and friends feeling like they are on display for the whole world to critique their every word and action – before they are cremated.

A final option for cremations is to have a viewing and a funeral service before cremation. This option incorporates all the elements of a traditional funeral, with the only difference being in the final disposition. In most traditional funerals, the last step is underground burial of the body, while in cremations with traditional funeral elements, the last step is cremation of the body.

For more information about cremation services available in Sterling Heights, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 46530 Romeo Plank Rd., Macomb, MI 48044, or you can call us today at (586) 412-8999.

Cremations are among the cremation services offered in Clinton Township, MI. As more Americans are choosing to be cremated rather than buried underground, it’s important to understand cremations and to put old ideas about what happens to rest.

Cremations are increasingly popular in the United States for very practical reasons. One reason is that are more options for what to do with cremation remains, which gives people an opportunity to really personalize what happens after their final disposition.

Another reason is because Americans have become more mobile over the last 60 years, and often people die in places far away from where they were born. At the end of their lives, however, many people want to go home to be close to family members who have already died.

Cremation remains are much easier to transport from place to place than uncremated remains (although this can be done as well) and cremation remains can either be buried in a cemetery near family or they can be scattered on family property.

Finally, a reason for the increase in American cremations is that cemetery space, especially in areas with very large populations, is running out. Since cremation remains can be stored upward in mausoleums or columbariums, people can be inurned without using ground space.

So, what do you need to know about cremation?

First of all, cremations are very popular in the western part of the United States and states in the eastern part that are small. These include the states of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire in the east and Hawaii, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona.

The states where cremations are least popular include South Dakota, Utah, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

The practice of cremation is not new. The Cremation Society of North America estimates that the practice of cremation dates back to 3000 BC. We certainly know that it was a traditional form of final disposition in ancient Greece and Rome, since it is discussed in literary classics from both civilizations from that period.

The practice of cremation fell out of favor in the Western world with the establishment of Christianity as the true religion. It wasn’t until the personal physician to Queen Victoria of Great British discussed the public health benefits of cremation over burial in the middle of the 19th century that cremation came back on the scene.

Although the first crematorium in the United States was built in 1876, cremation as a general means of final disposition did not take hold with most Americans for another century. As environment concerns came to the forefront in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, so did the philosopy that cremations were more environmentally-friendly than underground burials.

As the environment has become an increasingly-urgent matter to attend to for the entire world, the philosophy of cremations having less of an impact on the stability and health of the environment has grown, so that now more than half of Americans decide to be cremated when they die.

A final word about cremations. Cremations are done one at a time. Cremation chambers, which are inside the crematory, are only big enough for one human body. Each cremation is done with dignity and honor, and painstaking steps are followed to ensure that cremation remains belong to the right person and they are given to the correct family.

For more information about cremation services in Clinton Township, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 46530 Romeo Plank Rd., Macomb, MI 48044, or you can call us today at (586) 412-8999.