How To Arrange A Simple Burial

"The subject of death has long been taboo in our culture. This is unfortunate, for death is a normal and necessary part of life. Until we learn to face it honestly and accept it, we are not living at our best."

So says Ernest Morgan in his modest pamphlet, A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial which just happens to pack far more value into its, 64 pages than do many lengthy books on the subject. Not only does Mr. Morgan's manual cover the philosophical aspects of passing on ... it offers sound alternatives to the expensive, often grotesque funeral customs to which we North Americans so doggedly adhere.

Our tributes to departed loved ones can be both beautiful and appropriate, yet such ceremonies need not cost the bereft family thousands of dollars. We've selected the following portions from the Morgan manual (which is now in its eighth edition) in order to demonstrate just that fact.

From A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial by Ernest Morgan, copyright© 1977 by The Celo Press, Rt. 5, Burnsville, N.C. 28714 and reprinted with the author's permission. Available for $2.00 from The Celo Press or from Mother's Bookshelf.

We have, in the United States and Canada, an amazing custom of displaying dead bodies in a costly and elaborate routine. Each year — in response to this custom — nearly two million American families put themselves through an emotional ordeal ... and spend upwards of four billion dollars doing so.

When death occurs in a family in which there was no planning, the survivors find themselves virtually helpless in the face of entrenched custom, and dealing with a funeral director who expects them to follow this custom. Through planning, however, a family can have the precedent, information, and moral support needed to get the type of service it wants.

To help with advance planning, nonprofit funeral and memorial societies have been formed. These societies cooperate with funeral directors, sometimes by having contracts with them and sometimes by advising their members as to which firms provide the desired service. They also assist those who wish to leave their bodies for education or their eyes or other tissues for transplant or therapy. With the guidance of these societies, thousands of families are now being helped to secure dignity, simplicity, and economy in their funerals.

There are now memorial societies in 170 cities in Canada and the U.S., representing some half a million members. Most Canadian societies are united in the Memorial Society Association of Canada, Box 96, Weston, Ontario M9N 3M6 Most U.S. societies belong to the Continental Association of Funeral & Memorial Societies, 1828 L St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. The two groups work closely and membership is reciprocal between them.