How To Arrange A Simple Burial

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This arrangement can impose a financial problem when professional help is needed and when insurance benefits require hospitalization. Fortunately this is not always the case. Helen Farmer, of the Los Angeles Memorial Society, who kept her husband at home during his last weeks, reports that the two companies with whom they had medical and hospital insurance cooperated in meeting the costs of nursing, medical care, and special equipment. Actually, these costs were lower than they would have been in a hospital.

One way to approach this problem is to inquire of one's Insurance company at a time when there is no need in prospect, as to whether and under what conditions their coverage will apply to home care. Another way is to ask, when the need occurs, if they will cover home care or will insist on the generally more costly procedure of hospitalization. A hospital chart carefully kept and signed at regular intervals by an M.D. or an R.N. (with the letters after the name) plus an accurate expense record (including receipts) can sometimes meet the requirements for insurance benefits for home care.

ABOUT CREMATION

Modern cremation is a clean, orderly process for returning human remains to the elements. With the rising cost of land burial and (in some areas) shortage of land it is finding Increasing use. Many people prefer it for esthetic reasons and specify that their remains be cared for in this way. Crematoria are steadily increasing in number.

The ashes (actually pulverized bone fragments) are clean and white and may be stored indefinitely or mailed by parcel post for distant interment. Some families prefer to scatter them in a favorite garden or woods, or from a mountaintop. (First make sure they are pulverized, to avoid visible bone fragments. This is not difficult.) Some crematories now have equipment which leaves no ashes at all. A few states have laws prohibiting the scattering of ashes. Such laws are commercially motivated and serve no hygienic or esthetic purpose.

Bodies may be delivered to the crematory, in most states, in a plain container; in some, on a pallet. Some crematories require a casket and this requirement is often mistakenly cited as law. The container is placed in the retort with the body, remaining metal parts being magnetically removed. Crematory charges range from $75 to $150. In some places religious groups or private citizens may obtain the necessary death certificate, and permits for transportation and cremation, usually provided no one is being paid. In other places a funeral director is required.

Most religions permit cremation. Roman Catholics may now request permission of the Bishop of their Diocese. Requests are usually granted. The Greek and Jewish Orthodox faiths oppose it, as do a few other groups.

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