WASHINGTON – Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She’s determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery.

Army Spc. Corey Shea died Nov. 12, 2008, in Mosul, with one about a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq. [...]]]>

Fallen Soldier Corey Shea

WASHINGTON – Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She’s determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery.

Army Spc. Corey Shea died Nov. 12, 2008, in Mosul, with one about a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq. He was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, about 50 miles from his hometown of Mansfield, Mass.

A grieving Anderson, 42, soon hit an obstacle in her quest to be buried in the same plot with her son. That chance is offered only to the spouses or children of dead veterans; Corey Shea was 21, single and childless.

Read more at yahoo.com

“On November 4th, 2009 mommy and daddy picked you up from the chapel. It smelled like stale cigarettes and felt strangely like home there. An elderly lady [...]]]> In her personal blog, The Root of All Evel: Surviving the Loss of a Child, Julie McAnary describes bringing her baby boy home after he was stillborn and cremated.

“On November 4th, 2009 mommy and daddy picked you up from the chapel. It smelled like stale cigarettes and felt strangely like home there. An elderly lady filled out papers and after a few minutes of searching she carried you to her desk. You were in what looked like a jewelry box. My little gem. Mommy and daddy cried the second she put you down on the desk. It was sad seeing you like that.

I carried you out in that tiny little box. It was the first time I ever carried you. I wish it wasn’t.”

Read her story, and share her journey as she shows him around at therootofallevel.wordpress.com…

Publisher: American Catholic Author: Marion Amberg

Article Excerpts:

Dust to Dust: …Geographically, the percentage of Catholic cremations varies widely and is closely tied to state trends. Rates are highest in the far western states but substantially lower in the South, where more faithful seem to reverence the traditional funeral and burial…

Lifting the Ban …In 1997 the rules [...]]]>

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/2876871918/

Publisher: American Catholic
Author: Marion Amberg

Article Excerpts:

Dust to Dust:
…Geographically, the percentage of Catholic cremations varies widely and is closely tied to state trends. Rates are highest in the far western states but substantially lower in the South, where more faithful seem to reverence the traditional funeral and burial…

Lifting the Ban
…In 1997 the rules were relaxed even more: American bishops received an indult that permitted the presence of cremated remains at the funeral Mass. (Canadian bishops were granted a similar indult in 1985.) A random survey by this writer suggests about 30 percent of cremations today occur before the funeral…

Works of Mercy
…Bereavement ministry isn’t solely for survivors; it also consoles and assists the dying in planning their last rites. A few weeks before my father died, he, my sister and his pastor met to discuss his funeral. Dad had been a devout Catholic all his life and wanted the funeral to reflect his faith.

“I was comforted by the priest’s willingness to work with us and respect Dad’s final request,” says my sister, Rita Waldref. “We chose Scripture readings and music that spoke of Dad, his faith-walk and his family.” As Dad would have liked, the funeral Mass was a community and family celebration…

Grave Responsibilities
…In the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, about 45 to 50 percent of Catholics are being buried in Catholic cemeteries, estimates John Cherek, director of the archdiocesan-run cemeteries. That number compares with 75 to 80 percent in 1960.

Where have all the Catholics gone? To other cemeteries, for one thing: The Vatican no longer mandates that Catholics be buried in a Church cemetery. Another reason is cultural practices that suggest burial of the remains is not necessary…

Read the whole story at www.americancatholic.org…

Article Excerpt:

So you think London, population 8 million, is crowded with the living?

There are many millions more under the soil of a city that has been inhabited for 2,000 years. And London is rapidly running out of places to put them.

Now the city’s largest cemetery is trying [...]]]> Publication: USA Today
Author: Rachel Leamon
Publish Date: October 29, 2009

Article Excerpt:

So you think London, population 8 million, is crowded with the living?

There are many millions more under the soil of a city that has been inhabited for 2,000 years. And London is rapidly running out of places to put them.

Now the city’s largest cemetery is trying to persuade Londoners to share a grave with a stranger.

“A lot of people say, ‘I’m not putting my Dad in a secondhand grave,”‘ said Gary Burks, superintendent and registrar of the City of London Cemetery, final resting place of close to 1 million Londoners. “You have to deal with that mindset.”

The problem is a very British one. Many other European countries regularly reuse old graves after a couple of decades. Britain does not, as a result of Victorian hygiene obsession, piecemeal regulation and national tradition. For many, an Englishman’s tomb, like his home, is his castle.

Read the whole story (or watch the video broadcast) at www.usatoday.com…

Article Excerpt:

Cemetery Plots are a unique class of real estate to invest in. The price is low compared to traditional real estate investments and the profits can be huge as you also help out families in need.

You can get started with just a few hundred dollars and some research [...]]]> Publication: eHow.com
Author: jadedragoninbc
Date Published: November 13, 2009

Article Excerpt:

Cemetery Plots are a unique class of real estate to invest in. The price is low compared to traditional real estate investments and the profits can be huge as you also help out families in need.

You can get started with just a few hundred dollars and some research time, the easily double or triple your money over and over.

Steps include:

1. Basic Market Research
2. Detailed Market Research
3. On the Ground Research
4. Finding Inventory
5. Buying Inventory
6. Identifying and Understanding the Client
7. Marketing Inventory
8. Enjoy Short and Long Term Profits

Read the article at www.ehow.com…

Article: Freaky Friday – Offbeat Florida: World’s first underwater cemetery – Neptune Memorial Reef (video) Publisher: Florida Traveler Examiner Author: Larraine Stacey

Article Excerpt:

…Instead of spreading ashes over ocean waters, at Neptune Memorial Reef the ashes of loved ones are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, [...]]]>

Just part of the underwater cemetery

Article: Freaky Friday – Offbeat Florida: World’s first underwater cemetery – Neptune Memorial Reef (video)
Publisher: Florida Traveler Examiner
Author: Larraine Stacey

Article Excerpt:

…Instead of spreading ashes over ocean waters, at Neptune Memorial Reef the ashes of loved ones are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, which a diver then places and secures into the reef. A copper and bronze plaque is installed with the person’s name, date of birth and death. There is also a line for a message.

Visiting a loved one is for divers, too, as families must charter a boat to the site and scuba dive down the reef. The man-made site is divided into sections so that as a diver swims down the reef pathways there will be themed areas done in sculptural elements.

The reef is designed to last forever and engineered to withstand the harshest hurricane that has hit Florida in the last 100 years. So if you’ve always wanted your final resting place to be serene, underwater and unique, then Neptune Memorial Reef could be just what you want.

Watch the video news story:

Read more about the Neptune Memorial Reef at www.nmreef.com…
OR
Read the article quoted above at www.examiner.com…

Article Excerpt:

No, you may not be able to live among the rich and famous, but you can afford to be dead among them. Exclusive and expensive cemeteries begin–but don’t end–in places like New York, California and Texas, where late stars of industry, politics and Hollywood reside. [...]]]> Publisher: Forbes Magazine
Author: Tom Van Riper
Publish Date: October 26, 2007

Article Excerpt:

No, you may not be able to live among the rich and famous, but you can afford to be dead among them. Exclusive and expensive cemeteries begin–but don’t end–in places like New York, California and Texas, where late stars of industry, politics and Hollywood reside. If you’ve got enough life insurance, and a hankering to get in, you can.

How much? For a plot on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in beautiful Santa Barbara Cemetery in southern California, you’ll pay $83,000, while a spot just a short walk down from the water can be had for just over $20,000. Far more than the $1,000 average price of a burial plot in the U.S., to be sure, but a whole lot less than the millions that water-view property goes for elsewhere in town.

Just down the freeway, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s locations in Hollywood Hills and Glendale, a family mausoleum in a prime location costs up to $825,000. But a basic plot, complete with casket and various services, can be had for $8,000. Created in 1906 by Hubert Eaton, and now expanded to seven locations in the area, Forest Lawn is known for perfectly manicured grounds and a topography that tucks grave markers into hillsides in such a way as to make them virtually invisible to the naked eye from a distance. It was a first of its kind that still endures…

Read the whole story at www.forbes.com…
OR
View the slideshow of America’s Most Expensive Cemeteries

Article Excerpt:

Considering the fact that in some cemeteries a 20-foot-by-20-foot private plot of land can cost as much as $1 million, death can be a pretty expensive proposition.

Although the most exclusive cemeteries offer burials at (somewhat) affordable prices, wealthy individuals who want to enjoy death in the [...]]]> Publisher: Forbes Magazine
Author: Betsy Schiffman
Publish Date: November 1, 2002

Article Excerpt:

Considering the fact that in some cemeteries a 20-foot-by-20-foot private plot of land can cost as much as $1 million, death can be a pretty expensive proposition.

Although the most exclusive cemeteries offer burials at (somewhat) affordable prices, wealthy individuals who want to enjoy death in the same style they were accustomed to while alive can easily spend several million dollars on a final resting place. There is, of course, nothing new about the very rich spending a fortune to create memorials to themselves. Look at the Great Pyramid of Cheops, for example, or the Mausoleum of Hallicarnassus, both among the seven wonders of the ancient world.

But while today’s millionaires who are contemplating their mortality may not be able to call upon the talents of a Michelangelo, they are still able to ensure their tombs have such attributes as Tiffany windows and a state-of-the-art stereo system that plays a requested tune 24 hours a day.

Read the whole story at www.forbes.com
OR
View the slideshow of America’s Best Cemeteries…

Article Excerpt:

… The vast majority of Japanese are cremated.

In a ceremony relatives collect the ashes, picking up pieces of bone with chopsticks, and placing them in a ceramic urn.

The remains are then buried, usually under a family tombstone.

But in the high-rise graveyard, the urns are stored [...]]]> Publisher: BBC News, Tokyo
Author: Roland Buerk
Publish Date: October 13, 2009

Article Excerpt:

… The vast majority of Japanese are cremated.

In a ceremony relatives collect the ashes, picking up pieces of bone with chopsticks, and placing them in a ceramic urn.

The remains are then buried, usually under a family tombstone.

But in the high-rise graveyard, the urns are stored on shelves instead.

One half of the building is a warehouse for the dead, filled from the ground floor to the shadows high above with row upon row of rectangular metal boxes.

“You can put ashes for two people in one box,” said the monk. “So 7,000 people maximum in this space, [when] for a normal graveyard you would get 100 graves in this area [of land].”
A key selling point of the graveyard is that the ashes can be retrieved for loved ones to honour the departed.

Visiting bereaved families swipe a card in a reader attached to a computer to activate a robotic arm in the darkness of the vault…

Read the whole story at news.bbc.co.uk…
OR
Read a similar story at www.pri.org…

John shares his thoughts about the recent land set aside in Fort Collins Colorado cemetery for green burial.

I still prefer to be barbecued. Or broiled — however it is that my remains can be reduced to the kind of dusty nutrient that makes [...]]]> Publication: Personal Blog of John Young
Author: John Young
Publication Date: October 7, 2009

John shares his thoughts about the recent land set aside in Fort Collins Colorado cemetery for green burial.

I still prefer to be barbecued. Or broiled — however it is that my remains can be reduced to the kind of dusty nutrient that makes fields and ravines grow greener.

If it can’t be the Viking way — by floating pyre — let my bones retire the cremation way.

That doesn’t mean that folks promoting a new, back-to-nature form of burial haven’t got my attention and admiration. The same goes for local governments that are making it possible. For some unfathomable reason, their numbers are few.

Fort Collins, Colo., the new city of my residence, is one of the nation’s first to facilitate so-called green funerals — burials in which the body truly is committed to the soil with or without preservatives, and in a container that will decompose along with it. Hear, hear. Let a thousand flowers bloom with this approach to dying and decomposition.

Read the whole post at johnyoungcolumn.blogspot.com