For those of you who have actually sat in the arrangement conference room the above headline probably is no surprise.  A press release from Response Source, who is advocating on the part of Pure Cremation, is an interesting read on how arguments over funeral arrangements can happen.

According to the release one of the top web-sites in the world, Whatsyourgrief.com , has listed funeral arrangements as a potential situation for family breakdowns  – even ahead of custody situations and family relocations.

As you might expect from the article, since it seems to be released for the company, Pure Cremation, the press release does advocate cremation and its ability to delay services and decisions because the family then has time to make memorialization decisions after the direct cremation process.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Whether it is a press release or a news article we believe the article does make a lot of sense, especially if you confine the remarks to that of causing family disagreements.  I know that over my 35 years I sat in family arrangements where families who had not spoken with each other for a decade were now being asked and tasked with figuring out a memorialization process for their relative.  Many times they had no idea if the deceased would prefer earth burial or cremation or where the ashes or body should be interred.  Many times they didn’t even know what kind of resources were available to cover the costs of what they did decide.

When you think about it that could be a real daunting assignment, even for relatives who got along together.  To combat this situation, throughout our community I always suggested to families that the “Pre-Arrangement” process did not have to be an in  detail process.  It should start with a simple family discussion.  I always advocated, if they did nothing else, that if family members had agreed on the following three things it would make things simpler at the time of death. Number one was to tell their family if they preferred body burial or cremation.  Number two was to tell the family in what cemetery, niche, columbarium, or mausoleum that they preferred their remains to be located in, and number three was having a set-aside amount of funds to pay for these services.  I always believed that if those three things were known, arrangements would be easier on the family and disagreements could be avoided.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]