Five Meaningful Things To Do With A Loved One's Cremains
After cremation, the family of the deceased is left with about four or five pounds of cremated remains, sometimes referred to as ashes but more correctly known as "cremains." Often, the family will choose to bring these remains home and decide what to do with them later. One common option is to use an urn to display the cremains somewhere prominent in the home, such as over the fireplace. But there are many other creative ways to lay these remains to rest as well. If you're looking for ideas, try one of these three types of ideas.
1. Keeping them close
You can use a simple urn to keep your loved one with you forever. Or you can choose a more attractive receptacle. These include special individualized urns such as commemorative hourglasses and other, less traditional ideas such as forming your loved one's remains into a diamond (symbolic and wearable as well as valuable) or even putting them inside a vinyl record or plush animal. Many companies would love to capitalize on your need by making a perfectly personalized commemorative item. Pendants, birdhouses, paperweights, portraits, and tattoos are just a few other ideas for this type of close-to-home memorial.
2. Fostering new life
Some families prefer keeping their loved one's remains nearby, but if you prefer less intimate mementos or feel that you don't really need a physical reminder to remember the deceased, you can make sure the remains don't stagnate by offering them a new role in the world. The Memorial Reef project allows you to inter the cremains within a man-made reef that fosters new underwater life daily. This option can allow your loved one to be part of growing new underwater habitats for decades and centuries to come. This is a great alternative for people who cared about the environment and lived eco-friendly lives.
3. Scattering in a favorite place
If one of the above memorials doesn't sound like what your loved one would want, perhaps you'd prefer to lay them to rest in one of their favorite haunts. You'll need to be careful where you scatter the cremains, because it's legal to do so in some places but not others. If you feel your loved one would want an explosive send-off, you can have some of the ashes made into fireworks for a colorful salute or even have them sent into space to be scattered there. Other high-elevation possibilities include scattering from a plane and scattering from a hot-air balloon. Once you've scattered the cremains, you may choose to place a headstone in a memorial park.
As you can see, the possibilities for what to do with your loved one's cremains after the memorial service are almost endless. They're only limited by your budget and imagination and occasionally laws about where you can and can't scatter. Be sure to look up the relevant laws while planning this last adventure for your loved one. For more information, contact companies like Hartman W A Memorials LLC.
