Ensuring Respect for the Dead
by Alan D Wolfelt Ph.D
Families often simply need education about the permanent memorialisation options available to them.
A
lan D Wolfelt, respected author, educator and consultant to funeral service explores the critical importance of helping families understand the value of permanent memorialisation. I recently overheard an adult son say, “Dad is dead. We don’t need a casket for his body. We are just going to cremate him and be done with this. We will just scatter him to the winds.”
the porch and says to the old man, “Father, get in.” The father lies down in the box and the son puts the lid on the box, then wheels it toward the cliff. At the edge of the cliff, the son hears a knock from inside the box. “Yes, Father?” the son asks. The father replies “Why don’t you just throw me off the cliff and save the box?
His comment reminded me of a story said by a spiritual teacher Ram Dass. An old man is too weak to work in the garden or help with household chores so he just sits on the porch, gazing out across the fields, while his son tills the soil and pulls up weeds.
Your children are going to need it one day.”
One day, the son looks up at the old man and thinks, “What good is he now that he is so old? All he does is eat up all the food! I have a wife and children to think about. It’s time for
opting for quick and efficient. As you know,
him to be done with life!”
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So the son makes a large wooden box, places it on a wheelbarrow, rolls it up onto
As cremation becomes more and more prevalent in today’s world, ‘the box’ is becoming less and less important. Many families no longer value caskets. In choosing cremation, they also typically believe they are today’s mantra tends to be ‘faster, cheaper, easier’. But readers also know that when it comes to funerals, faster, cheaper and easier are
