Cremation Memorial Ideas

Cremation is an increasingly popular choice for Americans, and an intensely personal one. At Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery, we offer all services surrounding cremation on site which makes this choice that much more viable. When you consider why choose cremation, there are three significant aspects that may help you make that decision: the cost, the impact on the environment, and the ability to customize the memorial service and remembrance options.

Concerns Around Choosing Cremation

When considering cremation for yourself or for a loved one, you may have concerns around the lack of a lasting monument for loved ones to visit. As a nation, we have a long-standing tradition of visiting graves, adding fresh flowers and even speaking with our loved ones. The perception may be that this could not happen with ashes or an urn. Fortunately, there are options that allow you to have a final resting place in a more traditional manner while still deciding to choose cremation.

Traditional Resting Places

If you or a loved one feels strongly about cremation, but you still would like to have a physical burial site to visit, perhaps near a spouse or family member, you can have a small burial service for cremation remains, very similar to what you would experience for a burial involving a casket. There are any number of ways for you to customize your final service and resting place with memorials, mausoleums, or lawn crypts, all aimed towards giving loved ones a place to visit. There are other, more creative options to consider as well.

Consider Non-Traditional Alternatives

Part of the decision around why to choose cremation includes the personality of the individual and how they would want to be remembered. If your loved one is someone who believed strongly in supporting the environment, then having a memorial park bench or planting a tree would be a lasting final memorial. Others donate to hospitals to support a loved one who was served well by the doctors and nurses there, or simply in hopes of preventing others from dying as they did. Lovely willow trees that hang close to the ground and seem to envelop the family as they grow are used by many, and these long-lived trees can be planted in the family home with a memorial plaque or with a portion of the ashes scattered through the roots as it grows.

Cremation today encompasses nearly all of the options that are available for traditional burial while providing more flexible and creative alternatives for memorialization of your loved ones.