Cemetery Services

States have different laws, some limit the maximum time before final disposition. Things that must be considered: securing official permits and authorizations, notifying friends and family, preparation of the burial site and religious requirements. Your funeral director will be well versed on these and other regulations.

No. Embalming is a matter of choice. Your decision will be influenced by several factors: 1. length of time between death and burial; 2. the deceased's appearance in an open casket for public viewing or private viewing by family members; 3. transportation of the body by plane or train.

Fees for "Opening and Closing" cover the cost of many separate services performed by cemetery personnel. They include administering and permanent record keeping which encompasses the determination of ownership, obtaining necessary permission and completing all other necessary documents, including entering the interment details in the interment register and maintaining all legal files. The fees also include actually opening and closing the grave. We locate and lay out the boundaries of the grave, excavate and fill the space. We also install and remove the lowering device, place and remove artificial grass at the grave site, level, tamp, re-grade and seed the grave site, and level and re-seed it again if the earth settles.

A burial vault is the outside container into which the casket itself is placed. It is designed to protect the casket and keep the grave surface from sinking. Burial vaults vary and can be built of one or more of the following materials: concrete, stainless steel, galvanized steel, copper, bronze, plastic and fiberglass. Greenwood Historic Cemetery requires the use of a burial vault. The vault is selected at the funeral home.

Yes. You can make all arrangements in advance. Planning ahead lets you consider the options you prefer and make the decisions about your funeral, your cemetery arrangements and memorial. They will be meaningful decisions that will give you peace of mind, knowing that you have relieved your loved ones of the emotional and financial burden of having to make decisions in their time of grief. It's also a wise economic choice, because you purchase at today's prices, free from future inflationary pressures.

No. The purchase of a grave is really a purchase of the right to designate who may be buried in that grave, and what kind of memorial you want, subject to what the cemetery's rules permit. You're not really purchasing the land or the actual grave. They remain the property and responsibility of the cemetery.

You probably have already taken steps to prepare for a death in the family by making a will and taking out a life insurance policy. Preplanning your memorialization is simply the next step to completing your plans. By preplanning, you are making the wise decision to ensure that all of the emotional and financial details are in order for your burial. You relieve your family of a difficult decision in their time of grief and save a substantial amount of money by taking advantage of today’s prices.

Preplanning allows you to arrange and pay for burial needs in advance, providing you with the opportunity to make the choices that are right for you. You make the important decision regarding traditional burial, above ground entombment or cremation. You choose the location. And you can control the cost, spending as much or as little as you deem necessary.

Definitely! Your family will not be faced with the uncertainty of whether or not they are carrying out your wishes. Preplanning also helps avoid “emotional overspending,” an expensive situation many families face when they need to make immediate decisions at a highly stressful time.

When you preplan at today’s prices, you protect your family from future increases, conserving their financial resources. You pay today’s costs instead of prices that will be in effect ten, twenty or even fifty years from now.

A memorial serves as a tribute, honoring past generations, acknowledging history and remembering one’s life and passing. We believe that it’s vital to provide a permanent tribute so that future generations may remember our ancestors who have passed on and reflect upon our history.

Cremation is a popular choice for its simplicity, dignity and affordability. Yet there are still many decisions. Cremated remains may be placed in a traditional burial plot or above ground in a mausoleum niche.

A memorial is a personal reflection of one’s life. Preplanning gives you and your family the time to think about and discuss the memorialization that will be most meaningful.

Cremation involves placing the deceased in a special chamber in a building called a crematorium and incinerating the body at high temperatures for several hours until it is reduced to a fine white powder. Because of its simplicity, dignity and affordability, cremation is the most popular option to the traditional funeral and burial.

Cremation has seen a steady rise in acceptance in the US over the past four decades among people of all backgrounds and faiths. In 1960 cremation accounted for less than 4% of American final arrangements, but today the rate is over 25%.

With cremation, neither a casket nor embalming is generally required. However, you can always choose to be embalmed, and have a casket, full service and viewing hours. Cremation can be performed without a service or done before or after a funeral service. Cremated remains may be scattered, kept at home, buried in a cemetery, or kept in a columbarium, a structure containing niches into which urns are placed.

One factor is our increased mobility. People often live away from family and would prefer to have their remains “closer to home,” where they have a stronger attachment, and where family and friends may visit. Many retirees who don't feel a strong attachment to Florida, for example, would just as soon reside in an easy-to-ship, easy-to-store urn back in Michigan. The options with cremation are also continually expanding. Perhaps a person would like to be remembered in two places at once, or have their remains encased in molten glass objets d'art, or crafted into jewelry. Some people are even having their cremated remains launched into space. Literally, the sky's the limit.