Being a fly on the wall at your own funeral?
Discussion
The coffin goes into the oven too. Once everything has been cremated they put the remains into a cremulator to further crush bits of bone and the ashes into a very fine powder that you see in the urns. All the metal bits from the coffin and hip / knee replacement joints are removed after the initial cremation and sold for scrap as a source of income for the crematorium.
broadside said:
The coffin goes into the oven too. Once everything has been cremated they put the remains into a cremulator to further crush bits of bone and the ashes into a very fine powder that you see in the urns. All the metal bits from the coffin and hip / knee replacement joints are removed after the initial cremation and sold for scrap as a source of income for the crematorium.
That is correct, but all the metal that comes out of my local crematorium are buried in consecrated ground. I used to work for a funeral director.
Landlord said:
Thanks for the clarification. Although I'm still puzzled by the handles were "weathered"?!
The handles tend to be crappy construction, they don't need to last as they are only going to be burnt. I too have seen them looking tired, on a coffin I know to be brand new.I've helped crematorium staff push a coffin into the cremator and there was no suggestion of recycling it.
Kiltie said:
broadside said:
All the metal bits from the coffin and hip / knee replacement joints are removed after the initial cremation and sold for scrap as a source of income for the crematorium.
The staff of Aberdeen crem can look forward to a good Xmas party the year I go then. I've got a few quid's worth of stainless 316 in me.As much as I don't really give a monkeys, others do of course - my Granddad just wanted a simple ceremony with just family and to be lowered into a grave - However, he didn't factor into the equation my Gran. It's said my Granddad and Gran argued during their wedding ceremony and never stopped, I remember them my entire childhood rowing, and not in boats either, but, and this might sound stupid, they loved each other very deeply - they just enjoyed arguing, it was never spiteful or with raised voiced.
Anyway, I digress, so granddad wanted a quite simple ceremony and to be buried near where he grew up with the minimum of fuss So my Gran organised for large format obituary in a few local papers in the areas they had lived in over the decades inviting everyone he knew to come along, there must have been a hundred plus people there - he had loads of Friends, before we all pilled in a load of cars and headed up the crematorium. I know that sounds awful, but it was perfect ha ha - anyway granddad was no fool, he no doubt knew what would happen and bluffed the one he wanted.
Me? I genuinely don't care - I won't be there anyway - it'll be up to my Wife, there's no point in worrying I might outlive here, she's got her sex on her side of course, but she's 7 years younger than me and from a long line of people who lived very long lives - 90's is the norm, where as I'm from more fragile stock - basically we put out affairs in order at 65 and hope for the best.
)broadside said:
The coffin goes into the oven too. Once everything has been cremated they put the remains into a cremulator to further crush bits of bone and the ashes into a very fine powder that you see in the urns. All the metal bits from the coffin and hip / knee replacement joints are removed after the initial cremation and sold for scrap as a source of income for the crematorium.
I've seen the bucket with knee joints etc in, did handle one, which was very odd.I imagine mine to be quick and straightforward.
My granddad passed last year and his funeral was nothing like I expected. There were no tears, everyone had cried themselves out in the weeks previous.
We played his favourite songs, my younger sister recited a poem and we all laughed, told stories (and ok, there were a few tears!) then went home for a few drinks.
When we got his ashes (I decided not to explain to my family that 'ashes' were basically crushed bone, which incidentally weigh quite a lot!) we scattered them at my uncles grave as a symbolic measure, then we had his name added to the headstone.
No pomp and ceremony, he had the goodbye that I'm sure he would have loved and that was it, another life finished, another source and user of energy removed from the world, just the way it is.
My granddad passed last year and his funeral was nothing like I expected. There were no tears, everyone had cried themselves out in the weeks previous.
We played his favourite songs, my younger sister recited a poem and we all laughed, told stories (and ok, there were a few tears!) then went home for a few drinks.
When we got his ashes (I decided not to explain to my family that 'ashes' were basically crushed bone, which incidentally weigh quite a lot!) we scattered them at my uncles grave as a symbolic measure, then we had his name added to the headstone.
No pomp and ceremony, he had the goodbye that I'm sure he would have loved and that was it, another life finished, another source and user of energy removed from the world, just the way it is.
Landlord said:
This thread has reminded me of something I wanted to ask... do they cremate you in the coffin you arrive at the crematorium in? I ask because my granddad died last October and I was a pallbearer. Being, obviously, right up close to the coffin I noticed the gold paint on the handles had rubbed away, obviously where the coffin had been slid in and out of somewhere a number of times. This didn't make sense to me as it was a very standard coffin and not one I'd have thought would have stayed in the stock room long enough for the damage to occur. It then occurred to me that perhaps on the other side of the curtain is someone with a crow bar and a spring loaded table.
It is possible that the handles were put on in Glasgow, then the coffin shrink wrapped and transported in bulk to the undertaker before the funeral. I noticed quite a few of the coffins I delivered had handles that looked tarnished,especially the plastic cremation handles. 
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