By Devi Ramachandran
It’s cost-effective, environmentally friendly and it’s the latest trend in funerals.
At Hulse, Playfair and McGarry, over half of 1,500 funerals held last year ended in cremation, says Brian McGarry, owner of the McLeod Street funeral home. Started in 1925, the business celebrated its 75th Anniversary last month.
“We’ll eventually reach 80 to 90 per cent over the next decade, there’s no question about that,” McGarry says. “People want alternatives to the traditional funeral.”
Cost is not the biggest factor in the increased popularity of cremation, says McGarry. “It’s the simplicity of it all,” he says.
A funeral complete with memorial service, reception, limousine, pallbearers, casket and even hairdressers can be bought in a package deal for about $4,390.
But an immediate cremation without a service costs around $885 and one with a service costs almost twice as much. The total costs are less for a cremation because an urn alone ranges from $300 to $400 and a cremation container can cost from $300 to $600. In comparison, a casket in a traditional burial can be priced up to $5,000 or more.
“Most people still have memorial services,” says Toohey Brown, personnel director. “Cremation is just another step in the process,” he adds.
Environmental issues and cleanliness are key, McGarry says.
“Most people still go through the same ceremony but end it with cremation. They end the service in the chapel and attend the reception. We will privately have the cremation done the next day or a week later. The family can then take the urn to Europe or Asia or wherever their roots are,” McGarry says.
Jean Depper, 67, and her husband Roy, 70, are both pre-planning their funeral and are toying with the idea of cremation.
“I think it takes less space. With more people on the earth, cemeteries are more full,” says Jean Depper. “Cremation will become the thing . . . You just need one little wee spot to put the urn.”
The Deppers also want to bury their ashes near their cottage in Quebec. “There’s a better choice of where you’re laid to rest,” she says, adding that cost has nothing to do with their decision since they would still pay for a memorial service.
Alex Cauldwell, 71, who worked at Hulse, Playfair and McGarry for 31 years says cremations are becoming more widely accepted because of their cost and convenience.
Cauldwell explains cremation began years ago by rural families who couldn’t dig graves in the winter.
Instead, they cremated and saved the ashes to bury in the spring.
There are more than four crematoriums in the Ottawa area that are all needed and being used, he adds.
“It’s a personal thing,” says Jean Depper. “After a funeral, I think about a body in a casket, I visualize it under the ground . . . what an awful ending.”