Advantages of Cremation Services

When you are considering cremation services in Ferrum, VA, you are either preplanning for yourself or you are making arrangements for a loved one who has died. While cremation services are a very popular funeral option, you may not know as much about them as you do about burials, which, until the last few decades, has been the more traditional type of funeral in the United States.

Funeral directors can give you all the advantages that cremation services afford you when you’re preplanning or making funeral arrangements. However, here are a few distinct advantages that cremation services have.

Cremation services have become more popular among Americans because they offer more flexibility in when memorials are held, what kind of memorials can be done, and options for final disposition than burials do.

With burials, everything from services to burial must take place within a relatively short period of time. Burials are traditionally preceded by either a visitation and funeral service or a graveside service. The only final disposition options for burials are entombment or placement underground or in a crypt.

With cremation services, on the other hand, you have the option of holding a memorial before cremation takes place or at any time you choose after cremation takes place. This flexibility gives you more time to plan and organize a service and it gives those who will attend the time to make arrangements to take time off work and to travel.



Cremation services also offer more advantages when it comes to memorial service options. You could choose to have a traditional funeral service with a visitation or viewing (or both), a memorial service, or a celebration of life.

Memorial services and celebration of life services can literally be held anywhere. For example, you might want to have a memorial service at a favorite place to visit. This could be as general as at the beach or in the mountains, or it could be a very specific town or place in that town that holds deep meaning.

Some people hold memorial services or celebration of life services at a special restaurant where they eat and offer a toast to the memory of the loved one who has died. As you can see, where a memorial service or celebration of life service is held is limited only by your imagination.

Finally, cremation services have the advantage of multiple final disposition options. Cremation remains can be placed in a uniquely customized urn to be kept by the family of the deceased. Some of the cremation remains can be split between the main decorative urn you choose and small keepsakes that can be given to each immediate family member.

If you want to keep some of the cremation remains in an urn and scatter some of them in a special place, cremation services offers you the flexibility to do both. Additionally, you can use a portion of the cremation remains to have wearable memorial jewelry made for immediate family members, to have special tattoo inks formulated for a memorial tattoo, or to have mixed with soil and seeds that are planted to grow trees or some other type of vegetation as a permanent memorial.

Finally, another advantage that cremation services offers is that cremation remains can be stored or buried in a permanent place where friends and family can visit. Urns can be buried in a cemetery, just like caskets.

Having this option is attractive because it allows a loved one who is cremated to be buried beside or near a loved one who was buried in a casket. This is often a common wish for spouses who may have died several years – or even decades – apart.

For additional information about advantages of cremation services in Ferrum, VA, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory can assist you.