Some Victorian-era cemeteries in central London have already begun to turn away new burials, and many others throughout the country are nearly full. Now, from the land of those charming double-decker buses comes a revolutionary idea for dealing with the problem of cemetery overcrowding: double-decker graves.

Under the proposed plan, remains would be exhumed and re-interred in a small casket. Using a method called “lift and deepen,” remains would be buried up to three meters (approximately 10 feet) deep, with one set of remains buried on top of another Exhumation would be limited to remains more than 100 years old, and then would take place only with permission from descendants of the dead, if they can be located.

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins said the plan is likely to run into strong resistance, mainly on religious grounds, and interviewers found that visitors at one 150-year-old cemetery were indeed uneasy with the notion of reusing graves. One woman acknowledged that reusing graves to save space makes sense on a practical level; nevertheless, she found the idea to be “quite disturbing.” According to the Government, reusing graves would not only open more space for burials, but also provide income for cash-strapped cemeteries.

Plans to survey all 25,000 burial grounds in England and Wales this year for space shortages and other problems come nearly three years after Members of Parliament (MPs) recommended recycling long-forgotten graves to save historic cemeteries from decline.

About 72 percent of the 600,000 people who die in the UK each year choose cremation over burial. But MPs warn that unless the space shortage in cemeteries is resolved, most people will no longer have a choice.

With consequences so devastating, why does anyone still drink and drive? And what will it take to drive home the point that drunk driving is deadly? A website that offers funeral planning and other funeral-related services may be on to something. In mid-May, Funeralwise.com launched a PR campaign to remind people not to drink and drive over the Memorial Day weekend.

Sure, it’s been done before, but this public awareness campaign offered a unique incentive that was innovative, stark and to the point: free funeral planning services for people who plan to drink and drive. Those who don’t drink and drive were also invited to take advantage of the site’s free funeral planning services, and Funeralwise.com pledged to donate $10 to MADD for the first 10,000 people who responded to the offer.

As of this writing, there’s no word on how many people participated in the free funeral-planning offer, and national statistics on traffic deaths over the Memorial Day holiday weekend have not yet been released. (Results from individual states was mixed, with some reporting record increases and others showing dramatic decreases in traffic deaths over the holiday weekend.) We’ll probably never know if any lives were saved by this pointed reminder of the deadly effects of drinking and driving, and only time will tell if this type of campaign can help to reduce the rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths.

For now, keep in mind that the upcoming July 4th weekend is the second deadliest holiday traffic period (Memorial Day is third). Let’s make it safe this year.

Sen. Jacobsen (who wants to be buried with his deceased cat Sam when the time comes), pointed out that the practice of burying humans with their pets is an ancient tradition dating to the Egyptian pharaohs. In Jacobsen’s view, the state has no business getting between him and Sam. “I’m tired of the nanny state worrying about me and my cat,” he said. “I assume there’s a lot of people out there with pets who understand the connection.”

Concessions and Restrictions Couldn’t Save Bill
SB 5063 would have allowed (but not required) cemeteries, upon written request, to bury human owners with their cremated pets. The pet’s remains could be placed in the burial plot before, after, or at the time of the owner’s passing.

Several concessions and restrictions were written into the bill. For example, an earlier version didn’t require that the pet be cremated and would have forced cemeteries to allow animals to be interred with their owners. In its final form, the bill limited allowable pets to cats and dogs and required that pet and owner be buried in the same plot.

Many cemetery owners opposed the legislation on the grounds that burying humans and animals together would violate the customs and traditions of some cultures and religions. According to Paul Elvig, former president of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, “The ultimate insult to a Muslim would be to bury a dog or a cat near or around a [human] burial grounds,” he said. Other cemetery owners worried about potential lost revenues if they agreed to bury humans and pets together.

Support Wasn’t Enough
As Jacobsen observed when he introduced the bill in January, nobody in the Legislature took the bill seriously. The idea did receive the support of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, however, and Jacobsen received several emails from pet owners and families of deceased pet owners who wrote about their desire to be buried with their pets. In the end, the bill lacked the support to get to a vote.

With the demise of SB 5063, Florida remains the only state with an existing law allowing people to be interred with their deceased pets.

Neptune Society, Inc. – an organization that provides simple cremation services for people who want cremation but don’t want to deal with a funeral home – is the company, and Las Vegas couldn’t be a more appropriate place for its meeting. Why? Because Las Vegas is the cremation capital of the nation.

Las Vegas cremations 2 to 1 above national average
According to the Cremation Association of North America, 70 percent of all final dispositions in Las Vegas in 2007 were cremations. That’s twice the national cremation rate of 35 percent, according to Shawn Myers of the National Funeral Directors Association.

Las Vegas funeral directors and national analysts alike attribute the city’s ranking to its large transient population. (Few families in Vegas are able to claim several generations buried in a given cemetery.) And while Las Vegas is the clear cremation leader, cremations in all western states except Utah outpace the national average. (Utah’s large Mormon population eschews cremations for religious reasons.)

National cremation rate also shows growth
The national cremation rate, on the other hand, has risen gradually over the past 10 years. Dion Joannou, the CEO of Neptune, believes the change can be linked to deaths among Baby Boomers, who are less likely than their parents to adhere to traditional customs. Others point out a simple matter of economics – many people choose cremation because it less expensive, while others are selling burial plots for cash and opting for cremation instead of burial.

Recession influences cremation urn choices
Jim Lee, funeral director at Hites Funeral Home & Crematory in Henderson, Nevada, says the effects of the economic recession can also be seen in the cremation urns people choose. Hites offers a range of cremation urns, from inexpensive plastic urns to expensive, hand-cut crystal urns, but according to Lee, “People maybe see urns like cars: You can get from point A to point B in a Cadillac but also in a Kia.”

Source: Las Vegas Sun

Photo Memorial Stone

When Howard Stidwill and his wife, Barbara learned their faithful friend had bladder cancer, they faced a harsh truth: the death of a beloved pet can leave a void as real, and often as deep, as the loss of a friend or relative.

The Stidwells shared their lives with Max, an English pointer, for more than 10 years. Upon learning that Max’s illness would eventually claim his life, Howard and Barbara set out to do everything in their power to keep him as comfortable as possible. Ultimately, Max’s condition worsened, and the Stidwells made the heartbreaking decision to euthanize him.

Losing Max left the Stidwells emotionally exhausted. Over time, Howard observed that “in society, there is this absence of recognition for the loss of a pet” – a condition that left the couple feeling all alone in their grief. Eventually Howard used his experience to help others by establishing a group where people can turn for support and information as they face the loss of a pet.

Strength in Numbers

One of grief’s most troubling aspects is the feeling that no one understands what you’re going through. In the case of pet grief, that belief may be solidly grounded in reality; friends and family members who don’t understand the very special relationship between people and their pets may invalidate pet grief with insensitive comments like, “It was only an animal.” Thus, the pain of losing a beloved pet is often complicated by feelings of isolation and resentment toward those who don’t understand.

While support for pet grief isn’t as common as support for many other issues, resources to assist bereaved pet owners are on the rise. The American Veterinary Medicine Association website offers a list of telephone hotlines for those who are grieving the loss of a pet, while a Google search will also yield many support options, such as this listing of General Pet Loss Resources.

Staffers reported the strange finding to police, and the urns were turned over to Bateman Carroll Funeral Home. Funeral home personnel identified the containers as “keepsake urns,” designed for families who wish to share the ashes of a deceased loved one, and confirmed that the contents were, indeed, cremains.

That was hardly the end of the mystery, though. While Goodwill spokesperson Dale Emanuel described the incident as “uncommon,” she recalled at least one other occasion in her 12 years with Goodwill that a cremation urn was donated. She suspects the donor didn’t know what the urns were or “didn’t know what to do” with them. With no way to identify the deceased or the rightful owner of the urns, the funeral home will retain the ashes in a mausoleum crypt.

A couple of years ago, digital photo frames hit the market in a big way. Digital photography buffs (just about everyone, these days) welcomed the opportunity to rescue their photos from unwieldy and long-forgotten folders on computer hard drives and display them for the world to see.

A natural follow-on to digital photo frames, our digital photo urn is a unique memorial treasure. A wooden (oak or walnut) cube with a removable bottom, the digital photo urn allows access to two compartments: one compartment holds the digital photo frame, while the other is designed to hold a portion of human cremains or the cremains of a pet up to 75 pounds.

The handsome cremation urn features a 7-inch diagonal screen capable of displaying hundreds of digital photographs in a random rotation. Simply download your favorite photos of your loved one and display the urn in a place of honor. You and your family will enjoy many hours of the happy memories that will hold a place in your hearts forever.

Set up is easy, and the digital photo cremation urn comes complete with a battery-operated remote control, 256 MB of memory to hold hundreds of photographs and audio files, a power cord, and a USB cord to transfer photos from your computer to the urn’s internal memory.

Explore hundreds of other unique cremation urns.

Cremation jewelry is a beautiful, personal way to pay tribute to a loved one who has died. Each of our classic cremation jewelry pendants is a unique keepsake created by professional jewelers. With a simple, elegant design that may be worn as a necklace or key chain or elegantly displayed in a glass dome, this cremation jewelry appeals to both men and women.

Classic cremation jewelry pendants feature double-cylinder construction and a threaded screw-and-rubber-gasket closure to protect the contents. The inner cylinder is designed to hold a tiny portion of cremains, a lock of hair, or dried ceremonial flowers. The outer cylinder is made of stainless steel (silver) or anodized aluminum, available in black, blue, green, red and purple.

Each classic cremation pendant comes with a small funnel to aid in filling the inner chamber, as well as adhesive for an even more secure seal. A black satin cord is included; optional jewelry chains and key chains are also available. For your convenience, classic cremation pendants may be purchased individually or in family packs of 2 to 50 pendants.

For a personal touch, consider custom engraving. The classic cremation jewelry pendant’s outer cylinder can accommodate up to two lines of text in either a script or block style font.

Explore hundreds of other unique cremation jewelry pieces – cremation jewelry.

The Versa Cremation Urn is a beautiful product not only from the outside but the inside as well.  Most of todays cremation urns don’t have the attention to detail that the Versa does.  The outside of the wood urn is a beautiful rosewood finish.  The finish is not overly glossy but also not matte.  It retains a level of class and elegance which are typically not found in cremation urns at this price range.

The inside of the cremation urn receives a level of detail which is unique.  The inside of the urn is finished with a soft black felt that compliments the rosewood finish nicely.  A 4″ x 6″ photo can be inserted by opening the top hinged lid.  Another upgrade can also be seen by the glass that is used to protected the photo instead of acrylic.  The finish quality is further seen by the finished brass hinges on the inside.

If you’re like others it can be difficult to make the decision on which photo to use.  The cremation urn can be positioned in a horizontal or vertical fashion to accommodate either landscape or portrait photo.  This is also where the urn gets it’s name – Versa for versatility.

Personalizing the cremation urn can be done with a brass plate.  Three lines of engraving with up to 35 characters on each line can be used for identification or a special message.  For versatility the brass plate is shipped unattached.  This allows the plate to be affixed with the included double sided tape.

One of the most common uses for the urn is to be used as a sharing or keepsake urn.  Family members who only have a small portion of cremains can use the Versa urn.  Others who have lost a beloved companion such as a pet also use this as a pet urn.

Explore thousands of other unique urns at either our people cremation urns or pet urns section.

A surprising number of unique alternatives to the traditional oak box have been made available.  The Rotating Memories Pet Cremation Urn is just one of those options.  What makes the urn unique is the ability to hold up to six photos and spin on a lazy susan like base.  The urn has six locations for a 3″ x 4″ photo and uses glass instead of acrylic to protect the photos.

Traditionally pet urns can be closed through a plate or a threaded lid.  This is where the Rotating Memories urn is also unique.  The top of the urn lifts off.  For permanent closure 3M VHB tape is included.  VHB stands for “Very High Bond” and is an exceptionally strong adhesive used by everything from the aerospace to automotive industry.  The top of the pet urn opens where ashes or other keepsake memorabilia can be placed.  Items such as a leash or a favorite toy are among the most popular items.

An optional laser engraved plate can be personalized to help make the pet urn unique.  Some different designs are available such as paw prints, hearts, cross, butterfly, dolphin or a bird.  The pet urn can be personalized with a name, two lines for a sentiment and dates.

For other unique pet urns please visit our pet urns page.