The final goodbye

In the Vault: Burying a Loved One's Ashes at Home

30 August 2023 by Monica Ruiz

Cremations aren't necessarily the final frontier for your loved one. Following the procedure, the cremated remains (ashes) are respectfully collected and placed inside a container. What happens next is up to you, but for some families, the next logical step is burial—and perhaps not in the most conventional way.

Burial Plots

It's not always a case of one or the other when it comes to planning your loved one's final needs. You may have seen groupings of small burial plots at some cemeteries, and these are sites specifically for the burial of cremation urns. The creation of a visitable final resting place is important for some families, hence the need for their loved one to have a traditional grave with a headstone. So should you just choose a cemetery and then purchase a burial plot intended for cremation urns?

Interment Costs

Of course, you can buy a cemetery plot, but this isn't the most cost-effective choice, so it's a matter of preference and budget. Different cemeteries have different costs for interment, and some may charge ongoing maintenance fees, so please consider all charges. However, many families want to create a visitable final resting place for their cremated loved one, and may want to do so closer to home.

Cremated Remains

The burial of human remains on private property may be permissible when the property is over a certain size (which varies depending on the jurisdiction). While the burial of cremated remains on private property is not restricted, there's a future restriction to consider. You may, one day, wish to excavate your loved one's ashes and relocate them. If you move house, you'll want your loved one to move with you. This is easy to accomplish.

Burial Urn

Even though you plan to bury your loved one's ashes at home, you needn't request that their ashes be packaged in a burial urn. The crematorium will be able to provide this service, but burial urns are often designed for permanent interment and so will start to biodegrade immediately after burial. You want a standard, plain (ideally plastic) urn. However, this urn shouldn't be buried as-is.

Urn Burial Vault

Invest in a small urn vault, which shouldn't be too costly. It can be concrete or even plastic. It's essentially a moisture-proof vault that seals in the smaller urn containing your loved one's ashes. The vault (which is only marginally larger than the urn) is then buried. It remains intact, allowing it to be relocated as needed.

You might not have realised how straightforward it is to bury cremated remains at home, so your loved one is never far away—both literally and figuratively.

Contact a local company to learn more about cremations.

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