Published: July 19, 2008 11:33 pm      

CREMATION: What to do with the ashes?

Along with a boom in the number of cremations, the options for ashes has expanded as well.

Family members can carry a loved one’s ashes in keepsake pendants, key chains and charms. For a family with many siblings, smaller urns are available for multiple family members to keep crematory remains.

Locally, one family secured permission to scatter ashes on the finish line of the Daytona 500.

Another had the carbon extracted from the remains, to be crafted into a synthetic diamond.

Containers can be just as unusual, and one option is a beer stein.

Most families simply choose a sentimental place to scatter ashes, said Bill Hindman of Hindman Funeral Homes & Crematory Inc. in Johnstown.

Locations range from favorite hunting or fishing spots to vacation destinations, he said.

William Price of William Rowe Price Funeral Home Inc. in Meyersdale said families have to consider issues of trespassing when choosing a spot. Price said funeral directors don’t have any say in what a family does with remains.

“No funeral director would tell a family to scatter remains at a place like the Inclined Plane, but I’m sure it has been done,” he said. “That’s their own decision.”

Funeral home director Don Deaner of Berlin said he reads of unusual and curious plans for ashes. But locally, he added, families typically choose a favorite hunting cabin or meaningful outdoor location.

“I have heard about people having ashes shot into space or made into a diamond,” Deaner said, “but that gets to be kind of expensive.”



Dust in the wind?

In 2005, a man was arrested for running onto the field during a Philadelphia Eagles home game intent on spreading his mother’s ashes.

Afterward, Christopher Noteboom said: “She never cared for any other team except the Eagles. ... She’ll always be part of Lincoln Financial Field and of the Eagles.”

In 2007, the University of Florida began allowing boosters to have their ashes sprinkled on the school’s football field.

The only catch: People couldn’t go onto the field, and instead had to sprinkle from the first row.

Earlier this month, the ashes of a deceased pyrotechnician were loaded into fireworks and blasted over Indianapolis on the Fourth of July.

Here are some of the more popular places folks request to have their ashes spread:

• Amusement park (especially Disneyland or Disney World).

• The ocean.

• “In my backyard” or “in my garden.”

• Favorite hunting/fishing/camping location.

• Landmarks

(Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park).

• Sports venue (Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field).

• Launched into space.

• “Scattered in the wind.”