What To Do With Ashes

The funeral is over. You can breathe a huge sigh of relief. If you’ve opted for a burial, your partner’s body is safely under the ground – and you have a place where you can go and lay flowers and pay your respects.

But if you’ve opted for a cremation, there’s another dilemma to face. What should you do with the ashes? Some people store their loved one’s ashes in a cupboard for several years before deciding what to do with them. Others put them on a mantelpiece as a permanent reminder of their loved one. Others have very clear ideas about where to scatter the ashes – or their partner may have left very specific instructions about what to do with them.

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Whatever your situation, dealing with your partner’s ashes is a delicate subject – for both you and your family. And it’s a very personal decision you have to make. You can bury the ashes in your local cemetery – or in a natural burial ground. You can scatter them somewhere you and your partner loved to visit. You can ask the crematorium to scatter them...The creator of Star Trek apparently even had his ashes shot into space!

The most important thing is to make a ceremony of it that will have some meaning to you and your family – and to choose a fitting farewell for your loved one’s remains.

Useful Links

• What to do with ashes - Guardian article
• There is a really useful website called Scattering Ashes, which has lots of practical suggestions, as well as explaining the rules about where you can and where you can’t scatter ashes.
• The Good Funeral Guide also has a page dedicated to creative things you can do with ashes. Here are just a few ideas:
  • Scatter them from a hot air balloon or light aircraft
  • Scatter them at sea
  • Have them mixed with glass and made into an ornament or pendant. Go to www.ashesintoglass.co.uk.
  • Have them made into a firework display. Go to www.heavensabovefireworks.com