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ALTERNATIVE FUNERALS

Hazel Selina with the alternative coffins she crafts

It is an absolute certainly that we will all have a funeral one day. Less of a certainty is how our lives will be commemorated.

Inside Out investigates how funerals are changing…

The traditional way of conducting a funeral – dark clothes, black hearse, wooden coffin – is not what all bereaved families want.

Simon Jefferies from Co-op Funerals says, "Funerals are changing. People are becoming more aware of the alternatives available to them."

Choices

Alternatives to typical funeral arrangements are vast; "Eco-pods" are replacing coffins, secluded woodlands are substituting cemeteries and trees supplanting headstones.

Some people seem to be under the impression that to deviate from the standard funeral procedure is actually illegal. This is not true.

Stephanie Wienrich from the Natural Death Centre says, "People just didn't realise. They thought, you have to use a funeral director, you have to use a hearse, you have to use a coffin. Actually, none of these are correct. A family can do everything themselves."

Personalised funeral

Jane Salvage’s mother, the late Pattie Grutchfield, died almost 18 months ago. Her funeral differed from the norm in almost every aspect. Pattie died at home in bed at the age of 68-years-old.

Jane says, "The last thing we wanted was a normal, conveyor belt funeral with a chipboard coffin and an undertaker we'd never met.

Jane knew a typical funeral was not her mother's wish

"I washed her and dressed her in white. I'm a nurse by background... so it wasn't a new experience for me.

"We carried her into the sitting room where we had an eco-pod waiting. We put scented candles around and tried to make it beautiful for her last rest at home."

The family then took Pattie’s body to a woodland burial ground.

"We loaded the coffin into the back of my hatchback. It fitted beautifully... As I drove down a very steep slope, I had visions that she was going to come shooting through the front windscreen and go whizzing off on her own trajectory to the burial ground.

"Luckily that didn't happen. That was a hairy moment, really.

"We devised a ceremony ourselves and kept it simple. Looking back on it, I have a sense of satisfaction. She would have liked it."

Environmental damage

Woodland burials are increasingly popular

Jane says a desire to protect the environment is one reason her family planned her mother’s burial as they did.

Hazel Selina makes eco-pods from recycled material for her company called Arka. She says, "The shape itself of the traditional coffin has become an archetypal symbol of the hammer horror movies and vampires so I thought I would like to create something more beautiful."

Woodland burial grounds

At woodland burial sites, each grave is marked only by a tree and a number, rather than a headstone. There are eight woodland burial sites in the South East.

The Natural Death Centre recommends the following questions should be asked of any woodland burial site, when organising a funeral:

• What long-term guarantees can you give of the security of the grave we purchase?
• What security is there that the site will be maintained even when there is no more room for graves or if the site goes bankrupt?
• On what ecological principles is the site managed?
• If I pay in advance (which the centre does not recommend), what security is there for my money?

Sea burial

Sea burials are an alternative method to burial on land or cremation, which allows a person to return their body to nature and continue the circle of life.

There are several essential steps prior to a sea burial:

• Register the death with the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
• Obtain a license from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
• Preparation of the body to standards required by the DEFRA.
• Purchase an appropriate coffin according to the DEFRA standards.
• Organise a ceremony.

These can be arranged through a Funeral Director.