Cremation Questions

As cremation becomes more and more popular, we want to make sure all funeral service options are presented to you. You may have a misconception that choosing cremation offers fewer options for a ceremony. In actuality, cremation allows for many options when planning a funeral. Cremation gives you the flexibility to plan a tribute that truly honors your loved one. You can arrange a meaningful memorial that includes:

• A visitation prior to the service
  
• An open or closed casket
  
• Personalized music
  
• A ceremony at the funeral chapel, your place of worship, or other special location
  
• Participation by friends and family 
  

If you select cremation, you also have a selection of final resting choices. Urns, indoor/outdoor mausoleum or columbarium, family burial plots, or scattering of the remains are common choices.

• Our funeral home is proud to offer all types of funeral services to families in need, including both cremation (including direct cremation) and burial services.
  
• Unlike other businesses, our Wisconsin funeral home does not require membership fees, and you do not need to sign up ahead of time to receive our professional funeral services.
  
• If you choose, you can pre-pay for your cremation services with our Chippewa Falls funeral home. All funds invested in pre-funding your cremation service are tax free and are applicable for compounded annual growth.
  
• To assist you best, our funeral home staff is knowledgeable about difficult subjects such as probate, social security, Veterans services, and more. Unlike others who may not be staffed as we are, we can provide round-the-clock assistance and answers to any questions you might have.
  
• We are your local, Chippewa Falls funeral home. Often, we personally know the families we serve and strive to provide the care and compassion we would want for our own loved ones. Our care extends to local support groups, as well as Chippewa Valley community seminars and events, to help families through the grieving process.
  
• Making the families in our community aware of the personal and professional services we provide is important. In such a difficult time, we strive to let families know we are here for them. Our expertise and experience in guiding families during the difficulty of losing a loved one is just one of the many reasons families value the services of our funeral home over those of a low-cost provider or cremation society. 
  

Anything you wish to keep should be removed from the deceased. These items may include special mementos like jewelry. The staff at Pederson-Volker Funeral Chapel & Cremation Services take time to make sure valuables are removed and given back to the family.

Barring embalming, refrigeration is the only process that will retard tissue decomposition. This process also protects family and friends, the crematory operator, and the general public from potential health hazards.

In most cases the choice to have embalming is up to you. This decision may depend on factors such as whether or not the family selected a public viewing, there is to be a funeral service, or if refrigeration is available. Embalming may also be necessary if the body is going to be transported by air or rail or because of the length of time prior to the cremation.

Although it is not required, for sanitary reasons, ease of placement, and dignity, many crematories request the deceased be cremated in a combustible, leak proof, rigid, covered container. However this does not need to be a casket as such.

An enclosed, rigid container made of wood or another combustible material to ensure dignified handling of the deceased is required. The type of container is up to you. Caskets or cremation containers are available in materials ranging from simple cardboard to intricate handmade oak, maple, or mahogany caskets.

How you choose to make funeral arrangements depends entirely on how you wish to commemorate the life of your loved one.

You can select a funeral service before the cremation process takes place, a memorial service at the time of cremation or after cremation with an urn present, or a committal service at the final disposition of cremated remains. Funeral or memorial services can be held in a place of worship, funeral home, or at the place of your choosing.

You have a number of choices for the cremated remains. The remains can be interred in a cemetery plot (i.e. earth burial), retained by a family member in an urn, or scattered on private property or a place that was significant to the deceased. We strongly advise you check for local regulations on scattering cremated remains in a public place.

Cremation is just one step in the commemorative process. There are many different types of memorial options from which to choose. Memorialization is a time-honored tradition that has been practiced for centuries. This tradition serves as a tribute to a life lived and provides a focal point for remembrance, as well as a record for future generations.

Memorialization for cremated remains include ground burial of the urn, bronze memorial or monument, cremation niches in a columbarium, or scattering the remains in a scattering garden. Columbariums offer the beauty of a mausoleum with the benefits of above ground placement. Scattering gardens are offered by many cemeteries as a peaceful place where family and friends can come and reflect.

Columbariums are indoor or outdoor structures constructed of a number of small compartments (niches) designed to hold urns. These structures are often located within a mausoleum or chapel or can be free-standing.

If I'm going to be cremated, why would I want my remains to

be placed in a columbarium, interred, or scattered at the cemetery rather than scattered in a place of my choosing?

As long as it is permitted by local regulations, cremated remains can be scattered in a place that is meaningful to you. However, this can present a number of difficulties for your survivors. Some find it difficult to simply pour the mortal remains of a loved one onto the ground or into the sea. If you choose to have your cremated remains scattered somewhere, it is important to make your desires clear with the persons who will be doing so ahead of time.

Apart from the difficulty some may have with scattering your remains, obstacles may occur in the future that would prohibit your loved ones from visiting the location. If scattered in an anonymous, unmarked, or public place, access to this are may be restricted, developed, or any host of other situations in the future.

Remains are not easily collected once scattered; it is important to consider the location carefully. Having your remains placed or interred on a cemetery’s grounds ensures future generations have a place to go to remember. If you choose to have your remains scattered somewhere outside the cemetery, a memorial of some type is often allowed to be placed on cemetery grounds as a place to visit in the future.

Memorializing a loved one in one location allows that person to be remembered forever. To remember, and be remembered, are natural human needs.

Throughout history, memorialization has been a key component of almost every culture. The Washington Monument, Tomb of the Unknowns, and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA in Washington, D.C are examples of memorialization which demonstrate how we honor our dead. Psychologists say that remembrance practices, from the funeral or memorial services to permanent memorialization, serve an important emotional function for survivors by helping to bring closure and allowing the healing process to begin.

Providing a permanent resting place for the deceased is a dignified treatment for a loved one's mortal remains and fulfills the natural human desire for memorialization.

Yes. Typically, cremated remains are placed in an urn which can be displayed in the home.