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- #121
my late brother died in the veterans Hospitol in Salt Lake city, the VA creamated him.I don't think cremation is all that expensive.
First of all, you need to leave instructions. Even then, there is no guarantee that they will be followed. If you are a thoughtful person, you will make financial arrangements in advance. Or leave enough money behind so that those with instructions can do the job as you have chosen.
Choosing cremation doesn't require purchase of a permanent repository; you can have your executor scatter or leave them anywhere. Located in a city where I used to work (but not for), there was a filled-up cemetery that had been deeded over to the municipality. There was no more money to be made from burials, so the property defaulted to the city and they took it over. Basically, it meant mowing the lawn. So one time, they got a package in the mail addressed to X City Cemetery. It had been mailed from Alaska; the decedent had left instructions that he wanted to be buried in X City Cemetery. His attorney or executor had mailed his cremated remains to this city. Who turned it over to their parks department, who in turn simply dumped the ashes in a flower bed, as burials were no longer being done.
Mrs. Merkt, a Roman Catholic, wants burial in a Catholic cemetery. I don't really care, so I went along with her wishes. I got her to agree to cremation, formerly a big no-no for hard core Catholics but it's now accepted (if frowned upon by some). We bought a little niche in this cemetery for the urns to be placed. No expensive "land" to purchase, no expensive embalming, etc., no expensive caskets, no expensive digging. It's bought and paid for, so it won't be an expense for our children.
Your instructions need to be left with a responsible person. A cousin of my mother never had children. Her husband died first and she was widowed, so had no close relatives to take care of "final arrangements." This chore fell to some younger guy the husband had worked with, "he was like a son." Right. Anyway, when this woman died, this guy had her buried (the plot was pre-paid). The guy was also the beneficiary of her will, and he never paid for a headstone to mark her grave. I guess he didn't want to cut into his inherited money to pay for it.