Cemetery How Much Longer?

[EDDIE51]

There has been an ongoing row in our small town for more than 20 years over the lack of a cemetery. The one we have is full and the only place for an other one is considered 'too small' for the demand. Council say that if this site is not suitable the next option is to use one in a town 15 miles away.
This has caused comments that it would be too far to travel to visit a grave.
My point is, in a world of ever growing population how can we spare land that could be used for housing or agriculture, to bury dead people?
Cremation should be compulsory do we agree?

[naomi24]

Apart from anything else, compulsory cremation would probably contravene Human Rights laws.

[EDDIE51]

^^ there will come a time when there is no alternative. How long can we go on using up 'good land' to bury people?

[naomi24]

There are sections of our community that, for religious reasons, forbid cremation. How do you propose to overcome that?

[RATTER15]

Bury them upright, takes up far less space!

[jno]

people have been reusing graves for centuries. Typically, bones would be dug up from old graves and put in a charnel house, and new bodies put in the grave. Headstones that were still legible might be laid against the church wall.

My guess is graves should be rented out for 100 years (or some other period that people agree on); if no family member wants to pay to renew the lease after that, then it can be renewed.

I wouldn't like to see compulsory cremation, no.

[jno]

...can be *reused*

[stuey]

I think that of more importance is the area taken up by land-fill sites to discard of garbage. Jut think of how much you produce each, say, week; then your neighborhood; then your town; your country; the entire World...It's mind-boggling.

[jno]

very true, stuey: it takes me about a month to get through enough junk to fill a grave.

[Old_Geezer]

No I don't think the State making how you are disposed of, their compulsory choice, is a good idea. The State should keep out of such personal decisions. We've managed for centuries as we are. We all return to the earth eventually. A few bones need not be an issue now. The big issue is how to persuade folk they don't need so many offspring such that all sorts of similar problems grow exponentially.

Meanwhile maybe dig up older graves and cremate the contents, or perhaps bury them lower.

[mikey4444]

No, I most certainly don't Eddie. I don't know where you live but I'm sure some ground can be found for a new cemetery.

Graves are for the living, not the dead. I am glad that both my parents were buried and that I can visit both of their graves, with younger nieces and nephews, that weren't even born when they died.

On my Mum's grave, we had one of the china "photographs" put on her gravestone, and my niece, who is only 8, always says how pretty her Grannie looks.

May is a busy time for my family, as they both died in this month, Mum in 1996 and Dad in 1999, and we take the visits to the graves very seriously.

[ummmm]

I agree that cremation is the best way.

My grave is already booked and paid for but I'd happily be cremated instead.

We could keep our loved ones in a nice vase in our homes. It's not as morbid as it sounds.

[douglas9401]

'We could keep our loved ones in a nice vase in our homes. It's not as morbid as it sounds.'

I think that rather depends on the listener, ummmm.

[naomi24]

I would choose cremation but death is an extremely sensitive issue and disposal of the remains must remain a matter of personal choice. (I wouldn't keep anyone in a vase on the mantelpiece though. I find that quite gruesome).

[Cloverjo]

I couldn't keep anyone's remains in my home. I can't go into the room in my dad's house in which he keeps my mum's ashes. (are they really hers? I'm not convinced.)
However, I don't think a grave is necessary either. We should cremate and put the remains in a dedicated crypt, or similar, where people could leave photos and flowers if it helped them.

[atalanta]

We should all go for promession. No horrid fumes from burning, no waste of space.

[Old_Geezer]

We should all go for Soylent Green.

[sandyRoe]

That's an suggestion that needs chewing over.^

[EDDIE51]

stuey, A bit off topic but there are only 5 land fill sites left in the whole UK.
There were once 100s if not 1,000s . Will cemeterys go the same way?

[mikey4444]

No Eddie...we still have millions of acres of grass, in one form or another, that we can use for burying people in !

My Uncle was buried in a woodland site, near Tiverton in Devon, about 10 years ago, and there is now a beautiful cherry tree growing on top of him, which he would have appreciated !

[EDDIE51]

^^ you could bury them in the ground between the turbines of a wind farm!
How it that for saving the environment?
Or how about a rule that immigrants have to be shipped back 'home' to be planted , that would free up a bit of space. Plenty of room for burials back in Africa.