Cremation Process

You probably have seen the billboards and advertisements in regard to cheap cremation services provided by out of town funeral homes. And you may have seen the news about a funeral home in Flint that advertised cheap cremations, which it turned out they failed to carry out. It was found that some of the people that were to be cremated never were, and they were left in a garage to decompose. As a result of this the State of Michigan closed the funeral home and fined the owner.

So why do some funeral homes price advertise a low price? It's called bait and switch. They get your attention by advertising a low price with hopes that you will want a little more than what is offered. Car dealers do this all the time. Also, these funeral homes are losing volume (number of calls) over a period of time because the local public is on to their game and the public realizes that using their local funeral home doesn’t cost any more than the price advertiser.

There are two lessons to be learned here. One, you get what you pay for and Two, shop your home town first. There isn’t a funeral home in Sanilac County that has not been in business for many years. They didn’t get to the age they are by baiting and switching the families that use them.

There is no such thing as Simple Cremation. It takes more signatures and more paperwork, involving the County Medical Examiner, the attending physician, and the legal next of kin, before a cremation can take place than a Traditional Burial does. All of the required paperwork has to be signed and ready for filing before the crematory can proceed with the cremation process.  With Traditional burial, much of the required signatures and authorizations are not needed. The Funeral Home can bury a person without having to have the required signatures before burial takes place.  

Embalming is not a requirement for cremation or burial. However, according to Michigan Law the cremation or burial has to take place in 48 hours or the deceased has to be embalmed. With the required paperwork that has to be filed before a cremation can take place, especially over a weekend, when the Medical Examiner and Attending Physician is not available, it is impossible to have the cremation take place before the 48 hour rule takes effect.

In most cases the cremation and the return of the ashes of your family member should be completed in 7 to 10 days. If the funeral home has not contacted you by this time you may need to call the funeral home and find out what is the holdup. Hopefully, if you have decided to use a price advertiser or discount cremation society, your loved one is not abandoned in a garage somewhere.

If a lack of funds for some type of funeral or ceremony is a problem for you, we will work with you. We have options available to help you fund the service you would like.