(Jeff Schmerker photo) Funeral director Chris Hamiel stands beside a mausoleum used by Garrett Funerals and Cremations in Waynesville.

‘Pre-planning’ for the inevitable

by JEFF SCHMERKER

Staff writer

Waynesville acts on popularity of cremations

Wells Greeley opens a heavy dark door in the basement of Wells Funeral Home and flicks the light on.

The lights illuminate not only examples of caskets but examples of ways families can personalize those caskets.

“Personalization is the biggest trend we are seeing in the industry right now,” said Greeley. Examples include press-on personalized casket corners which replace the typical wooden corner with a bronze emblem, and a mirrored casket top which can be accessorized with a plastic applique — choices include a deer or a golfer.

One of the more unique options, offered Garrett-Hillcrest Funerals and Cremations office in Hickory is a “putting green” — golf fans can be memorialized on a structure that looks like a putting green.

Greeley said personalizing caskets and funeral services — by use of pictures, music, or even DVD video tributes — has become a comfortable part of the grieving process for the families of the recently deceased.

Another trend now represented by more than half of all funerals today is pre-planning.

Pre-planning has two faces, said Bill Swick, director of pre-planning for Garrett-Hillcrest Funerals and Cremations. In nearly 90 percent of all funerals handled by Garrett, families have already purchased cemetery plots. Pre-planning services, however, ranks closer to 40 percent.

Greeley said as baby boomers age and reach retirement, they are tending to plan in more intricate detail their finances, their wills, and even their burials. Now, nearly one-fifth of all funerals in North Carolina — and about one-third of those in Waynesville — include cremations.

To meet that demand, and reserve more room at the town’s Green Hill Cemetery, Waynesville plans to add a new component to burials.

The town is moving ahead on plans to install a set of columbarium units. Columbarium are used to hold cremation urns.

Town Manager Lee Galloway recently told aldermen that a select committee had proposed the town purchase a columbarium unit.

The units are 7 feet long, 5 feet high and 3 feet wide, weigh in at 5,500 pounds and hold 48 cubic-foot niches, each of which is capable of holding two cremation urns.

“I commend the town for making this move,” said Greeley.

Cremation is seen by many families as an easier, less-expensive option to burial, though that is not always the case. An average funeral with a casket costs about $5,600, while the average cremation cost is about $1,600, said Greeley.

A grave space at Green Hill is $750, with opening and closing costs adding another $475.

Niches at the columbarium will cost $700, plus a fee to open the cover and sandblast in the name and date of death.

Overall, said Chris Hamiel, funeral director at Garrett, a funeral involving cremated remains costs roughly half of what a casket funeral does. Casket funeral prices average about $7,000.

Many families, said Hamiel, choose cremation so they can spread the ashes in a favorite or meaningful place. But while that may make satisfy the wishes of the deceased, it means the living have no where specific they can go and grieve the loss.

“Families need a specific place they can go and grieve,” he said. “A mountainside does not always offer that. Most of the time, the ashes get carried away in the wind.”

The town plans to purchase four of the columbarium units for Green Hill at the cost of $6,480 each, with a 10 percent discount for buying so many at once.

The columbarium are to be put in an area between Golden Drive and the rock wall on the east side of the newer veterans’ section.

Construction is scheduled to begin in May, with the goal of having the units open by June 30.

“One thing we have been told is that the town must have a solid set of rules in place prior to opening the area for units,” said Galloway.

But pre-planning and the trend toward cremations are not necessarily linked, said Greeley.

Cremation and burial are personal, emotional choices, while pre-planning is seen more as an organizational process.

“About 35 to 40 percent of our services are prearranged,” Greeley said.

Garrett offers niches at its mausoleum at Garrett-Hillcrest Memorial Park on Russ Avenue. They also offer spaces for memorial benches and markers, said Hamiel.

Pre-planning can be as intricate as choosing music, caskets and prepayment or as simple as simply filling out an information card — which Greeley said was the most important part of the process since it often contained private information such as a social security number and bank accounts which might be difficult to produce immediately after a death.

Jeff Schmerker photo Garrett’s mausoleum on Russ Avenue has spots for cremation urns. The town of Waynesville is building a columbarium to hold more urns.

Plus, there is a cost-savings to prepayment, he said. Those who purchase a casket or merchandise now have that price guaranteed.

Trends like prepayment are not coming out of the funeral industry, said Greeley, but rather from consumers.

“This is totally consumer driven,” he said. “We have had to catch up to demand.”

But funeral homes have acted to satisfy that demand, he added — pre-planning can be done 100 percent on-line now, with no visit to a funeral home necessary.

“People plan births, weddings and vacations, and a lot of that is subjective — you can or can’t do it,” he said. “But the one thing they are going to do is die.”

Jeff Schmerker can be reached at 452-0661, ext. 131, or at jos@themountaineer.com.