Ashes To Ashes

[poliphilo]

We picked the ashes up from the Co-op's new premises in Oldham. They came in a cardboard box, in a shiny purple carrier bag. They were surprisingly heavy. You hear the word "ashes" and you think of wood ash which is light and fluffy. Human cremains are more like something you'd spread on an icy road. Ailz says our ashes weigh as much as our bodies weighed at birth. I'd heard that one before. I'd like it to be true but has anyone actually tested it?

There was a bottleneck at the cemetery gates. Cars coming. Cars going.  This place was laid out before there were cars. A guy in a kilt and highland bonnet was unpacking his gear from the back of a van. Later we heard the skirl of his pipes from another corner of the cemetery complex.

There are raised rose beds on three sides of the crematorium chapel; that's where the ashes go. Behind the beds-  beyond a walk-way of astroturf- is the wall where the imitation stone memorial plaques are displayed. An attendant put the ashes into a pot with a handle; The handle has a lever in it; you press the lever and the ashes come out the bottom. Ailz and Dot did the business. For future reference, the ashes are in bed #1. The sun was shining- a rare occurrence this summer. 

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Ecologically, that's a better way, I'm sure, but I think I prefer my family's way -- bury the cremains in a wee grave.

My brother's and my sister's ashes were very heavy. My mother's were comparatively light -- lighter, in fact, than those of our dog. It's possible that I was already prepared for the weight and thus hers didn't surprise me. I thought it had something to do with age and the porosity of many old people's bones.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My father's ashes are in a wee grave in a churchyard.

Perhaps your mother was a very small baby.