Understanding Your Options After Cremation: A Funeral Director’s Perspective
Henry Gutterman, a concierge Funeral Director, has been a mentor to me since I first began officiating as a Rabbi. Almost two decades. Guiding me through funeral homes, directors, funeral services after cremation, gravesides, and crypt services, including caring for those who chose cremation options. Experience often surpasses book knowledge, and that is exactly what Henry has provided—and continues to provide—for me today. Many people wonder: can you hold a meaningful memorial service or funeral when your beloved’s remains have been cremated? The answer is a heartfelt yes.
Henry wrote this article for all of you
To help you feel connected to ritual and tradition in funerals. To honor your loved ones or friends who have passed, regardless of the decisions they made. Learn from Henry and his enlightened guidance. Which continues to inspire me every day. It supports a healthy grieving process for families navigating post-death disposition. Your student, always with many sweet blessings. – Rabbi Andrea Frank
Perspectives on Post-Death Disposition
By Henry Gutterman
As a practicing 3rd Generation Funeral Director of a Funeral Service Family that has been serving our communities since 1892, I have been witness to numerous changes in preferences by the families we have been privileged to serve from many different locales and all walks of life (i.e., I’m licensed in the States of NY, NJ, FL, PA, & CA).
The Preference for Cremation
as a form of disposition has certainly gained in numbers over the years, a major reason being the relocation of generations of families throughout the United States, as well as to overseas, from our “old home town.” However, cremation in and of itself may only be a process, not necessarily the final disposition. There are many different alternatives available after the actual cremation has taken place: interment of the cremains in an existing family cemetery plot, inurement in a niche/columbarium in a religious or non-denominational cemetery, or inurnment in a U.S. Government/Veterans Administration Cemetery in the case of an Honorably Discharged Veteran.
Funeral/Memorial Services
can still be held so that family and friends can pay respects to the life of the deceased, give eulogies/remembrances if appropriate, and have rendered Military Honors for all Honorably Discharged Veterans.
Service and Remembrance is Key
Some think that you cannot have a service/remembrance of some sort, with or without a Clergyperson, which could not be further from the truth. However, by not having some sort of a service, either secular or religiously oriented, could leave family and friends with an empty feeling which only makes it that much harder to begin a healthy grieving process. Without some sort of organized remembrance, it’s as if the decedent had never lived (“here today on Tuesday; gone on Thursday, as if he/she never existed”).
Some sort of organized remembrance will be most helpful in beginning the healthy process of moving on with life for those left behind.
Contact Henry Gutterman – for more information: (800) 262-8488.