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CAPITAL REGION
Group gives info on low-cost final rites
BY SARA FOSS Gazette Reporter

When Therese Broderick dies, she would like to be cremated and given to her daughter in a simple urn. She would like her organs to be donated.
“I don’t want to buy a cemetery plot,” Broderick said. “I don’t want anything put in the ground. I don’t want any embalming.”
Broderick is only 50, but she and her husband have discussed how they want their remains to be handled.
“We have talked about it,” she said. “What bothers me about traditional cemeteries is that they take up so much land.”
    Broderick is a member and past president of the Memorial Society of the Hudson-Mohawk Region, a small, all-volunteer organization that provides Capital Region residents with information on how to have a low-cost, dignified funeral, cremation or burial.
    The group recently released its biannual Funeral, Cremation and Cemetery Cost Survey, which provides information about pricing at area cemeteries and crematoriums. The survey, based on responses from local service providers, shows significant cost variations. For example, at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, the price of a single plot for a casket costs between $800 and $900; at Vale Cemetery in Schenectady, casket plots start at $375.
    “We believe the best way to prepare for death is to become an informed consumer,” said Robb Smith, president of the Memorial Society of the Hudson-Mohawk Region. “We try to make information available that allows people to plan for burials and cremations and to understand what is being offered by funeral homes.”
    “It’s an educational organization,” Broderick said. “It’s not activist in nature. If someone wants to pay thousands of dollars and have a top-price casket and put it in the ground, that’s fine, as long as they understand that there are options.”
    Broderick learned about the Memorial Society of the Hudson-Mohawk Region from members of the First Unitarian Universalist Society, which she was involved with at the time, and joined after experiencing her father’s long sickness and death.
    “It made me more sympathetic to endof-life issues,” she said. “I had an understanding of what people go through when someone is dying.” .................>>>>.........................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01100&AppName=1

Don't forget to dust off mom and dad once in a while. Gonna put that urn in a fireproof vault, just in case?

Sorry, not for me. Put me in the ground, let nature take it's course.

We prearranged my mom's funeral expenses last year. She already owns the burial plot bought 20 years ago. There will be no viewing hours. (just one hour for the very immediate family. Her kids and grandkids.) No limo's for the family. Only a hearse for her and a casket, of course. (these are all per her request) The bill: almost $8,000.

Insurance?

I don't think that there is any low priced funerals anymore.

Into Space....on the moon/mars where ever......