Why choose a direct cremation?

Also called an unattended cremation, a direct cremation is a service where the only people attending are the funeral directors who bring the coffined body to the place of cremation. The location and the time of day will vary, depending on who is carrying out the direct cremation.

There is not a ‘standard’ direct cremation; in other words, not all direct cremations are the same in terms how the providers offer their services. If you are considering direct cremation, what is on offer varies enormously. Direct cremations are offered mainly by…

Companies set up specifically to offer direct cremation. These are the companies you see advertising regularly on daytime television, e.g. Pure Cremation. These are generally the cheapest option but the least flexible. The person’s body may be taken hundreds of miles from their place of death.

Corporate cremation companies or corporate funeral companies who run a direct-to-crem subsidiary e.g. the Westerleigh Group run Distinct Cremations and Dignity run Simplicity Cremations.

Independent funeral directors, most of whom will offer this service, Family Tree included. These are sometimes more expensive and always the most flexible, e.g. the person who has died can be dressed in their own clothes, they can be visited at the funeral director’s premises, or the funeral director will offer to read something at the service, or book a piece of music to be played as the person is brought into the crematorium.

Roughly speaking, costs start around £950 and peak at around £1,900.

Family Tree charges £1,495.

No money – it is a less expensive option than a typical funeral.

No fuss – a person wants a stripped-back disposal without any of the ‘commonly recognisable elements’* of a typical funeral. Please note that these ‘commonly-recognisable elements’ are neither compulsory nor automatically the case so don’t let trying to avoid these be your reason for choosing a direct cremation.

No attachment – ‘death is the end’ – if a person has no belief in an afterlife or no connection to what happens to their body after death then direct cremation may appeal.

Bad experiences of funerals – if a person has attended one or more ‘mediocre’ funerals which left them feeling ‘what was the point of that?’ then direct cremation may appeal.

Memorial afterwards – a person and their family may agree to have a direct cremation followed by a memorial at a later date where friends and family can gather and remember the person.

* Commonly-recognisable elements in our culture might include a traditional black hearse and limousines, large floral tributes, funeral directors dressed formally in black coats and top hats, professional pall bearers dressed in black, an atmosphere of solemnity, a minister or celebrant who delivers a dry service.

Depending on which company you use, ask about the following:

Collection outside of office hours: We class office hours as between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday. Collections at weekends or on Bank Holidays incur a fee. Family Tree charges £150 for this.

Place of collection: Check that the cost covers collection from locations other than hospital, i.e. a hospice, a care home, a nursing home or private home. Unlike a hospital mortuary where a person’s body can be looked after for a number of days, collections from these other locations tend to be done more quickly and therefore may incur a charge if the provider has to outsource this to a willing funeral director in the locality.

Mileage: A charge may apply if the crematorium is over a certain distance from where the body is being looked after.

Coffin: If you want to use a different coffin than what is on offer because this aspect of the funeral is particularly important to you.

Devices: Removal of pacemaker or other battery-operated devices such as a defibrillator.

Weight: Some companies charge if the person weighs more than a certain amount.

Ashes: Hand-delivery of the ashes to you.

Attendance: The family might decide at the last minute that a handful of people would like to attend. See Sunrise Funerals

Hopefully this page of information will have been helpful but we understand there is a lot of choice out there. And with direct cremation companies popping up all over the internet now, please do your homework.

There are valid reasons for choosing direct cremation and ways of personalising a direct cremation if you choose a flexible provider. But a conventional direct cremation, especially if taking place at a distance of many miles, will mean that you lose the opportunity to say a full farewell to your person with the meaning that a funeral ceremony can offer. Funerals are an important rite of passage for those grieving, not just a convenient consumer choice. This extract from an article by the Good Funeral Guide describes this very well:

“We understand that for some people, a direct cremation might be absolutely the right thing, but we caution very careful consideration of the impact of choosing not to have a ceremony with the silent presence of a coffin at its centre. We have seen enough wonderful funeral ceremonies to know what a transformative effect these can have on people still raw with loss and grief.

We encourage everyone to reflect on the importance of facing the reality of the death of someone they love by spending time with their body, by helping to care for it, to carry it, to be in the presence of their coffin at a funeral ceremony and to take time to allow the full impact of their absolute absence to gradually sink in.”

You can read the full article here