The Final Glance | My Sister's Cremation
How do you want your body to spend eternity? In space, mingling with the stars? Or perhaps as part of a sparkling diamond on someone's finger? Or, if you're looking for something more lively, maybe even nestled among colorful underwater creatures as an artificial coral reef bank? These are just a few of the things people are doing with the cremated remains of their loved ones.
Though people might picture a majestic, flaming Viking ship or a roaring, open-air funeral pyre when talking about cremation, modern-day cremations are much more likely to occur at crematories with industrial machines that efficiently incinerate human bodies.
Cremation is the process of burning a dead body at very high temperatures until there are only brittle, calcified bones left, which are then pulverized into "ashes." These ashes can be kept in an urn, buried, scattered, or even incorporated into objects as part of the last rites of death.
Though it's gone in and out of fashion since prehistoric times, in the last couple of centuries, the rates of cremation have picked up as cultural taboos begin to fall away and modern pressures shape funerary needs.
Some people turn to cremation over burial or entombment because of the convenience, finding it more practical or cheaper to handle ashes instead of a body. Others might be squeamish about the idea of decay and are attracted to the "sanitizing" effect of flames, while some people find it fitting with their spiritual beliefs. Whatever the reason, more and more people are choosing cremation.
The term "ashes" is a bit misleading since what families receive after the cremation isn't a soft powder, but instead a grayish, coarse material, like fine gravel, made from the ground-up remains of bones.
In modern crematories, the body is stored in a cool, temperature-controlled room until it's approved for cremation. A coroner or medical examiner is often required to sign off to make sure no medical investigations or examinations need to be done since, unlike after a burial, the body can't be exhumed once it's cremated. The body is prepared by removing pacemakers, which can explode in the heat, prostheses, and silicone implants. Radioactive "cancer seeds" -- injectable or implantable radioactive isotopes used to treat several types of cancer -- are also on the removal list. The body is then put into a container or casket made out of flammable materials such as plywood, pine, or cardboard. In some countries, workers remove other external items such as jewelry or glasses, while other countries prohibit workers from doing so.
When the incinerator is preheated to about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (593 degrees Celsius), the mechanized doors are opened and the container slips quickly from a rack of rolling metal pins into the primary cremating chamber, also referred to as a retort.
Sometimes family members can watch the cremation from a window, or, in cases such as Hindu cremations, a family member can "start" the fire by pressing a button.
Once the door is sealed, the body is subjected to a jet-enginelike column of flame, aimed at the torso. The heat ignites the container and dries the body, which is composed of 75 percent water. As the soft tissues begin to tighten, burn, and vaporize from the heat, the skin becomes waxy, discolors, blisters, and splits. The muscle begins to char, flexing, and extending limbs as it tightens. The bones, which are the last to go, become calcified as they are exposed to the heat and begin to flake or crumble [source: Pope].
An average human body takes from two to three hours to burn completely and will produce an average of 3 to 9 pounds (1.4 to 4.1 kilograms) of ash. The amount of ash depends usually on the bone structure of the person and not so much their weight [source: Ellenberg]. A newborn, which has mostly cartilage and very little set bone, might not even leave any remains after cremation.
Once the body is completely burned, the chamber is then cooled and the cremated remains, which are often still recognizable as human skeletal remains, are swept with a long-handled hoe or wire-bristle broom into a tray. A powerful hand-held magnet is run through the ash to pick up metal parts left behind, such as fillings, plates, and hip replacements, which can interfere with the grinding process. The metal parts are disposed of with other biological material or recycled The bones and remnants are put into a grinder, or cremulator, that uses ball bearings or rotating blades, like a blender. The remains are pulverized and poured into a plastic, lined container or an urn of the family's choice.
Certain bones will have a lime green tint after cremation most likely due to the presence of certain metals. The Chinese believe a person with this color bone after cremation was a good person during their lifetime.
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