Cremation

Cremation is a decision about the form of care, not about whether your family gathers. Some families choose cremation and still hold a visitation, a full funeral service, military honors, and a graveside committal. Others want something much simpler, with no public service at all. Both are right, depending on your family. Parker & Burns Funeral Home serves DeMotte and Jasper County families either way, explains what each path involves in plain language, and handles the arrangements and paperwork from the first phone call forward.

Cremation With a Service

Choosing cremation does not mean giving up the gathering. Some families hold a visitation and funeral service with their loved one present, and the cremation follows afterward, which keeps the traditional sequence intact. Others prefer cremation first, with a memorial service held later where the urn, photographs, and flowers are at the front of the room. Waiting gives you time, which matters when family has to travel or when you would rather choose a date that means something. Either way, the service can be held at a church, at a hall, or at the graveside, and it can include music, readings, a video tribute, and military honors. We take care of the printed programs, the register book, the obituary and online notice, and the coordination with your clergy and the cemetery.

Some families do not want a public gathering, and that is a legitimate choice, not a lesser one. Direct cremation is the simplest option we offer: transportation of your loved one into our care, shelter and care at our facility, the cremation container, the cremation itself, and the return of the cremated remains to your family. There is no visitation and no formal service. Indiana requires specific authorizations before a cremation can take place, including signed permission from the legally authorized next of kin and clearance from the county coroner, and we handle all of it along with the death certificate, the permits, certified copies for the estate and insurance, and notifying Social Security. Because there is nothing to schedule, arrangements can usually be made in a single meeting, and much of it can be done by phone and email if traveling is difficult. Choosing this now also does not close the door on a gathering later; if your family decides months from now that you want a memorial or a graveside committal, call us and we will help you plan it.

Cremated remains can be buried in a family plot, placed in a cemetery niche or columbarium, kept at home, divided among family in keepsake urns, or scattered in a place your loved one loved. We can show you urn options ranging from simple to hand finished, arrange the burial or niche placement with the cemetery, and order an engraved marker when the time comes. There is no deadline on this decision, and it is perfectly all right to hold the urn at home while your family decides together.