The day was that weird temperature where you don’t know if it is going to snow or rain. We all walked together, boots breaking up ice patches on top of mud. As we strolled, the conversations shifted from “I’m glad it isn’t snowing” to “Wait, her wedding dress still fit after all these years?”
Once we all arrived my grandfather and his sister sat by the oaken casket. After seven minutes of scripture, prayer, and crying the casket was lowered into the ground. A few folks took the shovel to place the first dirt in the hole. I threw some dirt after singing the Sending Song quietly to myself.
As we were walking back to our cars, it felt weird how normal that felt. Having grown up across from the church, I had seen many funerals growing up. The open casket always freaked me out the most, because there was so much work to make someone look restful. You could tell if someone had too much embalming fluid, or if the person died without a ‘restful face’ that had to be forced to look natural.
When we buried my grandmother, all of that was taken away. It was just her, in her casket, under a tree. I know everyone grieves in different ways, but it was refreshing to experience the finality of it. She died, we gathered together, and now she is buried. Having an open casket would have prolonged the inevitable.
While her burial was incredibly simple, there has been a lot of work to even be allowed to do that in the States. This is the history of how we as a nation are progressing by reverting to our roots.
There are countless traditions that humans have used for the dead. With burial, the key goal is to get it far enough beneath the ground that scavengers can’t dig it up. Embalming bodies is also an ancient practice, but usually reserved for the rich and powerful.
It became more common practice during the Civil War. Northern families wanted to bury their dead (instead of in southern soil). To keep the bodies fit for transport they were filled with embalming fluid. Because this became fashionable for Northerners, Southerners violently opposed the practice often equating it to “tampering with the earthly remains of the temple of God.”
Over the 20th century new regulations were created as the practice of embalming became popular. To make a quick buck, scammers would sell fake embalming fluid that did nothing but destroy the body. Federal and State governments stepped in to standardize the process, requiring a license. While needed at first, the requirements have become burdensome, driving up costs for families.
It isn’t surprising then that the first return to “green burials” happened in the South as a direct response to how monopolized the funeral industry had become. Located in the heart of Appalachia, Ramsey Creek Preserve has buried over 300 bodies since 1998. The movement has gathered around the Green Burial Council, which has helped create green burial sites across the states.
What will your legacy be?
