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Burial FAQs opening and closing fee. Due to safety
issues which arise around the use of
machinery on cemetery property and
What is opening and closing and why is the protection of other gravesites, the
it so expensive? actual opening and closing of the grave
Opening and closing fees can include is conducted by cemetery grounds
up to and beyond 50 separate services personnel only.
provided by the cemetery. Typically,
the opening and closing fee includes Why is having a place to visit so
administration and permanent record important?
keeping (determining ownership, To remember and to be remembered
obtaining permission and the completion are natural human needs. A permanent
of other documentation which may memorial in a cemetery provides a focal
be required, entering the interment point for remembrance and memorializing
particulars in the interment register, the deceased. Throughout human history,
maintaining all legal files); opening and memorialization of the dead has been a
closing the grave (locating the grave and key component of almost every culture.
laying out the boundaries, excavating and Psychologists say that remembrance
filling the interment space); installation practices, from the funeral or memorial
and removal of the lowering device; service to permanent memorialization,
placement and removal of artificial grass serve an important emotional function
dressing and coco-matting at the grave for survivors by helping them bring
site, leveling, tamping, re-grading and closure and allowing the healing process
sodding the grave site and leveling and to begin. Providing a permanent resting
re-sodding the grave if the earth settles. place for the deceased is a dignified
treatment for a loved one’s mortal
Can we dig our own grave to avoid the remains, which fulfills the natural human
charge for opening and closing? desire for memorialization.
The actual opening and closing of the
grave is just one component of the What happens when a cemetery runs
Forrester Maher Funeral Home - Page 13
