Page 13 - Commack Abbey Funeral Home
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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



                                                                                          Commack Abbey, Inc. - Page 13
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