Nanny manages to interfere in people's lives, even when they are dead.
We had wanted to scatter Dad's ashes at sea, that seemingly simple task requires an environmentally friendly urn and permission from some government organ.
Plan B was to scatter them on the Thames, again this requires the use of an environmental urn that biodegrades in a friendly manner. Fine, until my mother fractured her pelvis, which made the boarding of the Thames cruise boat all but impossible for her.
Plan C is to scatter them on his parents' grave, again seemingly we need permission of the cemetery.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the bio-degradable urn or sea/river scattering but I think you will find that there have always been formalities and a small charge for cemetaries.
One of my aunts had emigrated to the USA and married there. When she passed away a few years ago her (American) husband wanted to have her ashes scattered at her home town cemetry in the UK at the same place as her eldest sister's ashes had been scattered a few years previously.
He made the trip to the UK some months after she passed away and we travelled to the cemetary who had previosuly identified where the older sister's ashes had been scattered. He did not want to be present for the scattering so paid a small fee to have that ceremony performed for him and for the search to identify the preferred location and record the final resting place in the cemetary records.
It seemed quite reasonable at the time, though I would have baulked at the demand for a biodegradable urn had it been made. Or are they implying that a scattering is not actually a scattering these days?
Scattering on a grave (as opposed to an area aset aside for the scattering of ashes) may require further authorisation of course. I have no idea about that.
Having said all of that I do see your point and I think your first sentence is true from many different perspectives.
Grant
My mother passed away 8 years ago. I have had her ashes in a marble urn which have travelled with me whereever I have ended up putting my stake in the ground.
ReplyDeleteI have given this much thought and arrived at the conclusion it is now time to say goodbye.
As I can not get to her home town in the north of England, nor to the grave of my father in the east, I intend to release her to the winds from the most wonderful view on a mountain top in Wales.
I will just open the urn and let nature do her stuff, and let the wind take the ashes.
For this, I do not feel I need anyone's permission, permit or authority. It is public land, preserved for the nation by the National Trust.
Her ashes will be infinitesimal against the mountain, and of no consequence to the environmentalists in comparison to the log slashing and burning by the Forestry guys.
Oooh I dunno Ian, some twats might be all up in arms about your releasing of carbon into the environment!! Gotta watch our footprints yannow!!
ReplyDelete...You go scatter your dust and stick yer fingers at any busybodies who try and stop you.
Not that it is altogether unusual for me, but I seem to be miising something here.
ReplyDeleteIf one is scattering the ashes then, once that action has been performed, presumably the urn/container/whatever is empty and the question of its bio-degrabability is - surely - not an issue, since the disposal (or retention) of the urn is a matter for its possessor?
Are the authorities assuming that once the urn's contents have been scattered, then the custodians are just going to lob it into the street or, in Ken's case, into the river? If so, then surely the regulations already covering the scattering of litter would apply equally to the empty urn?
Or is it that the urn's contents are considered to be non bio-degradable and are therefore being treated as just another form of waste? But, if that is the case, why the emphasis on the degradable qualities of the urn?
I really am not taking the piss; I honestly don't understand. Can anybody enlighten me?