Monthly Archives: April 2020

North Versailles, PA cremation services

What to Do After Cremation Services

Cremation is quickly becoming one of the most popular disposition methods in the world, and one of the main reasons why is that cremations offer lots of opportunities to get creative.

You have many options for post cremation, from scattering, burial or columbarium entombment to more eclectic options. Make your loved one’s North Versailles, PA cremation services unique and memorable by getting creative after the cremation.

Take inspiration from this list of post-cremation ideas to make your lost loved one’s memorialization personal and respectful.

  • Glass Art – Cremation ashes can be transformed into glass with the help of professional glass blowers. These artists can take small portions of the deceased’s ashes and create glass art in a range of shapes, colors, and sizes. You can display the art at home on your mantel, or somewhere else special.
  • Fireworks – Help your loved one go out with a bang with a fireworks display. Some pyrotechnics companies help you scatter your loved one’s ashes by placing them inside fireworks. These incorporated ashes scatter when the fireworks go off, making for a memorable end to a memorial service.
  • Plant a Tree – Really go green with cremation, and help your deceased loved one continue to give back long after he or she is gone. Buy a biodegradable urn that’s specially made to be buried without any harmful impact on the environment. Plant the Bio Urn with some ashes and seeds inside. The ashes will help nourish the seed until it grows into a beautiful tree people can enjoy for generations to come.
  • Create A Diamond – While expensive, this memorial will really last forever. Special companies can extract carbon particles from the cremated ashes and grow a real diamond. You can personalize the color, shape or cut to make the diamond even more unique for the deceased.
  • Jewelry – Keep your loved one close by placing ashes in cremation or memorial jewelry. People have been placing memories of deceased loved ones in jewelry for centuries. However, modern technology makes it easy to order personalized pieces like lockets, pendants, rings and more filled with small portions of ashes. You can order pre-made pieces online or have a jewelry maker custom make a piece for you.

These are only a few of the many ways you can get creative after a cremation. Do you need more ideas? Think about the deceased, and what made them special. Use these unique qualities to inspire you for after the cremation.

Or, if you still need more help with planning a cremation or choosing what to do post cremation or want more information on cremation services in North Versailles, PA, Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. is here to help. We offer a range of cremation and funeral home services and would love to help you in any way we can during your time of loss. Please get in touch with us today to learn more about what we can do for you.

funeral home in North Versailles, PA

The Right Funeral Home

Choosing the right funeral home in North Versailles, PA, either for yourself and your eventual passing or for a recently deceased loved one, can be overwhelming. There are many options out there, and each one may seem to be very similar in services, costs and reviews.

However, choosing a funeral home is a very personal experience, and there are many different factors you need to take into consideration to make sure you choose the right one. There’s never an ideal time to start looking for funeral homes, but the right time to start looking is when you don’t need to. Use the following list to start you on the right track to finding a funeral home today so you can save your family time, heartache, and money in the long run. You don’t want to be stuck with the easiest or most accessible funeral home when the time comes because you don’t have the time or money to find a better one.

When looking for a funeral home, be sure to think about:

  • Cultural and Religious Needs – Make sure the funeral home you choose is able to provide you with your cultural and/or religious funeral needs.
  • Reviews – Research other customer’s experiences with funeral homes to gauge efficacy, pricing, compassion and more.
  • Services Offered – Make sure your funeral home offers the services you want. Such services include burial options like cremation, traditional burial, or green burial. They also include different technology like online obituaries, digital guest books or live streaming.
  • Service Prices – You’d be surprised how much funeral home prices vary. Be sure to shop around and get quotes from different homes to make sure you’re getting the best prices for services.
  • Product Prices – Caskets, urns and other funeral accessories and products can get pricey. Compare funeral home’s product prices as well.
  • Location – Sometimes this doesn’t mean closest to your home, as oftentimes funerals take place in different towns where the deceased wants to be buried, or where other family members live.
  • Veteran Services – If you or your loved one served, that should be recognized in a special way. Check that funeral homes offer veteran services if applicable.

You should also start gathering information on funeral homes in your area to get a head start on choosing one. When researching, look for things like price comparisons. Every funeral home is required, by law, to have and make accessible a general list of prices for their offered products and services. Ask for copies of these lists from potential funeral homes to get a good idea of their prices and how they compare to one another. Also, be sure to check service fees and funeral costs combined with insurance. What is and what is not included in services fees varies greatly from funeral home to funeral home.

Want more information on choosing the right North Versailles, PA funeral home? Start your search with Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. We offer compassionate and expert services for your time of loss.

cremation services in Monroeville, PA

Green Cremation Services

Cremations have quickly become the most popular disposition method in America, with over 80% of cremation services in Monroeville, PA and the rest of the country done over traditional funerals and burials. But why is cremation so popular? First of all, cremation is oftentimes much more affordable than traditional burials as family’s save money on plot costs, burial fees, embalming, and many more. Second, cremation offers more flexibility in planning and personalizing memorial services for the deceased as loved one’s are not tied down to the body’s timeline.

Another big reason why cremation is becoming more and more popular is because it’s better for the environment. Traditional cremation is the process in which the body is broken down to bone fragments by exposure to intense heat. This basic cremation method has a slight environmental impact as is requires fossil fuels to be burned to achieve the heat necessary to break down the body.

However, green cremation services are more readily available with modern advancements and awareness. Green cremation services take a few more steps after traditional methods to make the entire process cleaner and eco-friendlier. Green cremations, or natural cremations and eco-cremations, use no harmful or toxic chemicals to treat or embalm the body. This reduces the amount of harmful gases released during the cremation.

Another type of green cremation service is bio-cremation. Bio-cremation uses alkaline hydrolysis, or water resolution, to break down the body. The body is put inside a special chamber filled with potassium hydroxide, water, heat and pressure for a few hours. Over time, the elemental combination breaks down the body into bone fragments just like traditional cremation services. The remains from bio-cremation can be scattered or buried just like traditional remains. Bio-cremation uses much less fossil fuel and energy and does not let off as much gas or emissions. As it’s still a fairly new method, bio-cremation is not readily available and may be more expensive.

You can take steps to make cremation services greener in addition to choosing a green method A few ways you can help out are:

  • Remove any dental fillings before the cremation. When dental amalgams are burned, they release a lot of harmful mercury gas into the air. BY removing the amalgams before the cremation, you are helping prevent these emissions.
  • Choose to scatter the remains post-cremation. Buried remains use up ground space with caskets, and any chemicals leftover from the process could seep into the ground. Scattering takes up less space!
  • Use eco-friendly cremation caskets. These are specially built to not release any harmful gases or chemicals when burned, over traditional caskets that are made with chemicals and products that do not burn well.
  • If you do choose to bury the remains, do so in a natural urn or container that breaks down naturally. Choose a receptacle made out of handmade paper or Himalayan rock salt.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. offers Monroeville, PA cremation services that are intended to be better for the environment that other kinds of services. Please stop by and visit us or give us a call for more information.

funeral home in Monroeville, PA

Green Burial and Funeral Homes

You should look into funeral homes that offer green burials if you’re choosing a funeral home in Monroeville, PA and have certain desires when it comes to protecting the environment. What is a green burial? Good question.

A green burial, sometimes referred to as a natural burial, is a kind of burial that seeks to have as little negative impact on the environment as possible. In order for a burial to be labeled green it must take the following into consideration: conservation of natural resources, protection of industry workers’ health, preservation of the environment.

More and more people are beginning to worry about the impact humanity is having on the planet and are therefore looking into ways they can do their part to protect the environment. That’s where green burials come in. By choosing a green burial you are choosing to lessen your personal environmental impact, or carbon footprint. Other people might choose to do a green burial because they view it as a return to the traditional way of body disposition from back before the commercialization of the funeral industry. Still others choose green burials because they follow certain religious traditions. Judaism, for example, requires burial traditions that are in line with green burial practices.

But how do green burials actually work? They help protect the environment, industry workers, and natural resources with the following:

  • Green caskets – Green caskets, unlike conventional caskets, are made from sustainably sourced materials used in sustainable production methods. Also, green caskets are completely biodegradable, meaning that they will decompose fully and won’t add toxins to the surrounding soil as they decompose. Conventional caskets, on the other hand, usually take a very long time to decompose if they decompose at all. Plus, many are made with potentially toxic materials and chemicals that can hard the surrounding soil. There are also green casket companies that are considered “fair trade”, meaning the people making the caskets are employed in safe environments and receive a fair wage for their work.
  • Green cemeteries – There are green cemeteries, sometimes called natural burial grounds, that require all bodies be buried in green caskets or burial shrouds. They have these policies in place to help maintain the surrounding natural habitat and landscape, protect local groundwater, and maintain a safe environment for local plants and animals. Conventional cemeteries, on the other hand, often use herbicides to maintain the landscaping, outer burial containers that prevent natural decomposition, and allow embalmed bodies to be buried.
  • No embalming – Embalming is when a body is partially preserved using harsh chemicals. Embalming is harmful for both the planet and industry workers. Embalming fluid contains known carcinogens, making it unsafe for the industry workers that are frequently exposed to it. These chemicals can also harm fragile ecosystems when buried in the ground.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. is a Monroeville, PA funeral home that offers a range of green burial services. Stop by or visit us today to learn more about what we can do for you in your time of loss.