![\"\"](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SmWvVYeLk_I\/AAAAAAAAF8E\/lihuZ6P6i3M\/s320\/funeral.650.1.jpg\")
<\/a>When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.<\/p>\nInstead, Mr. Roe\u2019s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe\u2019s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.<\/p>\n
The next day, Mr. Roe was placed in a pine coffin made by his son, along with a tuft of wool from the sheep he once kept. He was buried on his farm in a grove off a walking path he traversed each day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just seemed like the natural, loving way to do things,\u201d said Jennifer Roe-Ward, Mr. Roe\u2019s granddaughter. \u201cIt let him have his dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals \u201cwhere home births were 30 years ago,\u201d according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.<\/p>\n
The cost savings can be substantial, all the more important in an economic downturn. The average American funeral costs about $6,000 for the services of a funeral home, in addition to the costs of cremation or burial. A home funeral can be as inexpensive as the cost of pine for a coffin (for a backyard burial) or a few hundred dollars for cremation or several hundred dollars for cemetery costs.<\/p>\n
The Roes spent $250.<\/p>\n
More people are inquiring about the lower-cost options, said Joshua Slocum, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group. \u201cHome funerals aren\u2019t for everybody, but if there\u2019s not enough money to pay the mortgage, there certainly isn\u2019t enough money to pay for a funeral,\u201d Mr. Slocum said.<\/p>\n
Baby boomers who are handling arrangements for the first time are particularly looking for a more intimate experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s organic and informal, and it\u2019s on our terms,\u201d said Nancy Manahan of Minneapolis, who helped care for her sister-in-law, Diane Manahan, after she died of cancer in 2001, and was a co-author of a book, \u201cLiving Consciously, Dying Gracefully,\u201d about the experience. \u201cIt\u2019s not having strangers intruding into the privacy of the family. It\u2019s not outsourcing the dying process to professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
While only a tiny portion of the nation\u2019s dead are cared for at home, the number is growing. There are at least 45 organizations or individuals nationwide that help families with the process, compared with only two in 2002, Mr. Slocum said.<\/p>\n
The cost of a death midwife, as some of the coaches call themselves, varies from about $200 for an initial consultation to $3,000 if the midwife needs to travel.<\/p>\n
In Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York, laws require that a funeral director handle human remains at some point in the process. In the 44 other states and the District of Columbia, loved ones can be responsible for the body themselves. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There’s more at the Times link. <\/p>\n
PHOTO:<\/b> The home funeral for Nathaniel Roe, 92, who died in Peterborough, N.H., on June 6. His family handled the arrangements. Photo by Sebastian Hinds\/NY Times.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To save money, more Americans are evidently choosing to skip the funeral parlor and bury their loved ones from home. Besides cutting costs, this is transforming the experience of death for some families. From the NY Times: When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,12,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\n
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