In New York State, the cremation rate is about 19 percent, with 29,455 cremations in 1998. About 18 percent of cremated remains are scattered on water or land, while 50 percent are taken home or buried. It used to be everybody stayed in the same place and worked for the phone company for 50 years. Mom and Pop and they had the plot. It's not like that today.
People move around more.
Afterward, he sends a certif icate with the date and latitude and longitude of the scattering to the family. As sea scatterings increase in popularity, he said, the scenarios are becoming more flamboyant. A man who was moving overseas asked that his mother's remains be unearthed and sprinkled in the ocean so he would no longer have to worry about maintaining her cemetery plot. When the patriarch of a family died, leaving a stipulation in his will that he be buried in the middle of the Atlantic, the family wanted to book the Queen Elizabeth 2 for the occasion. For those who literally want to go out with a bang, this spring Mr. Hald is planning his first Grucci-style sendoff.