Part Three Part Four Part Five Resources Cremation on the rise As families become more mobile, many people are choosing an alternative to the traditional burial.
Some cremations can be just as expensive.
David Drysdale Sr. checks the controls for one of the four retorts or furnaces at Ivy Hill Cemetery and Crematory in Philadelphia. When Anne Wernick died suddenly in June, her husband, Steve, recalls, the family was torn about the proper place for a burial. The family plot at Sunset Memorial Park in Philadelphia's Somerton section consisted of just two grave sites - one was occupied by Anne's mother and the other was reserved for her father. So instead of buying any plot at all, the family chose cremation - and buried Anne's remains on top of her mother's casket. Anne's family, like a growing number of Americans, needed another burial option, and cremation made it possible.