Authorizing Agent(s) - Authorized
Representative(s): The person or persons entitled to the control of the
disposition of a deceased person.
Bereavement: The state of feeling at a loss due to the death of someone close.
Cenotaph: A memorial to a person whose remains are eleswhere or are lost --
literally, "empty tomb."
Columbarium: A building constructed with many niches to house cremated remains.
Cremated Remains: The bone fragments
remaining after the cremation process. (Technically, these fragments are not
"ashes.")
Cremation: The irreversible process of reducing the human body to bone fragments
and particles through the use of intense heat and flame.
Cremation Benches: Used as a memorial area and holding the cremation remains.
Crematory: A building or structure that houses an incinerator for reducing human
remains.
Cremation Authorization Form: Various legal forms to be completed by the
authorizing agent before the start of the cremation process.
Cremation Chamber: An enclosed space within which the cremation of human remains
is done.
Cremation Container: A combustible, closed, container resistant to the leakage
of bodily fluids into which the decedent is placed before insertion in a cremation
chamber. The cremation container will be destroyed during the cremation process.
Cremated Remains: Human remains after the completion of the cremation process.
Cremation Remains Container: A specialized receptacle in which cremated remains
are placed following cremation. See also: Urn.
Disposition: The interment, entombment, shipment,
scattering, or release of human remains.
Embalming: The process of treating the dead human body to reduce the presence
and growth of microorganisms, to retard organic decomposition, and to restore an
acceptable physical appearance.
Entombment: The placement of human remains in a crypt in a mausoleum.
Final Disposition: The final resting place for the cremated remains.
Graveside Ceremony: A ritual or gathering of people at a
grave in a cemetery.
Grief: Spontaneous expression of thoughts, feelings, and behavior in response to
a loss.
Human Remains: The body of a deceased person including cremated remains.
Identifying: The act of positive recognition of a deceased person before
cremation, earth burial, entombment, shipment, or other disposition.
Interment: Disposition of human remains by entombment or burial in a cemetery,
or with cremated remains, by inurnment, placement, or burial in a cemetery or burial at
sea.
Inurnment: Placing cremated remains in a cremated remains container (urn)
suitable for placement, burial, shipment, or holding of said cremated remains.
Life Centered Ceremony: A generally non-religious ceremony,
personalized to especially recall memorable events in the decedent's and suvivor's
lifetime.
Mausoleum: A building constructed that contains crypts
to house human remains.
Memorialization: An event, thing, or place meant to help people remember the
deceased, such as a monument, marker, grave, niche, etc.
Memorial Ceremony: A gathering of people at a specific location, generally
without the decedent's body present.
Minimum Care: A basic level of professional care rendered to the body of a
deceased person prior to disposition, including but not limited to refrigeration storage.
Mourning: Formal, public expression of grief including ritual, ceremony, and
other social, religious, and ethnic activity due to a loss.
Niche: A space in a columbarium used for the placement of cremated remains in an
urn.
Pathological Incinerator: The designated term used by
the Environmental Protection Agency to describe a cremation chamber.
Permit for Disposition: The legally required document of the Health and Safety
Code that authorizes disposition of human remains.
Planning Ahead: Also called preneed or advanced planning, is the act of
completing and organizing in writing one's funeral and final disposition with a funeral
home before need. The option to prepay expenses is also avaiable.
Processing: The removal of foreign objects, and the reduction of cremated
remains by mechanical means to reduce them to a manageable consistency for inurnment.
Pulverization Process: The reduction of the
cremated remains to an unidentifiable consistency to facilitate inurnment and/or to make
the cremated remains acceptable for scattering. Depending on the pulverization device
used, very small bone fragments may or may not remain after processing.
Ritualization: A gathering of people to observe or practice a prescribed
ceremonial procedure, generally religious in custom.
Scattering: The authorized dispersal of cremated
remains at sea, or in a defined area within cemetery grounds.
Scattering Gardens: A defined area within cemetery grounds for cremated remains.
Tribute Ceremony: A gathering of people on board a yacht to ceremoniously
scatter cremated remains at sea.
Urn: A specially designed receptacle used to hold cremated remains. See also:
Cremated remains container.
Urn Garden: A defined area within a cemetery for the placement of an urn into
the ground or other structure within the garden, such as a wall niche.
Urn Vault: An outside support receptacle into which an urn is placed prior to
earth burial.
Viewing: The act of gathering at a funeral home to
visually pay one's respects and to say goodbye to a deceased person. May also be referred
to as calling hours, visitation, or a wake.
