The short answer is yes.

The more correct answer is yes, but there are microscopic parts of many other remains included in the final package of cremated remains (or ashes as they are commonly known).

You see, a cremator is an industrial oven. Albeit that it applies heat to very precious matter, that is, the body of someone who has died.

What cremation does is reduce to ashes in 75 minutes what normally takes nature several years to do in the ground. At the end of the process the ashes are scraped from the furnace floor and place into a tray to cool down from the 800 degrees Celsius inside the oven. But there is no way to get every scrap of remains from the furnace floor. So there will be microscopic parts of the several cremations beforehand included in the remains of the last person to be cremated.

Of the crematoriums of have visited in the world, all take reasonable steps to identify all sets of ashes and keep accurate records of all movements. However, that does not totally eliminate the possibility that cremated remains (ashes) get mixed up, lost, labelled incorrectly or some other inventive way that humans create via mistakes.

Have I ever seen mistakes made. “Yes” but not intentionally.

Written by John R Gilbertson BA

Contact: 0401 340 992 johngil_jr@hotmail.com

Have you ever viewed a deceased person prior to a funeral.  If you have then you will know that despite the sincere efforts of funeral directors, the body does take on a different appearance.  To make it more difficult, those viewing the body are themselves not sure what to expect and many times quite apprehensive.

Well, some 30 odd people viewed the body, the funeral directors replaced the coffin lid, and the service continued. After the service, the family and those in attendance, around 60 in all, followed the coffin to the graveside.  At the end of the short graveside sermon, the coffin was lowered to the floor of the grave.

The family arranged for tea and coffee in the service lounge which was still in view from the grave.  So as not to distress the family, and as luck would have it, the grave diggers delayed filling in the grave.

Why was it lucky?

Well, the next funeral at 1:30pm was conducted by the same funeral director.  They do that because it saves travelling time when they can run one funeral after another.

This funeral also had a viewing.  Boom.  The first person to view the body immediately said “That’s not Harry! What in the @@@@@ #### is going on here?”.

Panic and fear stuck the funeral directors staff, not to mention the cemetery staff on hand.  After a brief investigation it was discovered that the two bodies had been placed in the wrong coffin.  The body for the second funeral was sitting at the bottom of the grave patiently waiting to be filled in. 

Once again, testing my negotiation skills, we arranged for the family to be looked after while we gave the deceased a resurrection from the grave, cleaned up the coffin and arranged for the family to have a private viewing.

Does this happen often? 

No!  Rarely do funeral directors mess up.  They are very detailed people and take great care to identify and tag each body.  Funeral directors have extensive systems to ensure the risk of incorrect placement of deceased is minimised.  But unfortunately, the dead can not speak up for themselves, and while there are humans involved, errors will occasionally occur. 

How can 30 people walk past a body and not notice the mistake.  Deceased persons often look very different.  They are generally in the horizontal position, often with distorted features due to illness or age and definitely lack colour.

Add the emotional distress to that and it’s not surprising that this sort of error can be overlooked.

It was now 15 minutes before the funeral was due to arrive. By two way radio, the message came through that the cortage had left the church on time. A dozen or so people were already at thegraveside. One in particular was an anxious priest. Because I had a radio in hand, the priest came over to me and bluntly said “Are you anything to do with the cemetery.  I replied with a polite “Yes.” I noticed he was looking at the gateway and then his watch.

With an agitated expression and glancing from his wrist to my face and back again to his wrist, he asked in a gruff voice,” Is the funeral on time? I hope it’s not late – I’ve got a luncheon appointment”

So much for pastoral care.