I was listening to the car radio to the conversation bemoaning the fact that by the years 2030 eighty percent of the deceased population would be cremated, instead of being interned due to the lack of space in the 20,272 registered cemeteries in this country. Personally, I believe that cost may have something to do with that statistic. Still, it started me thinking that it was time to do a little research.

Cremation began some three thousand years ago in Europe and the near-east. For Christians there is nothing in the Bible against cremation. It is a matter of choice. My wife and I discussed the pros and cons of each and arrived at the decision to be cremated. We made arrangements to prepay both our services some twenty years ago. Where is this leading?

I had never given much thought about burial or even dying in 1998. I was 62 and felt that I would be around for a few more years. The President of the Magnolia Cemetery Association asked me to computerize the list of plot owners to keep track of dues for maintenance. This really started my thinking about the entire process.

At the chance of repeating myself. How many cemeteries are there in this country? 20,272 are registered. That does not include private cemeteries people have in their front or back yards. How many people have ever been buried? What happens when you run out of space? How many people have lived since time began; the estimate is 108 billion. Now living 7.8 billion. What have we done with 100.2 billion corpses? That means that there are 13.8 dead people for everyone living. Where did they go? Where will we go in the future? The answer as I see it, is up for debate. We are told that the Nazis did away with six-million Jews, Gypsies, and assorted enemies. Many World Wars, and an untold number of conflicts throughout history hardly made a dent in that 108 billion number.

Will the US run out of cemetery space? It is interesting to see how much land is dedicated to the use of cemeteries. I had always assumed that the Arlington National Cemetery at 639 acres and almost 400,000 grave sites was the largest. Not correct. The largest and most populated is the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York that is the home to 3 million graves. Next is Rose Hill Memorial Park in Indianapolis, Indiana with 1.4 million graves. Perhaps we need to re-think the procedures.

I took my brother’s cremains to Arlington in 1992 for a traditional burial. I had given the dimensions of his sealed box to be approximately 10X6X3 inches. When we arrived for the ceremony, a full size 6X4X6 in feet had been dug with a backhoe. Of course, each person is entitled to a full-size headstone with personal information.

Let us get back to the conundrum of the future. Some can lease the land for 100 years. Then the remains are exhumed and are replaced by a new decedent. In New Orleans, some caskets can have a sliding bottom. The casket is placed over the family plot and when the remains have decomposed the casket bottom is slid open and the remains fall into the family plot to mingle with earlier bones.

Different methods of cremation are being studied by the industry that I won’t mention. To me they seem a bit disrespectful; but anything will go for expediency and cost saving.

I am doing my bit. Even though we bought four grave sites twenty years ago, my wife and I will only use one. We purchased an upright, above ground, double niche, columbarium. The first in our cemetery.