What to Do with Ashes After Cremation: 3 Heartfelt Ideas

Losing a loved one is a devastating event that we all go through at one point or another.

You want to keep their wishes, especially if they wanted to be cremated. The question remains, what do you do with the ashes when a loved one is cremated? It’s something that you need to consider, as more people wish to be cremated, surpassing the number of people who want to be buried.

Want to know what to do with ashes after cremation? Read on to discover several ideas.

1. Keep Them Close to You

The first option that you have is to keep the ashes close to you. That usually means keeping the ashes at home. You can put them in a prominent place in your home where you’ll always see them.

Since your loved one is close, you can still hug them in those moments when you really need them by your side. If someone passes away and they were cremated, the ashes that are left contain valuable nutrients. If you're looking for a deep personalized connection with someone who passed on, you can purchase an urn from a cemetery. You can have their ashes remain on-site by ordering the cremation urn within three or four months of passing away so that their body is decently preserved this way.

If you choose to keep the ashes at home, you want to make sure that the ashes are well-protected in an urn. Green Meadow Memorials has several urns that you can look at to give you more ideas.

2. Bring Them Closer to Their Passions in Life

If you don’t know what to do with ashes after cremation, think about the life that your loved one lived. What were they passionate about? What did they love to do that made them incredibly happy?

Many people choose to honor the life of their loved ones by having their ashes scattered at a place dear to them.

If you scatter the ashes, you can align that with your loved one’s passions. For example, scattering ashes at sea would be great if your loved one loved to fish or surf.

For those interested in space or astronomy or just wanting to be closer to the heavens above, companies will take ashes to space.

A company called Celestis offers several spaceflights that will bring the remains into the earth’s orbit or even to the moon's surface.

3. Bury The Ashes

Another option is to bury the ashes. You would need the ashes in an Eternal Urns for a traditional burial.

One organization is doing something extraordinary by using ashes to help restore reefs. Eternal Reefs creates partial concrete molds with the ashes of a loved one and places them in the water. These molds create an artificial reef, creating a new habitat for fish and other sea creatures.