Rise in cremations has pros and cons for Philly funeral home owners

When journalist Jessica Mitford published The American Way of Death, her groundbreaking investigation of the funeral service industry, in 1963, the menu of options for the recently deceased looked considerably different than it does today. Cremation was hardly mentioned, and many funeral directors actively discouraged their clients from choosing it for their loved ones, characterizing it as disrespectful and ghoulish.

Only 3.75% of Americans chose to be cremated when Mitford’s book was published, but despite the efforts by those opposed to cremation, that number had jumped to 21% by 1996. Now, it’s risen to more than 56%, and The National Funeral Directors Association has predicted that by 2035, 80% of Americans will opt for cremation.

Cremation is cheaper than burial, making it a popular choice as budgets tighten. And as younger generations become more mobile, moving away from hometowns, many people are less interested in visiting a cemetery. The grim practicalities of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have also exacerbated the trend.

Franchella Slater of South Philadelphia’s Slater Funeral Home said that back when less was understood about the way the COVID-19 virus is spread, the number of cremations she was seeing skyrocketed.

One of the major factors behind that spike was sobering: People were afraid to get near their deceased loved ones.

“Where I think some families might have said, ‘No, our family only believes in burial,’” she explained, “With COVID, especially in the early days of it, it was such an unknown … People were very scared during that time, [and] a lot of people opted for cremation.”

In addition, cremations are typically quicker than traditional burial processes, which was a help for time-strapped funeral homes that found themselves overwhelmed by an influx of pandemic deaths. The shift toward cremation allowed them to keep up with demand during the pandemic’s frenetic early days, and as U.S. COVID-19 deaths have now surpassed 1 million, the efficiency of cremation has solidified it as an attractive option for those whose work depends on the dead.

Slater says that things have since evened out at her funeral home, but cremation remains on the upswing.

For some funeral directors, the increasing popularity of cremation — long considered a more low-cost option, at least compared to traditional burials — has also posed a financial problem.

Since bodies are cremated in simple cardboard coffins, there is no opportunity to profit from upgraded caskets and vaults. And since fewer families opt to hold viewings for loved ones who are bound for the crematorium, certain billable aesthetic considerations — such as embalming and preparation of the body — are rendered unnecessary as well.

“You can’t make but so much on a cremation,” said Rick Pinder of the Savin Funeral Home in North Philadelphia. “Most of the time, you’re not doing any embalming, no dressing, no casketing, none of that. They have a direct cremation, and then the memorial service.”

Direct cremation (an essentials-only option in which the body is cremated within 24 hours of death, without any viewing, visitation or funeral) is the most cost-effective option. The average price for a full-service traditional burial in Pennsylvania is about $8,000, while in comparison, a direct cremation can run from several hundred dollars to nearly $5,000 depending on the funeral home and the services offered.

“For some families, it’s hard to pay for the expenses of the funeral and cemetery, especially when they don’t have any insurance,” Pinder said. “We have a set price, but sometimes we have to go below that too, because people don’t have the funds. It affects us because, you know, you’ve got your regular bills, your overhead expenses, you’ve got your salaries.”

Others, like Franchella Slater, have seen the practice’s increasing popularity as an opportunity to adapt. Not all families choose to cremate their loved one immediately. Some people have traditional funerals and viewings, and then choose cremation instead of burial. Others prefer to jazz things up a little bit — sometimes literally.

“The people who just say cremation works better, they still have other kinds of services or a celebration, and you still have things like pictures and flowers and DVDs and tributes,” Slater said. She recently hosted a New Orleans-style second line funeral parade for one of her clients.

She also understands why cremation may appeal to members of a younger generation, who tend to be more mobile than their parents and grandparents had been and are less likely to stay put.

“The people who are making the arrangements now are more transitional,” she said. “It’s not like years ago, where everyone lived in a city, they stayed in their city, that’s where they were born, they stayed, they died. Now, not anymore.

“People say, oh, you know what, there’s a better opportunity in Florida and move to Florida — but Mom still lives in Philadelphia, so we’ll just have a cremation, so that we can take her to Florida with us.”

While the percentage of Americans who choose cremation is up, this is not a universal phenomenon. A person’s specific cultural background and religious beliefs may mean that cremation is unpopular or discouraged. In some cases, as in Muslim or Orthodox Jewish communities, it may not be on the table at all.

Jayson Choi, owner of the Choi Funeral Home Nhà Quàn Wing-Phong in Chinatown, says that the Chinese and Vietnamese communities that he serves still overwhelmingly prefer traditional burial, and cremations are rare.

“In our community, we don’t have a cremation issue whatsoever,” he said.

Choi attributes that to rebellion against the cultural norms the existed in some of his clients’ countries of origin. “You have to understand my community, they came from a country that only allows cremation, and you’ve broken the law if you’ve decided to do a burial because of lack of land,” Choi explained.

Savin Funeral Home was established in 1926; Slater Funeral Home was founded in 1973 by Franchella’s father, Vaughn Slater; Choi, a 25-year veteran of the funeral industry, operates the only Chinese-Vietnamese funeral home in the state of Pennsylvania.

The people they serve have trusted them and their coworkers for decades, and even if cremation does eventually overtake traditional burial in popularity, those who have made the business of death their life’s work say they want to help guide people on to their final resting place — no matter what form that may take.

“I just feel like it’s a natural way of life changing,” Slater said. “I don’t think it’s so many people … are having cremation; a lot of people still have burials. I just think it’s a different method of having a final goodbye.”