Cremation Services

Today, many people are considering cremation as an alternative to traditional burial. There are many choices of services which involve cremation, and Evans Funeral Home will assist every family in making making those choices to plan the type of service that meets the needs of the family and/or completes any personal requests made prior to death of your loved one.

Evans Funeral Home uses licensed 3rd-party crematories located around the state. We have personally inspected these facilities and their operators. In addition, in North Dakota, crematories are now inspected by the State Health Department on behalf of the State Board of Funeral Service. Each crematory maintains quality control methods to insure that the cremated remains returned to a family are indeed those of your loved one. By North Dakota Law, following the cremation process/ services, families may choose to inter the cremated remains at a cemetery, scatter the cremated remains, keep them in their home, or any combination of these methods.

The planning of a service involving cremation comes down to matters of personal choice. The important thing to remember is that while there is a natural tendency to think and say, “This is my service and I will decide what is done for me”, it is very important to remember that Services are held to celebrate a life lived that has now come to an end, and in doing so, all services are held for the comfort and grief support of the family and friends.

The following are the choices of cremation services. Evans Funeral Home will gladly explain all of these service choices, and the costs associated with each.

Traditional Funeral Service, followed by Cremation – Consists of a traditional funeral service including embalming, preparation of the body, professional services of the funeral director, regular casket or rental casket, visitation with an open or closed casket, funeral service at the funeral home or church, and the cremation process. These services are similar to those of a traditional service with the exception that following the funeral service, the casket/container is taken to the crematory and not the cemetery.

Private Funeral Service, followed by Cremation – Consists of a Private/Family funeral service, with or without embalming, preparation of the body, professional services of the funeral director, a regular casket, rental casket or viewable cremation container, family viewing, funeral service at the funeral home and the cremation process. Following the funeral service, the casket/container is taken to the crematory and not the cemetery.

Cremation, followed by a Funeral/Memorial Service – Consists of the removal of the body from the place of death, the professional service of the funeral director, the cremation process, and a service held at the funeral home or church. The cremated remains may be present at the service (funeral service) or not present at all (memorial service). Families may also arrange for a time of viewing/saying Good Bye to be held at the funeral home prior to the cremation.

Direct Cremation – Consists of the removal of the body from the place of death, the professional service of the funeral director and the cremation process. There are no additional public services.

Following is a very detailed description of the cremation process. In that cremation is not reversible, legal forms must be signed prior to the process. The forms are required to have statements similar to the following to fully explain the process.

Cremation is performed to prepare the remains of the Decedent for final disposition. It is carried out by placing the Decedent’s remains in the casket, cremation container, or alternative container, which is then placed into a cremation chamber or retort where they are subjected to intense heat and flame. All cremations are performed individually. During the cremation process, it may be necessary to open the cremation chamber and reposition the remains of the Decedent in order to facilitate a complete and thorough cremation. Through the use of suitable fuel, the incineration of the container and its contents is accomplished and all substances are consumed or driven off, except bone fragments (calcium compounds) and metal (including gold and silver and other non-human material) as the temperature may not be sufficient to consume them.

Due to the nature of the cremation process, any personal possessions or valuable materials, such as dental gold or jewelry, as well as any body prostheses or dental bridgework that are left with the remains and not removed from the casket or container prior to cremation may be destroyed or if not destroyed, will be disposed of by the Crematory. The person authorizing cremation (Agent) understands that arrangements must be made with Evans Funeral Home to remove any such possessions or valuables prior to the time that the remains of the Decedent are transported to the Crematory.

Following a cooling period, the cremated remains, which will normally weigh several pounds in the case of an average size adult, are then swept or raked from the cremation chamber. Although the Crematory will take reasonable efforts to remove all of the cremated remains from the cremation chamber, it is impossible to remove all of them, as some dust and other residue from the process will be left behind. In addition, while every effort will be make to avoid co-mingling, inadvertent and incidental co-mingling of minute particles of cremated remains from the residues of previous cremations is a possibility, and the Agent understands and accepts this fact. After the cremated remains are removed from the cremation chamber, all non-combustible material (insofar as possible) such as dental bridgework and hinges, latches, and nails from the container will be separated and removed from the human bone fragments by visual or magnetic selection. The Crematory is authorized to dispose of these materials with similar materials from other cremations in a nonrecoverable manner, so that only human bone fragments will remain. When the cremated remains are removed from the cremation chamber, the skeletal remains often will contain recognizable bone fragments. Unless otherwise specified, after the bone fragments have been separated from the other material, they will be mechanically pulverized. The process of crushing or grinding may cause incidental co-mingling of the remains with the residue from the processing of previously cremated remains. These granulated particles of unidentifiable dimensions, which are mostly, but not completely, unrecognizable as human remains, will then be placed into a designated container.