At Going Home Cremations, we know it can be very confusing to understand the differences between what a direct cremation is and what a cremation is. At the time your loved one passes in a hospital or hospice, there are so many options on what to do once your loved one passes. One of the first things you will realize is you have the option between a burial and a cremation. If you pick a cremation, you then need to figure out if you want a direct cremation or a cremation.

Cremation

The biggest different between a direct cremation and a cremation is that a cremation is MUCH MORE expensive. This is due to a normal funeral being involved with a cremation. With a cremation, the body is brought from the hospital or hospice and sent directly to a funeral home. The funeral home then performs normal funeral body preparations like embalming, dressing and body preparations for cremation viewings. This use to be the most popular way to handle a cremation, but due to costs that can be upwards of $7000 compared to $1000 for a direct cremation, it is falling out of favor.

The cost are so high due to families paying for a funeral director, casket, embalming, and then on top of that a cremation, when all is said and done.  Also, the environmental concerns of embalming have also taken cremation out of favor compared to direct cremation. With a normal cremation, there is the option of a viewing for a family, like what would be expected if a burial was chosen

In a cremation, a family can choose to have a funeral like what would occur in a burial or have a viewing. This will change the costs for a cremation as well. In a viewing, there is less body preparation compared to a full funeral. With a viewing, it is possible to not have the body embalmed. Whereas, a normal funeral with a cremation, there is an embalming.

Direct Cremation

In a direct cremation, the body is taken from where the person died, directly to the crematory. This is the biggest difference between the two, because in a direct cremation the body is not prepared for viewing. This can save families thousands of dollars as well as make the cremation process faster for families in case they need death certificates for estate matters.

Once the body is at the crematory, the cremation process is very fast, with the actual cremation only taking between one to three hours. Once the body is cremated, the rest of the direct cremation process is very fast. One additional advantage of the direct cremation is that once the cremation is completed, the family can still have a service but save considerable amount of time and not be on a time crunch for scheduling a service.

On average a direct cremation in Florida can start around $1000, which is much less than what a cremation in Florida would cost. Additionally, during the time of COVID, it does not make much sense to have a cremation or burial due to social distancing rules. It is important to note, no cremation will occur less than about 5-7 business days. This is due to a medical examiner looking over what the doctors notes are about the cause of death.

At Going Home Cremations, we can help you arrange a direct cremation for your loved one in Florida.