GRAVE READY FOR THIRD GENERATION
Mountain View’s green vision allows for reburials
When Donald Grayston’s time comes, he’ll be going home in a sense.
Grayston, 77 and suffering a degenerative lung disease, will be buried in the same grave his dad was 25 years ago and that his grandfather was 75 years ago.
“I was at a Mountain View Cemetery workshop and one of the subjects was reburials,” Grayston said. “I found the idea interesting and appealing, appealing from at least two points of view: One was financial, the other was ecological, environmental.
“My time is short, I don’t know how short, but I’m aware of the ecological situation and I want to be ecologically responsible as far as I can. This seems like a good way to do it.”
Grave reuse is one of the components of a green funeral, which generally refers to allowing a body to decompose naturally: No burial vault or grave liner, no embalming, a biodegradable casket.
Cremation, on the other hand, viewed by many as environmentally friendly and chosen by millions of people the world over, requires a lot of energy to turn a body to ash.
“The idea is not to try to preserve the deceased’s body, accepting that our bodies are natural and will decompose like other things,” said Michell Pante, co-founder of Willow, which provides end-of-life coaching and workshops. “Mountain View is unique, particularly in not requiring grave liners.”
Grave reuse is rare in North America, but the practice is common in Europe and elsewhere, Mountain View manager Glen Hodges said.
The New World has lots of land and it hasn’t been until recently that cities like Vancouver and Toronto have faced a shortage of cemetery space, he said.
“Europe’s been burying people for thousands of years, as opposed to 150,” Hodges said. “We’re a young country.”
Mountain View, which had its first burial in February 1887, comprises 43 hectares and is nearing 150,000 interred souls.
It’s almost unique in North America in not making grave liners mandatory.
“How that started, no one really knows, it’s just always been the case,” Hodges said. “Mountain View just always had this practice.”
Of 75 or 80 casket burials last year, perhaps five or six chose a liner, he said.
Without liners, bodies and caskets decompose faster, allowing reuse after 40 years. It’s a huge cost saving: A new grave at Mountain View is $25,000; a standard burial is $1,180, plus reopening the grave costs another $535 for a total of $1,715.
“So for a premium of $535 you can save yourself almost $25,000,” Hodges said.
Mountain View allows two caskets in a grave.
Since Grayston’s grandfather was buried more than 40 years ago, the grandson is eligible to be put in the same grave.
The grave will be dug up, deepened and whatever is left of Grayston’s grandfather (practically nothing, Hodges said) placed at the bottom and covered in dirt.
Grayston’s father will be placed in the deep spot formerly occupied by the grandfather, and Grayston placed in the standard spot on top. The Grayston family grave was purchased in 1907 when Donald’s grandfather had to bury his 41-year-old wife Jennie.
“Reusing a grave allows people the right to make choices at the end of their livesthatarealignedwiththe beliefstheyholdduringtheir life,” Willow’s Pante said.
“I think Don is so moved to think, first, that he’ll be in his neighbourhood cemetery, but that he can reuse the same grave as his father and grandfather.”
The idea is not to try to preserve the deceased’s body, accepting that our bodies are natural and will decompose like other things.