For those in Maine - a death and burial ?

[712Alliance]

My husband is from Buffalo. his grandmother died in January. She wasn't buried until May. The family also held the funeral then.

 

[leebee]

My Father in law was buried in Maine two weeks ago today. North Berwick, Maine to be exact. There was some talk as to if they would be able to do the burial at that time. In the end they were able to. So I figure they just started to be able to do burials in his area around 2 weeks ago.

North Berwick is in the southern part of the state. Go online to the Bangor Daily News and check the obits to see if they mention burials or "burial in the spring". We are just getting into the 40s consistantly ( daffodils are about two inches tall) so it wouldn't surprise me if the ground is still frozen.

 

[ronandannette]

This is fascinating; as a former funeral director who spent endless hours standing by at graveside services during freezing cold and blizzards I have never heard of this before. We live through six months of winter annually and the frost can penetrate four feet or more; we open our graves with a backhoe - no problem. Just curious - do the construction companies in your areas stop digging basements in the winter too?

 

[goofinoff]

I think it depends on the cemetery too. My aunt passed away in February and was buried 2 days after the big blizzard. (I'm in maine, too) but my friends mother passed away a couple of weeks ago and they waits to bury her until this week. I wonder if it depends on what kind of equipment the cemetery has.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

If they were Jewish, she would be in the ground in 48 hours, no exceptions. We just went to a funeral in early February and the backhoes had no problem getting through the snow and frozen ground. (Northern IL by the lake). We had to stand next to the grave while her casket was totally covered. (Another tradition). We were freezing and so were the workers, but it got done.

 

[yoopermom]

I grew up in SE WI (200 miles south of here) and everyone is buried right away. Here, in the U.P., there are no winter burials. Usually they start by the middle of April, but we still have quite a bit of frost in the ground, so I'm guessing it'll be beginning to middle of May. They literally put the vaults in a storage shed on the cemetary grounds until then. Needless to say, I want to be cremated....

Terri

 

[Dsnyfireman]

It's not that that they can't dig up the ground but most cemetery's here in maine don't want to have the ground all around the grave turn to mud in the spring, which it will if you dig it up when frozen and replaced with all the frost( ice) in it. Also most cemetery's dont plow their roads so the family would have to have all the snow removed to get to the plot to do the burial. That would be very expensive to do. We do dig foundation's in the winter, but very few, and we are not refilling them with frozen dirt again so the dont get soupy. I have lived in maine my whole life (37 years) and have never been to a burial in the winter, and I do a lot of masonic and police and fire funurals. I hope that they can bury her soon for those of you left behind so you can have some closure and be at peace.

 

[ChattaAlley]

I just found this out myself. I never knew they didn't bury until spring. A Co-Workers MIL died in Dec. I saw on the calander a few weeks ago that she is to be off in April (this week actually) for breavement. I thought to myself "how do you know ahead of time that someone is going to die". I was later informed the MIL lived in MA and that they cannot bury until spring. It does make sense though but living in the South I would have never thought about that.

 

[Arielle22]

What on Earth! What happens at the first burials of the year that family can't be there? I would want to be at my mom or dad's burial and it would take an extreme issue to keep me from it.

Around here you are not at the burial. The casket is placed on a platform above the open grave. It is not lowered until mourners are gone. So even if you are at the gravesite, you don't see the actual burial.

My mom died in February. We had the Mass and then a service in the chapel at the cemetary. She was not buried until the ground thawed.

 

[Neelloc]

I live in the Buffalo area.

We had a family member pass away in February a few years ago. She was buried in a cemetery in the area and the burial was not delayed. This was at a church cemetery.

I wonder if it's more an issue of the cemetery not having the proper equipment as opposed to the ground being frozen.

 

[Arielle22]

This is fascinating; as a former funeral director who spent endless hours standing by at graveside services during freezing cold and blizzards I have never heard of this before. We live through six months of winter annually and the frost can penetrate four feet or more; we open our graves with a backhoe - no problem. Just curious - do the construction companies in your areas stop digging basements in the winter too?

My home was built over the winter of 92/93. We were told if the basement wasn't dug by a certain date that it would have to wait until spring because the ground would freeze and the cement wouldn't set properly. We made it in time.

Backhoes are used for the graves here.

 

[englishteacha]

My mother in law passed away on Christmas day, 2003. She didn't want a funeral so we had viewing hours at the funeral home in December on the 27th. Her burial was in May. She was buried in a cemetery from the late 1700s/early 1800s which is hard enough to navigate in good weather. They weren't able to use big equipment to dig her grave. We had a private burial. I took my bereavement time in the spring because I was on break at Christmas time. It was tough to say goodbye twice, but that's "how it's done."

Someone else mentioned the frozen ground/mud aspect. I live in rural, central, western Maine...rocky soil, ground frozen solid from November through March-April, and in early spring it's very, very muddy. Roads are posted during Mud Season so no heavy equipment can pass over them in hopes of preventing damage to the roads. In winter, the ground is so frozen that, yes, you can dig a hole with heavy machinery, but it's very difficult and costly to do so. All the cemeteries near us are closed to vehicles all winter.

The "cities" in Maine (Portland, Auburn and Lewiston, Bangor, Augusta) may have bigger cemeteries that do winter burials but the smaller communities likely do not. Heck, the one church in my mom's hometown is closed all winter because it's too expensive to heat. People have to go to church in the next town during winter! Funerals there are held at funeral homes or in the neighboring town's church during winter.

 

[ronandannette]

My mother in law passed away on Christmas day, 2003. She didn't want a funeral so we had viewing hours at the funeral home in December on the 27th. Her burial was in May. She was buried in a cemetery from the late 1700s/early 1800s which is hard enough to navigate in good weather. They weren't able to use big equipment to dig her grave. We had a private burial. I took my bereavement time in the spring because I was on break at Christmas time. It was tough to say goodbye twice, but that's "how it's done."
Someone else mentioned the frozen ground/mud aspect. I live in rural, central, western Maine...rocky soil, ground frozen solid from November through March-April, and in early spring it's very, very muddy. Roads are posted during Mud Season so no heavy equipment can pass over them in hopes of preventing damage to the roads. In winter, the ground is so frozen that, yes, you can dig a hole with heavy machinery, but it's very difficult and costly to do so. All the cemeteries near us are closed to vehicles all winter.

The "cities" in Maine (Portland, Auburn and Lewiston, Bangor, Augusta) may have bigger cemeteries that do winter burials but the smaller communities likely do not. Heck, the one church in my mom's hometown is closed all winter because it's too expensive to heat. People have to go to church in the next town during winter! Funerals there are held at funeral homes or in the neighboring town's church during winter.

This whole thread is SO INTERESTING...who else here had no idea these practices existed? I actually googled it yesterday; here in Calgary there used to be special mortuary buildings at the cemeteries for "winter repose". Modern machinery made them obsolete in the mid 40's. COOL!!