Funeral Consumers Alliance

Hi Ann, The truth is that no matter where you're buried - in the ground, or in a crypt above ground - microbes and bugs are going to be there. There is nothing you can buy - no type of casket, no sealing vault - that will stop decomposition or keep air, water, dirt, or fauna out for any indefinite period of time. Anyone who told you that a person buried in a mausoleum will look just the way they did 25 years ago is lying, and in a particularly cruel way. It's wise to remember that decomposition is a natural process, and that there's nothing you can do to stop it. Folks like your sister are ripe targets for a funeral home or cemetery willing to take advantage of her fears about decomposition and bugs in order to sell her overpriced options that won't do a thing to stop it. I think it's far better for her to try to stop focusing on things she cannot change (what happens to her dead body and the fact that it will decompose), and that - truthfully - she's not going to know about anyway. Otherwise, she'll have her pocketbook emptied by an unscrupulous salesman. Josh Slocum exec. director, FCA