Sunday, May 31, 2015
By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI
jgrzelewski@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Within the next few years, it’s expected that more than half of Americans who die will be cremated.
While experts say the trend has been slower to reach the Mahoning Valley, local cemeteries have been adapting to changes to end-of-life traditions.
“We’re preparing for it in a big way,” said Ken Sommers, superintendent of Tod Homestead Cemetery on Belmont Avenue, which recently invested $700,000 in a memorial garden that can hold more than 1,800 cremated remains.
“We did maybe five to 10 cremations a year up until 10 to 15 years ago, then it started increasing,” he said. “We’re up to doing between 35 to 40 cremations a year.”
Nationally, cremation is estimated to be used for more than 45 percent of deaths, up from 36.2 percent in 2008 and 3.5 percent in 1960, according to the Cremation Association of North America. In Ohio, 41.2 percent of deaths in 2013 resulted in cremation.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.