When dawn broke the apprentice ran from his slumber to the amaryllis plant just knowing he would find the plant ablaze with crimson petals, but when he came to the place where the amaryllis should have been, it wasn’t there.  With his heart pounding he looked for the amaryllis at the next table and then the next not finding it anywhere, and when he looked up to see if it was at the next table, he saw the Master Gardner standing there.  The Master Gardner looked at the apprentice and saw the anxious look on the apprentice’s face and asked, “Dear apprentice, what is wrong?”  When the apprentice explained to the master Gardner that he couldn’t find the amaryllis plant anywhere, the Master Gardner smiled and placed his hand on the apprentice’s shoulder and said, “My apprentice, I can see that you are upset, do not worry, I have taken the beautiful amaryllis plant home for me to enjoy and tend to, I know you have loved and taken wonderful care of my precious plant, thank you, well done, dear apprentice.” 
Contrary to popular belief, the cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense. After the incineration is completed, the dry bone fragments are swept out of the retort and pulverised by a machine called a Cremulator—essentially a high-capacity, high-speed blender—to process them into "ashes" or "cremated remains",[56][57] although pulverisation may also be performed by hand. This leaves the bone with a fine sand like texture and color, able to be scattered without need for mixing with any foreign matter,[58] though the size of the grain varies depending on the Cremulator used. The mean weight of an adult's remains is 2.4 kg; the mean weight for adult males is about 1 kg higher than that for adult females.[59] There are various types of Cremulators, including rotating devices, grinders, and older models using heavy metal balls.[60] The grinding process typically takes about 20 seconds.

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Each cremation requires about 110 L (28 US gal) of fuel and releases about 240 kg (540 lb) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Thus, the roughly 1 million bodies that are cremated annually in the United States produce about 240,000 t (270,000 short tons) of carbon dioxide, which is more CO2 pollution than 22,000 average American homes generate in a year.[74] The environmental impact may be reduced by using cremators for longer periods, and relaxing the requirement for a cremation to take place on the same day that the coffin is received, which reduces the use of fossil fuel and hence carbon emissions. Cremation is therefore becoming more friendly toward the environment.[75] Some funeral and crematorium owners offer a carbon neutral funeral service incorporating efficient-burning coffins made from lightweight recycled composite board.[76]
In 1869, the idea was presented to the Medical International Congress of Florence by Professors Coletti and Castiglioni "in the name of public health and civilization". In 1873, Professor Paolo Gorini of Lodi and Professor Ludovico Brunetti of Padua published reports of practical work they had conducted.[17] A model of Brunetti's cremating apparatus, together with the resulting ashes, was exhibited at the Vienna Exposition in 1873 and attracted great attention[18] Meanwhile, Sir Charles William Siemens had developed his regenerative furnace in the 1850s. His furnace operated at a high temperature by using regenerative preheating of fuel and air for combustion. In regenerative preheating, the exhaust gases from the furnace are pumped into a chamber containing bricks, where heat is transferred from the gases to the bricks. The flow of the furnace is then reversed so that fuel and air pass through the chamber and are heated by the bricks. Through this method, an open-hearth furnace can reach temperatures high enough to melt steel, and this process made cremation an efficient and practical proposal. Charles's nephew, Carl Friedrich von Siemens perfected the use of this furnace for the incineration of organic material at his factory in Dresden. The radical politician, Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, took the corpse of his dead wife there to be cremated in 1874. The efficient and cheap process brought about the quick and complete incineration of the body and was a fundamental technical breakthrough that finally made industrial cremation a practical possibility.[19]
He was so feisty, that when the symptoms started, even when he was dizzy or could barely walk, he would still play on his swing set. Luke wanted to play, he needed to be where the action was.  He hated being sick, he would be so sick at home with his pink puke bucket, he could hardly walk and was so tired. Adrienne said, “I would take him to the doctor and he would put on an act, somehow pass all the neurological test. I would swear to the doctor he was sick. As soon as we would get to the elevators, he would break down again, he did not want to admit to being ill.”
           In this story, figuratively, God is the Master Gardner and each one of us is his special plants.  And those of us that are blessed enough to be called parents are the apprentices.  And similar to this story God perfectly selected Luke’s parents to nurture and love him in Ben and Adie.  Many of us are lucky enough to see the sprouts, buds and blooms of our plants while we are here on earth; however some plants like precious Lucas, the Lord has taken home to see him bloom in his garden.

The staff at the National Cremation and Burial Society Oviedo is actively involved in the community, working closely with local hospice organizations, hospitals, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. They participate in various church affiliations and have maintained a AAA rating with the Better Business Bureau. We are a full service funeral home, providing cremation and burial services, and serve Seminole, Orange, Volusia, Polk, Brevard, Lake, and Osceola counties.


Following more acquisitions through the years, Baldwin-Fairchild Cemeteries & Funeral Homes now consist of 10 chapel locations and 4 cemeteries serving all of the Greater Orlando area. Richard has always believed that families, regardless of their faith, social status or circumstances, deserve unwavering respect and dignity throughout the entire funeral process. It is that principle which has earned the Baldwin-Fairchild group of cemeteries and funeral homes their excellent reputation. At Baldwin-Fairchild, we strive to provide the finest cemeteries and the most caring ceremonies for every family we serve.
With the passing of my mother on January 31, all I really knew was she had pre-paid for her service with National Cremation Society. After making a few calls to various areas, I finally got an answer in their Tampa office who immediately told me that New Smyrna was in the Oviedo area. With one answer of the phone, NCS took over the entire situation with speed and professionalism. Stephen and his entire staff handled everything from pickup to shipment of the remains to Pennsylvania. My wife and I couldn’t be more grateful and are now considering having NCS handle our passing.
However, Protestant churches welcomed the use of cremation at a much earlier date than the Catholic Church; pro-cremation sentiment was not unanimous among Protestants, however.[96] The first crematoria in the Protestant countries were built in the 1870s, and in 1908, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey—one of the most famous Anglican churches—required that remains be cremated for burial in the abbey's precincts.[97] Today, "scattering", or "strewing," is an acceptable practice in many Protestant denominations, and some churches have their own "garden of remembrance" on their grounds in which remains can be scattered. Other groups also support cremation. Some denominations, like Lutheran churches in Scandinavia, favour the urns being buried in family graves. A family grave can contain urns of many generations and also the urns of spouses and loved ones.

Do you get help with funeral costs?


Christians preferred to bury the dead rather than to cremate the remains, as was common in Roman culture. The Roman catacombs and veneration of relics of saints witness to this preference. For them, the body was not a mere receptacle for a spirit that was the real person, but an integral part of the human person.[81] They looked on the body as sanctified by the sacraments[82] and itself the temple of the Holy Spirit,[83] and thus requiring to be disposed of in a way that honours and reveres it, and they saw many early practices involved with disposal of dead bodies as pagan in origin or an insult to the body.[84]
In the United Kingdom, the body is not removed from the coffin and is not placed into a container as described above. The body is cremated with the coffin[48] which is why all British coffins that are to be used for cremation must be combustible. The Code of Cremation Practice[49] forbids the opening of the coffin once it has arrived at the crematorium, and rules stipulate that it must be cremated within 72 hours of the funeral service.[50] Therefore, in the United Kingdom, bodies are cremated in the same coffin that they are placed in at the undertaker's, although the regulations allow the use of an approved "cover" during the funeral service.[50] It is recommended that jewellery be removed before the coffin is sealed, for this reason. When cremation is finished, the remains are passed through a magnetic field to remove any metal, which will be interred elsewhere in the crematorium grounds or, increasingly, recycled.[51] The ashes are entered into a cremulator[52] to further grind the remains down into a finer texture before being given to relatives or loved ones or scattered in the crematorium grounds where facilities exist.[53]

The National Cremation Society that my dad had prepaid for was a big help when he passed away this month. Stephen Barreto with the Oviedo office contacted us after he died and was so compassionate, patient and kind to me during such a difficult time. He assured me every step of the way and I appreciated how much of a help he was taking care of all the questions that I never thought of. I highly recommend this company to those making arrangements for their family.

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After the sudden passing of my wife, Caren, I contacted National Cremation. They met me at the hospital and set up an appointment with Mr. Stephen Barreto. He was very professional, knowledgeable, caring and while treating me with the utmost respect, he very patiently explained all my options. Within a very short period, all the arrangements were made and only five days later I received the urn in preparation for a Memorial Service at their location. Although we had a larger than expected turnout, Mr. Barreto went out of his way to accommodate everyone. His assistance and that of the staff was simply outstanding and very much appreciated. Altogether, Mr. Barreto while very compassionate made the whole experience as painless as possible.

Other early crematoria in Europe were built in 1878 in the town of Gotha in Germany and later in Heidelberg in 1891. The first modern crematory in the U.S. was built in 1876 by Francis Julius LeMoyne after hearing about its use in Europe. Like many early proponents, he was motivated by a belief it would be beneficial for public health.[26][27] Before LeMoyne's crematory closed in 1901, it had performed 42 cremations.[28] Other countries that opened their first crematorium included Sweden (1887 in Stockholm), Switzerland (1889 in Zurich) and France (1889 in Père Lachaise, Paris).[21]
^ Schulweis, Harold M. "SHAILOS & TSUVAS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS". Archived from the original on 23 February 2007. Retrieved 21 February 2007. Judaism is a tradition which affirms life. It has struggled from its inception against concentration on death and the deification of the human being as exemplified in the Egyptian concern with mummification and the preservation of the body after death.

An early Methodist tract titled Immortality and Resurrection noted that "burial is the result of a belief in the resurrection of the body, while cremation anticipates its annihilation."[98] The Methodist Review noted that "Three thoughts alone would lead us to suppose that the early Christians would have special care for their dead, namely, the essential Jewish origin of the Church; the mode of burial of their founder; and the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, so powerfully urged by the apostles, and so mighty in its influence on the primitive Christians. From these considerations, the Roman custom of cremation would be most repulsive to the Christian mind."[99]

What does it mean to embalm a body?

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