Deaths of Prince and David Bowie Demonstrate Two Approaches to Cremation

By Amy Cunningham

Like David Bowie, Prince told his family not to fuss over his funeral. But those closest to Bowie and Prince tackled the same request in different ways. David Bowie was cremated privately by a corporate funeral firm with no one but funeral directors and crematory personnel present. By contrast, a group of Prince's friends and family members met up with Prince's body at First Memorial Waterston Chapel in Minneapolis. Prince's sister Tyka Nelson and "another relative spent several quiet minutes with the 'Purple Rain' singer before he was cremated." I am happy they did this. A lot of people don't fully realize that many crematories have chapels, where one or two family members can sit in silence or where services for 150 people with music and eulogies can also be conducted. “Cremation is fine," writes funeral director Thomas Lynch in his book The Good Funeral. "But if you are going to cremate your dead, go to the edge of the fire, in much the same way as those who were going to bury their dead were encouraged to go to the edge of the open ground.”

Memorial services and concerts with eulogies after the fact are glorious, and of course, the funerals of public personalities have their own special security requirements. But when the family is emotionally up to it, there's nothing as powerful as accompanying the deceased the whole way.