Grave Situation

UK cemetery: Share a grave with a stranger?
By JILL LAWLESS, AP

LONDON -So you think London, population 8 million, is crowded with the living?
There are many millions more under the soil of a city that has been inhabited for 2,000 years. And London is rapidly running out of places to put them.

Now the city's largest cemetery is trying to persuade Londoners to share a grave with a stranger.

"A lot of people say, 'I'm not putting my Dad in a secondhand grave,'" said Gary Burks, superintendent and registrar of the City of London Cemetery, final resting place of close to 1 million Londoners. "You have to deal with that mindset."

The problem is a very British one. Many other European countries regularly reuse old graves after a couple of decades. Britain does not, as a result of Victorian hygiene obsession, piecemeal regulation and national tradition. For many, an Englishman's tomb, like his home, is his castle.

That view is also common in the United States, which like Britain tends to regard graves as eternal and not to be disturbed — although the U.S. has a lot more space, so the burial crisis is less acute.

Wow, there are lots of times when I realize how fortunate I am to be an American and this is certainly one of them. When I read the quote from the guy talking about attacking the mindset against "using a secondhand grave," I couldn't believe it. I can't imagine being buried on top of someone else. It's crazy, but I guess in a land locked area its necessary.

I wonder sometimes what happens when a cemetary runs out of room. I guess you just have to be buried in a different one. But what if your whole family is in the other one. I need an undertaker to weigh in on this one. Maybe I'll ask my great-uncle the next time I see him.