Cremation and Aquamation Services Editing and Proofreading Services

A family has to choose, in the week after a death, between processes they know almost nothing about, using leaflets that describe dignity and care and never quite say what physically happens. Some of them want to know and cannot ask. Some of them do not want to know and are handed a document that assumes they do. Both are badly served by the same evasive writing.

We edit what crematoria and alkaline hydrolysis providers produce — explanations of the process for families who want to know, options and choice documentation, timelines from collection to return of ashes, ashes return, scattering and interment information, coffin, container and material requirements, witnessed committal and viewing arrangements, medical certification and paperwork guidance for families, environmental and comparison information between processes, memorial and ashes product information, and communications for direct or unattended arrangements. Our editors work on the explanation of what actually happens.

The process explanation is where this sector either respects a family's intelligence or leaves them imagining worse, and its failure is euphemism. A family told their relative will be treated with the utmost dignity has been reassured and told nothing. We write these so the information is layered — a short plain summary first, then a clearly marked fuller description for those who want it, and a line saying it is entirely normal not to read further; so the fuller description states the physical process in accurate, unsentimental language, including the temperature or the chemistry, the duration, and what remains at the end, since families who want this either get it from you or from an internet search that is worse; so the questions people are afraid to ask are answered without being asked — whether one person at a time, whether jewellery and medical devices are removed and what happens to them, whether the coffin goes in, whether anything is combined; so the timeline is given with real durations for each stage and what causes delays, given that waiting for the paperwork is the commonest cause and families blame the crematorium; so the choices are presented with what each means practically rather than as a price list; so the environmental comparison, where it is made, gives the basis for the claim; and so the family is told who to ring and that no question is unwelcome. Explanations written this way are quoted back with gratitude years later.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including procedures, family correspondence and operational documentation. We are editors rather than funeral, medical or regulatory advisers, and we offer no view on processes, procedures or compliance. What we can do is write the truth in language a grieving family can hold.