Arrangement Conference – The meeting with our cemetery manager during which you discuss your options and wishes for your cemetery needs. This conference can be held at the time of need or during pre-planning.

Benches – A bench marks the gravesite. It can hold cremated remains and serve as a memorial or it can be a memorial bench without holding the actual urn or cremated remains.

Burial – Also called interment, earth burial in a cemetery is the most traditional method for final disposition of the body.

Burial Authorization – Official form that includes information the State of Indiana requires regarding the deceased. It is to be signed by the next of kin prior to a burial.

Burial Space – Burial space refers to a ground space, crypt space or above ground niche.

Cenotaph – A monument or memorial erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere.

Certificate – Sometimes called a deed, a certificate shows ownership of property that is purchased pre-need.

Columbarium – An above-ground structure for final disposition of cremated remains.

Committal service – A brief ceremony held with the casket or urn present before burial or entombment.

Cremation – A form of final disposition that involves reducing the body through intense heat to cremated remains.

Crypt – An above ground burial site in a mausoleum.

Death Certificate – An official document issued by the Indiana Department of Health stating details regarding a person’s death and personal information about the deceased. A death certificate needs to be provided before a cremation can take place.

Designation – The right of the owner of any type of burial space to give the cemetery advance notice of who is to be buried in that space. This designation may be changed at any time.

Direct Burial – Burial without a viewing, funeral, or memorial service.

Direct Cremation – Cremation without a viewing, funeral, or memorial service.

Entombment – Placement of the casket in an above-ground structure called a mausoleum.

Funeral – The ceremony that honors the end of a person’s life.

Ground Inurnment – Refers to an inground burial of an urn containing cremated remains.

Letter Cutting – Sometimes referred to as engraving. A term most often used when referring to the process of adding a date of death to an existing granite monument.

Lot – An organizational sub-term referring to smaller areas within each section of the cemetery.

Mausoleum – A building in a cemetery that offers above ground entombment.

Marker – (sometimes referred to as monuments, memorials, headstones, tombstones, or gravestones) An identifying marker inscribed with names, dates, and endearments in memory of the deceased and is placed on a grave, mausoleum, or niche.

Niche – A space in a columbarium or other structure or space where the urn containing cremated remains is placed.

Opening/Closing – Refers to the labor and tasks involved in preparing a space for a burial and completing a burial. The specific tasks are determined by the type of burial.

Pallbearers – The people who carry the casket from the ceremony to the hearse and from the hearse to the gravesite.

Preneed Arrangement – (Pre-Planning) Making decisions concerning one’s final resting place and marker and recording vital information in advance of a death.

Scattering – Refers to the disbursement of cremated remains on a specific burial space or in a designated communal scattering garden. Both options are available at Maplewood Cemetery.

Second Right (2nd Right) Of Interment – Refers to the permission given by the space owner for a second burial to take place on one space. Only one casket burial may take place per space, however, one casket burial and one cremation burial may occur, or two cremation burials may occur on one space.

Section – An organizational term referring to large areas within the cemetery.

Urn – A small container specially designed for holding cremated remains and is available in different shapes, sizes and colors.

Vault – A concrete, polypropylene, or metal container into which the casket or cremation urn is placed.

Veterans Marker – A bronze or granite marker that is available to any active or honorably discharged member of the armed forces. Cemetery staff will assist you in filling out the necessary forms. There is an installation fee, but the marker itself is provided free of charge.