As a way of coping with the terrible oppressiveness of this winter, there’s a lot of gallows humor. I jokingly threatened to throw myself in front of a snow plow as a quick way of avoiding any more shoveling, and lil bro came back with how selfish that’d be since you can’t exactly bury anyone right now given there’s been about seven feet of snow in the past month. I of course pointed out I plan to be cremated
Joking aside, this had made me wonder: our paternal grandmother really did die in February the year before I was born and I know that she wasn’t buried until that May. I could ask my parents for more details, but I don’t think that’s very nice given I just want to satisfy a morbid curiosity, so I’ll ask you folks instead…
What most likely happened to dead grandma’s body between her death in February of 1976 and her burial in May of that year?
Prior thread on the subject.
Also, I’m not sure why a backhoe wouldn’t work. Just a few weeks ago, in the bitter cold, I had to have a small section of my asphalt parking lot dug up with a mini-excavator. I asked about the cold and the guy (a friend) said 'no big deal, I’ll just have to scratch at the asphalt a little longer" and that’s exactly what he did. Just kept scratching at the asphalt, back and forth and back and forth and eventually he broke through it. If he could get through frozen asphalt, I’m guessing a full sized backhoe can get through frozen dirt. Either way, that thread has several solutions.
I don’t know what happened to your grandmother, although I suspect heavy-duty refrigeration.
To those posters who seem to be implying that winter burials are — I don’t know … possible? easy? — I would mention that I occasionally copy edit the local weekly newspaper here in rural Connecticut, and all but one of the obituaries last week said, “A memorial service will be held [date and time]. Burial will be in the spring.”
Depending on the age of the cemetery and the density of graves it may not be possible to use a back hoe; sometimes there’s no other choice but till wait until spring and dig by hand.
The OP also mentions seven feet of snow (in the past month – not when his/her grandmother died). I’m sure a backhoe can handle frozen ground, but moving the snow around would be a pain.
There’s the need or wish of people to be present, and several feet of snow with more falling… which is what I’m looking out the window at… would make for an unpleasant experience at best.
I don’t know if its still done but some cemeteries used unused (or used ones with extra space) crypts and/or mausoleums for temporary winter storage here in PA. It was common practice both in southwestern and northeastern corners of the state. I believe now, with more modern equipment, that its still a last ditch (pardon the expression) technique they can fall back on as needed.
Well if it is a backhoe, it has a convenient bucket on the front for moving and piling snow. One of the reasons guys in my area still keep backhoes in their fleets is they are a good machines for moving snow, so they see use year round. Backhoes aren’t as good at excavating as excavators and they aren’t as good as front end loaders for moving earth. They do fit in between as a multi-purpose machines that aren’t the best at anything.
A back hoe cares a lot about frost.
Frost is harder to go through than concrete. If the ground is frozen more than 6 inches down you’ll have a hell of a time digging into it. The size of the machine will matter a lot. The downward pressure a machine can exert is a direct relationship to it’s weight. A standard mini-excavator in my area weighs 4-6 tons. They are pretty much useless once you hit frost. Forcing the bucket into the ground just lifts the machine up instead of it’s intended goal. Backhoes tend to be heavier(there is a very big range on backhoes) but their weight isn’t distributed well for hard break in, so it would take a 8 ton backhoe to come close to a 4 ton mini’s.
I do occasionally have to dig trenches in the winter(in MA) I usually bring in a 30 ton machine to do so. Even then we’ll be spending quality time with jack hammers going through the first foot of frost. Could use a machine mounted jackhammer as well but it’s more time if it has to be swapped out for the bucket every ten feet.
Most graveyards aren’t going to be able to accommodate a 30 ton machine stomping around.
Graves are pretty easy though because it’s one confined space. Your options are jackhammer through the frost or thaw it out. Either is workable. Thawing will take a few days so time frame matters. Once you’re through the frost it is easy going.
In 1976 it could have gone either way, hold the body till spring or put the extra effort into digging. These days a graveyard is pretty much always going dig the grave. The stone won’t get set till spring as it’s incredibly difficult the compact and level the ground during the winter.
Here in Canada, many cemeteries will have a small building made of concrete easily accessible at the edge of the cemetery to place coffin in during the winter. There will be room inside for maybe six coffins.
When the ground has thawed, the coffins will be interred properly.
My Grandma (in a small town in western Minnesota) was indeed frozen.
She was put in a mausoleum in the cemetery after the funeral. (I was one of the pallbearers who put her there.) And since it was an unheated concrete building in a Minnesota winter, I presume the coffin & her body were soon frozen solid. We all went back to the church basement for the funeral supper.
A few months later, there was an actual burial which a few relatives attended.
I think we might have gotten lucky with my mom’s burial. She died in January and was buried in Connecticut and there was no snow on the ground. I have wondered if it just happened to be temperate enough and if during a different winter we would have had to wait till spring.
