this was a wonderful and informative piece on "the american way of death". when jessica mitford wrote her book by the same name, i read it, in my twenties. since that time, i have always believed in cremation and no embalming, so when my mother died 20 years ago, i did not have her embalmed. the funeral home did not have dry ice available, but refrigerated mom for 3 days, and the casket, of course, was closed. when my brother came to the service from canada, he asked for it to be opened for him, so he could say goodbye. he always said, later, that he wished he had not done that. she indeed looked dead. bodies who are embalmed look dead, too, but somehow not SO DEAD. i was not able to have her cremated as i wished, because it was against my mother's wishes. my question, though, regards vaults. the cemetery where we put mom REQUIRED a vault, supposedly to keep the ground from caving in. so that added several hundred dollars to an already $5K funeral in 1991. i'd be interested in a follow-up program to answer this question and perhaps lots of others. again, thanks.