Cremation Services

Choosing cremation is a decision about form. It is not a decision to skip the farewell.

Nearly everything available with burial is available with cremation as well — visitation, a Mass or funeral service, military honors, a graveside committal, a permanent place to visit. What changes is the order of events, and usually the cost.

We will go through the choices with you plainly, with prices in writing, before you commit to anything. Call (575) 342-1005.

Direct cremation is the simplest option: no public visitation or ceremony beforehand, with the cremation taking place once New Mexico’s required authorizations and permits are complete. The cremated remains are then returned to your family in the urn or container you select.

Families choose it when relatives are scattered across the state or the country, when they would rather gather later on their own terms, or simply because it is what their loved one asked for.

Choosing direct cremation closes no doors. A memorial service can still be held weeks or months afterward, and many families do exactly that.

There are two common ways to hold a service when cremation has been chosen.

• A service before the cremation. Visitation and a funeral or Mass are held with your loved one present, in a casket you purchase or rent, followed by the cremation.
• A memorial service afterward. The gathering is held with the urn present, along with photographs and a memorial table, on a date that gives family time to travel in.

Either can be held in our chapel, at your church, or at the graveside, with music, readings, clergy, and military honors as you wish. If your family would like to be present when the cremation takes place, ask us and we will explain what that involves.

Cremation still allows for a permanent place to visit, and families often find that matters more than they expected it to.

• Burial of the urn in a family plot, in many cases alongside relatives already there
• Placement in a columbarium niche
• Keeping the urn at home
• Dividing a portion among family members in keepsake urns or cremation jewelry
• Scattering somewhere that held meaning

We can show you urns in a range of materials and prices, from very simple to engraved. If you have a cemetery or a scattering place in mind, ask us about the rules that apply there before you make firm plans — private land needs the owner’s permission, and national forest or other public land generally requires permission from the managing office.