For the week of September 18 - 24, 2002

Looking for a final resting place in Arizona?

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Buying one’s own cemetery plot used to be a common practice. It was an investment, a way to plan for your future, and protect your heirs from having to make decisions they might not be up to.

Well, times have changed. Plots are scarce because land is scarce. We know now that to use up fabulous land for, pardon me, dead people, is just a tad wasteful. Sure, we like a nice spot to go for our grieving, and their eternal rest, but let’s face it real estate is real estate. In Southern California, for example, a plot in a good locale can go for $6,500.

However, scattering a loved ones ashes has become so acceptable now that’s it’s an almost common practice, too.

Recently, Ketchum resident Bonnie Nochta found out a lot about this issue.

Her parents, both 82, bought two neighboring double-deep plots in 1961 in Arizona. They were purchased for $100. They’re now selling for $1,800. "They got a good deal on the second one," Nochta said

She called the cemetery and found out the plots, which can hold two caskets, one on top of the other, could be sold back to the cemetery at half the original price.

"It’s a beautiful place in the Garden of Prayer in Scottsdale, Ariz.," Nochta said. "They’re next to a 25-foot Bible." Then, she laughed ruefully.

Apparently, her parents now want to be cremated and have their ashes scattered in the desert. Her mother handed the whole shebang over to Nochta. "My mother said ‘OK, I’ll give it to the Idaho kids.’"

But even the cost of advertising the plots in a local paper in Scottsdale proved too dear, at $300 a pop. So, Nochta who is a partner in Old Glory Furniture put a small ad in the Idaho Mountain Express.

Hey, a lot of snowbirds call both places home. But where do they want their eternal resting spot to be?

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.