GRAVESITE AVAILABILITY

 

The Franklin Cemetery has had a

longstanding policy that the cemetery is

 available to everyone, regardless of

religious faith, ethnicity, social standing,

or any cultural circumstances. Nor is it

limited to people by any geographical

residence requirement. We have families

in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois,

New Jersey as well as all over the State

of Michigan.


THE COST OF BURIALS

 

The Board of Directors of the Franklin

Cemetery continually strive to ensure

that the Cemetery is a  beautiful and well-

managed setting for a place that insures a

 perpetually maintained memorial for those

who are buried on its grounds.  This

requires a careful balance of current

expenses with anticipated future expenses

when future plots are no longer available

and income is not available from lot sales.

In short, this requires careful stewardship,

 objective consideration of actuarial

realities and proper actions to fulfil

promises. The Cemetery Trust Fund is on

schedule to meet the anticipated future

needs, but the future is a difficult thing to

predict. The fact remains that the present

 income of the Cemetery (derived from

grave sales, fees, and donations) does not

have much room for miscalculation.

Grave prices are marginally adequate

when one considers the realistic

costs of administration, grounds

maintenance, insurance, tree replacement,

fence and road repair and upkeep, and

efforts to protect historic elements of the

 Cemetery where there are no longer

families to provide for the care of their

graves.

 

The Cemetery has approximately 700

remaining grave sites available for

purchase at either:$3,000 or $4,000 per

grave (depending on what part of the

cemetery the grave is located). You can

acquire more detailed information on

other pages on this website or by

contacting the Cemetery

 Administrator, Steve Bancroft, at

248-200-9493 or by email at franklincemetery@outlook.com.

 

There is an old saw that says nothing is

sure except death and taxes. Taxes are

fungible, but death most certainly isn’t.

We all know that we exit this existence by

only one means, dying. Few people like to

 consider that eventuality, and many simply

 ignore the prospect all-together. However,

 ignoring it, or pushing back reasonable

 consideration of that life-event will not

change when it might happen and what will

be the circumstances around it.

As an Episcopal priest for 45 years, I can

say with some assurance borne of

experience that not planning for end-of life

issues is fraught with very bad potential

results, not to say being patently unfair

to the surviving loved ones. It takes very

 little effort to plan for what will come to

all of us, and in doing so, will save money,

remove worry and future headaches, and

assure that what you want to happen with

you…will. Establishing wills, trusts, medical directions, burial arrangements and building

those considerations into your financial

and future life planning removes a lot

of future problems, for everyone.