I didn't witness the actual cremation, off course. But when my father in law died, he requested cremation and the funeral home had a nice casket that was designed to hold a simple, pine box. You couldn't see the box when it was in the casket. It had some lining that covered it. I don't know if the pine box was burned during the cremation.
As a side note, we got the itemized bill from the funeral home, and they charged $3500 for the use of the reusable casket that held the pine box,...three days laying in a casket that got used over and over again for people who requested cremation. I told my wife that he could have stayed in a fairly nice resort somewhere for three days for less than $3500.
He had funeral insurance for $10,000. Guess what. The bill for the funeral came out to $10,000. The $3500 charge for laying in the reusable casket for three days rounded it up to that amount.
