Now there's an idea!
Posted on 04/19/2004 9:12:15 PM PDT by writer33
Cremation's rising popularity gives birth to new funeral services industry
OLYMPIA _ In Washington, ashes to ashes is proving a lot more popular than dust to dust.
In 1980, about two-thirds of the people who died here were buried. Most of the rest were cremated.
Today, that ratio has nearly reversed. More than six out of 10 Washingtonians now end up in an urn, rather than a coffin.
"There's no doubt -- it's growing by leaps and bounds," said Bill Rossey, owner of Spokane Cremation and Burial Service.
According to the Cremation Association of North America, Washington's cremation rate is now third highest in the country. It's 12 times the rate of places like Alabama or Tennessee.
Why? Some funeral directors say Washingtonians tend to be pragmatists about death, and don't want to spend a lot of money on an elaborate funeral and grave. Environmentalists don't want to take up cemetery space. The state's Asian population -- for many of whom cremation is a centuries-old tradition -- is growing. And some people apparently choose cremation because of claustrophobia or distaste at the thought of decaying in the ground.
"We talk to people regularly who choose cremation because they have a fear of being buried," said Brian Rodriguez, with Seattle's Bonney-Watson funeral homes.
Perhaps the biggest factor, funeral directors say, is that Washington has one of the lowest church attendance rates in America. It's no coincidence, they say, that the states with the highest rates of cremation -- Hawaii, Nevada and Washington -- aren't big on religion.
A 2000 study by Ohio's Glenmary Research Center found that those three states ranked fifth, third and second from the lowest in percentage of religious adherents. (The lowest: Oregon.)
"If the church isn't creating an expectation of burial, people are more likely to do what's more cost-effective and practical," said Sarajane Siegfriedt, director of a Seattle consumer group, the People's Memorial Association.
More than just a choice of urns:
For some people, funeral officials say, part of the appeal of cremation is individual control over what's done with the remains.
It's possible -- but expensive and complicated -- to get state approval to bury a body on private property. The site must be declared a cemetery, approved by local officials, and you have to write a $25,000 check to the state. The interest is used to maintain the plot over the years.
The rules are a lot looser for cremated remains. Some families scatter them at a favorite beach, ski area or lake. Some keep them in urns on a mantle or tucked away in a closet. Others bury them in a favorite garden. Two years ago, bystanders at Seattle's Safeco Field called police when they saw a low-flying Cessna drop white powder on the stadium. But it wasn't anthrax. It was the ashes of a hard-core baseball fan who apparently wanted a permanent front-row seat.
In fact, an entire "cremains" industry has sprung up in recent years, offering an increasing array of things to do with yourself once you're dead.
For a fee, owners of small planes will scatter you over Mount Rainier or Lake Coeur d'Alene. Boats -- including the state-run ferries -- will let family members pour the ashes into the waves.
But that's just the start. For a couple hundred dollars, glass-blowers in Oregon and California will incorporate a pinch of human (or pet) cremated remains amid the bright-colored swirls in a blob of glass. Or a hanging glass ornament. Or a glass flower vase.
Two years ago, a Chicago company called Lifegem began extracting the carbon in cremated remains and putting it under intense heat and pressure. After two to four weeks, the remains have become a synthetic diamond. Each diamond takes about a cup of ashes. Sizes range from a fifth of a carat, for $2,500, to one carat, at $14,000.
"Having something to hang onto is a way of accepting that someone's gone," said Dean VandenBiesen, who helped found Lifegem. The company has a months-long backlog of orders, he said.
Most of the human diamonds end up in rings or pendants, he said.
"We accept and fully acknowledge that this is not for everyone," he said. But ending up on someone's ring, he said, doesn't strike him as ghoulish.
"Sitting in dirt six feet underground or in an urn on someone's mantelpiece could be considered ghoulish," he said.
Going out with a bang:
In California, Nick Drobnis runs a company called Angel's Flight, which, for $3,300, will load a person's ashes into fireworks shells. It takes up to 10 shells to carry a typical person's 7 pounds of ashes, he said. They're then launched as part of a 20-shell sendoff, with a finale.
"It's the final image of your loved one that you're going to remember for a lifetime," said Drobnis, whose clients included his own mother.
The first customer, he said, was a mother whose son had died unexpectedly of a virus while sleeping.
"She said she couldn't stand the thought of burying her little boy," he said.
Another customer had the services for her husband and her horse.
A much bigger version of the same idea is provided by a company called Celestis. In 1997, Celestis started launching tiny portions of human ashes into space. Putting a gram of ashes into orbit around Earth costs $995. Sending them to the Moon or into deep space is $12,500. About 100 people have done it, the company says, and another hundred are slated for launch later this year.
Drobnis said his company's been doing about one fireworks sendoff per month, but has recently started expanding its services.
One client, he said, has hired the company to fly his cremains to Las Vegas, and set the urn on a blackjack table at the Bellagio casino. The Angel's Flight staffer will then place one $500 bet, and if it's a winning blackjack hand, will proceed to another nearby casino and buy everyone there a cheeseburger. Then the man wants his ashes buried in the desert.
"He set it up with his lawyers," said Drobnis. "The money's set aside, and when the time comes, we'll get a call."
Changing times:
Many funeral homes and cremation services are making changes to cope with the increasing popularity of cremation.
"Most funeral directors over the years have tried to ignore it, but it won't go away," said Dennis Murphy, a funeral director with Heritage Funeral Home and Crematory in Spokane.
In a bid to appeal to busy people seeking straightforward cremation services, the firm recently opened a storefront office in a strip mall on North Division. It's called "Community Cremation Services." It's next to a Mr. Tux store.
"It's not funereal at all," said Murphy. "Yuppies don't like coming to funeral homes and cemeteries."
Many families, he said, don't realize that they can cremate a loved one and still bury the ashes in a grave plot or a cemetery niche. Either option, Murphy said, leaves a place for people to return with their memories.
Rodriguez, at Bonney-Watson, also encourages families to think carefully before scattering ashes.
"If you do a cremation and scattering, there's no going back," he said. "Maybe they scattered Mom's ashes at their favorite camping spot 20 years ago. But today there's a Wal-Mart there, and it's not the same."
Some families, he said, have the person's name carved into a bench at a cemetery, or on a cenotaph -- a memorial with carved names but no remains.
For those who do scatter the ashes, funeral directors do offer a gentle reminder: Make very sure you're upwind.
"We've had people come in here absolutely beside themselves. They've got Mother all over them," said Murphy.
Left in limbo:
One of the most perplexing problems for crematories and funeral homes is what to do with ashes that no one wants.
"Sometimes a child comes in and I ask them what they want to do with the remains, and they say, `Just throw them away,"' said Murphy.
Under state law, ashes that are unclaimed for two years or more can be scattered by the funeral homes and crematories themselves. Some won't do it.
"We do have a number of people who have a cremation done and then they don't come back and pick them up," said Rodriguez, at Bonney-Watson.
Bonney-Waston, started in 1968 by a pair of cabinetmakers who found it more lucrative to build coffins, is one of the oldest ongoing businesses in Washington. Over the decades, the company has been left with many sets of unclaimed ashes, Rodriguez said.
Still, he said, the company's policy is to hang onto them indefinitely, in the hopes that someone will show up and claim them.
The oldest set has been waiting to be picked up since 1916.
"We don't want to just take somebody and just throw them away," Rodriguez said.
"ashes to ashes and dust to dust, son
get where yer going with internal combustion"
Go to the company's website .
I got the creeps the more I read about it.
Now there's an idea!
I've thought about donating my body to the body farm, or having it cremated. But if it'll tick off some enviroweenies put me six feet under.
it's just wierd... Although not as creepy as ashes on the mantle...
In California, Nick Drobnis runs a company called Angel's Flight, which, for $3,300, will load a person's ashes into fireworks shells. It takes up to 10 shells to carry a typical person's 7 pounds of ashes, he said. They're then launched as part of a 20-shell sendoff, with a finale.
"It's the final image of your loved one that you're going to remember for a lifetime," said Drobnis, whose clients included his own mother.
The first customer, he said, was a mother whose son had died unexpectedly of a virus while sleeping.
"She said she couldn't stand the thought of burying her little boy," he said.
She didn't want to bury him so she burned his body and then blew up the ashes in fireworks? That's creepy.
Although I kind of like the idea of sending them into space... Talk about eternal preservation....
Is cremation cheaper? I heard just the other day that you still have to buy a casket to be burned in.
For myself, it seems pretty creepy to think abut being buried underground. But how is it better to be burned? I'd like more options! LOL!
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