January 22, 2001

Cremation makes portable memories
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___It's now possible to keep Grandma close to your heart after death.
___If she's cremated, a portion of her remains may be placed in a special Keepsake Pendant that can be worn around the neck. In fact, portions of Grandma's remains may be spread out among all the grandchildren in multiple lockets to be worn or displayed.
___This is just one of the trends in cremation-related products, spawned by the rapidly increasing acceptance of cremation as a means of final disposition.
___"We used to leave our loved one at the grave site and walk away. Now with cremation, we can take our loved one with us," said Kraig Pike, owner of The Urn Store.com, an Internet vendor of what Pike calls "personalized memorials."
___Cremated remains, known in the business as "cremains," may be placed in wind chimes, stored in drawers beneath a home-size eternal flame, mixed in with paint used to create a unique piece of framed art for the home or mixed with concrete to form man-made reefs strategically placed on the ocean floor to help keep nature in alignment.
___Of course, cremated remains also may be scattered in a favorite place or kept in a wide assortment of decorative urns.
___Cremated remains also may be buried the old-fashioned way or placed in a special niche at a cemetery or church called a columbarium.
___Despite all the fancy alternatives, interment in the ground or a columbarium remains the most popular final resting place for cremated remains.
___Texas Baptist ministers report seeing an increasing number of cremations, but those cremated remains usually end up in a cemetery. They know of few cases of the more creative distribution of human remains.
___That coincides with national trends reported by the Cremation Association of North America. Of all bodies cremated in the United States in 1996, nearly 41 percent had their remains interred at a cemetery.

AN ETERNAL REEF placed in the ocean near Cancun attracts a variety of fish and sea life after a few years. (Photo courtesy of Eternal Reef)

___Another 36 percent of remains were given to family members to take home. These remains were believed to have been buried, placed in a columbarium, scattered or kept at home.
___Eighteen percent of cremated remains were scattered by funeral home personnel as directed by the next of kin.
___The remaining 5 percent of all cremated remains were not claimed. Unclaimed remains generally are stored by cemeteries or funeral homes or disposed of in other legal means, the report says.
___Cremation has put matters of final disposition of a loved one's remains in the hands of family members like never before. Funeral homes sell some products, such as urns. But other products and services are sold on the open market, especially via the Internet.
___For example, The Urn Store.com lists 15 categories of urns, from burial urns to fine art urns to golf-theme urns.
___But urns no longer are the primary thing sold by The Urn Store.com, said Pike, the owner. He also sells wind chimes (in soprano or alto), glass art blown by an artist with parts of the loved one's remains mixed in, lockets and a trademarked product called the EternaLight.
___The EternaLight comes in two sizes, one small enough to be held in your palm and the other more appropriate for prominent display. Each unit features a small drawer in the base where a portion of the loved one's cremated remains may be kept. The base supports a glass dome covering an electronically simulated flame. The glass may be etched with type or a design.
___Promotional copy for the product explains, "When the funeral service is over, the flowers have wilted and the caregivers have gone away, EternaLight's warm, soothing 'Flame of Love' will still be glowing."
___Lockets, however, are the No. 1-selling item at The Urn Store.com, Pike said. Lockets designed to carry portions of cremated remains come in a variety of sizes, shapes and finishes. Some are shaped like little urns, others like stars or hearts or glass domes.
___One of the most unique uses for cremated remains is offered nationwide by Eternal Reefs, based in Decatur, Ga.
___For $850 to $3,200, the cremated remains of a loved one may be mixed with cast concrete to form a man-made reef. The larger, more-expensive reefs are anchored to the ocean floor by themselves. The smaller reefs are stacked together to form larger reef walls.
___The reefs are strategically placed in oceans around the world as part of a conservation effort to enhance sea life. To date, Eternal Reefs has built reefs in 1,500 sites.
___Each reef may be labeled with a bronze plaque, and adventurous family members are allowed to dive into the ocean to see the reef in action. Photographs provided by the company show the reefs beginning to attract sea life after three months and fully integrated into sea life after three years.
___The product is designed to last 500 years.
___If you can't make it to the ocean floor to view the reef personally, the company will videotape the site for you.
___While all these products may sound peculiar to traditionalists, they serve a very traditional purpose, Pike said. They help a family remember and cherish their loved ones.
___"We're meeting the family's need to remember," he explained. "If they choose to do that through cremation, we have products available to help them."
___

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