Death Practices

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The Art of Dying, or Ars Moriendi

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Pride of the spirit is one of the five temptations of the dying man, according to Ars moriendi.

In the book, This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust, the topic of the Good Death begins on page six. This topic, not unknown to American Civil War soldiers in the mid-nineteenth century, had its foundation in the ars moriendi, or “The Art of Dying,” two Latin texts that reached back to fifteenth-century Catholicism. In fact, this art of dying the ‘good death’ had become the core for modern Christian practice by the mid-nineteenth century.

Civil War soldiers were, in fact, better prepared to die than to kill, for they lived in a culture that offered many lessons in how life should end. But these lessons had to be adapted to the dramatically changed circumstances of the Civil War…Dying was an art, and the tradition of ars moriendi had provided rules of conduct for the moribund and their attendants since at least the fifteenth century: how to give up one’s soul “gladlye and wilfully”‘ how to meet the devil’s temptations of unbelief, despair, impatience, and worldly attachment; how to pattern one’s dying on that of Christ; how to pray. Texts on the art of dying proliferated with the spread of vernacular printing, culminating in 1651 in London with Jeremy Taylor’s The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying. His revision of the originally Catholic ars moriendi proved not just a literary achievement but an intellectual triumph that firmly established the genre within Protestantism.

Taylor’s rendition of the ars moriendi as well as the original documents had, by the time of the Civil War, become so commonplace that preachers used them in sermons, popular health books combined the expanding insights of medical science with older religious conventions about dying well, and popular literature carried out the theme in scenes such as the death of Dickens’s Little Nell, Thackerey’s Colonel Newcome and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Eva.

By the time of the Civil War, the theme of the Good Death inspired songs, stories and poetry for and about the Civil War. As the war raged on throughout this country, the concept of the good death had burst its religious boundaries and had become part of respectable middle-class behavior throughout both the North and the South.

This long-held and widely-spread belief system about death is why, according to Faust, a soldier who died anonymously and suddenly in the heat of battle confounded all ability to understand why this death might be a “Good Death.” The Good Death was to take place at home, among loved ones who could witness the faith of that dying soul. To compensate for this denial of closeness between soldier and family at the time of death, other soldiers, chaplains, military nurses and doctors conspired to provide dying men and their families with as many of the elements of the “conventional Good Death” as possible. This meant that other individuals on the battlefield became surrogates for the family when a soldier died.

This unusual and heartrending change in familiar patterns of family care and death care in the 1860s led to the composition of several songs and poems. One, titled “Be My Mother Till I Die,” included the lines sung by a nurse:

Let me kiss him for his mother,
Or perchance a sister dear;
Farewell, dear stranger brother,
Our requiem, our tears.

This song was so widely popular that it called for a response, titled “Answer to: Let Me Kiss Him for His Mother,” which expressed gratitude for the women who cared for a family’s loved one far from home.

Bless the lips that kissed our darling,
As he lay on his death-bed,
Far from home and ‘mid cold strangers
Blessings rest upon your head.

Songs such as this and their responses did not belong to one side or another in that war. They were national responses to the disruption of war, which — for all intents and purposes — was a disruption of the Good Death. Songs such as this and actions of others who helped soldiers die on the battlefield helped to maintain that traditional connection between the dying and their kin that defined the ars moriendi.

Tags: Ars moriendi, Civil War, Good Death
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Practices, Grief and Grieving, Traditions | No Comments »

Notes on the Old-Fashioned Home Funeral

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Some thoughts about the home funeral

When the family Bible was passed down to me, I discovered a black flattened rose and a piece of black lace within the pages of that book. When I asked my aunt about these tokens, she responded, “Oh, those are from grandma’s funeral.” She began to tell me about how my great-grandmother’s casket was draped with roses and about the black lace dress that she wore to her grave.

That’s when I learned about how my father’s side of the family conducted their funerals. In every death from the time the house was built in 1900 to when my great grandfather died in 1953, the viewing for the body was held in my grandmother’s parlor, or ‘front room.’

The front room of most houses at the time were not used for television or any other entertainment except, perhaps, for the occasional piano recital. My grandmother’s front room contained two couches, a coffee table and a piano, along with a side table that held said Bible. It was in this room where the dead lay in state for loved ones to visit before the burial. For all intents, this room served as the family funeral parlor.

While I learned much about my great-grandmother’s death and funeral from this exchange with my aunt, other questions remain. These questions were brought to mind with an article that was published this year in Funeral Home News. In this piece, the author interviewed Douglas Ferguson, a man who worked in the Prince Edward Island, Canada, funeral industry since the mid-twentieth century.

Ferguson recalled that when he took ownership of the former Claude Jelley Funeral Home in O’Leary in 1958, that nine out of ten visitations were conducted in people’s homes. At the time, he recalls that people felt it was disgraceful to leave a body at the funeral home. He also mentions the “parlour,” much like the one in my grandmother’s home.

But, Ferguson also brings some other points to light, things I never considered:

“I’ve seen them go into houses and put beams underneath to hold the floor. If you put 50 extra people in a house, you know the weight that’s there,” said Ferguson, the senior member of the P.E.I. Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association.

Sometimes, because of the way the home was laid out, carrying the casket in and out, was no easy undertaking. “So you had to go in through a window. Take a window out, shove the casket in and carry a battery for light,” Ferguson commented.

I had to think about the width of my grandmother’s front room door when I read those comments. How did they get my great-grandmother’s casket in and out of that house? Did they need to supply supports for the front room floor?

Fortunately, my aunt still is among the living and her memory remains clear, so I’ll pose those questions to her and report back with my findings if she knows the answers. But, for those of you who are considering a funeral at home, you might think about these issues as well.

In the meantime, you can read more about Mr. Ferguson and his lasting legacy on his community, as he seeks to serve families in their times of need as he recounts how he and his family lived above the funeral home he purchased in 1963 (shades of Six Feet Under!).

Tags: casket, roses, viewing
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals, Plan Your Own, Traditions | No Comments »

Public Opinion Polls and End-of-Life Decisions

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

A living will is part and parcel of estate planning.

Have you thought more about end-of-life decisions since the recent debate over health care? While some individuals claim that the health care bill (or variations of that bill) carry information about ‘death panels,’ you can rest assured that this term is not used in any terminology. In fact, even some Republican leaders have debunked that myth, as end-of-life decisions also include how to prolong life as well as when the individual – not the government – wants that life to end. Additionally, according to some public opinion polls, Americans overwhelmingly support an individual’s right to decide whether he or she wants to be kept alive through medical treatment.

The Pew Research Center released some figures in August that reveal how some Americans felt about end-of-life decisions even before the health care debate began. Here are some highlights:

In a 2005 Pew Research Center survey, 84 percent said they approved of laws which say medical treatment that is keeping a terminally ill patient alive can be stopped if that is what the patient desires. In addition, 70 percent said there are some circumstances when a patient should be allowed to die, while 22 percent said doctors and nurses should always do everything possible to save the life of a patient.
In the same Pew Research survey a narrow majority (53 percent) said if they were faced with a terminal illness and were suffering a great deal of physical pain they would choose to stop medical treatment, 34 percent said they would ask their doctor to do everything possible to save their life.
In that same survey, older adults are more likely to have discussed their [living] will and what to do with family belongings than they are to have discussed end-of-life medical decisions (76 percent have discussed their will with their children). The elderly usually are the ones to initiate a discussion about end-of-life decisions with their children rather than the other way around. With that said, white adults with parents age 65 or older are more likely than black or Hispanic adults with aging parents to have discussed this issue.
On the other hand, perceptions are difficult to fathom. This survey showed that, “while a narrow majority of adults (52 percent) who have discussed these topics with their parents say it was their parents who initiated the conversations, fully a quarter say they themselves brought up these topics. In this way their perceptions differ from the older adults surveyed, most of whom say they are the ones to bring up these sometimes delicate subjects.”
Younger people tend to think about making a living will, but often do not carry that thought into action.

The article states:

One way to insure that an individual’s desires about end-of-life medical care are carried out is to put them in writing. Nearly all Americans know what a “living will” is, and most have given at least some thought to their own wishes regarding medical treatment at the end of their life. In the 2005 Pew Research survey, 35 percent said they’ve given this a great deal of thought and 36 percent said they’ve given it some thought. Even so, only 27 percent said they have put their wishes in writing and 29 percent said they have a living will. Though, this represented a significant increase from 1990 when even fewer — 12 percent — had some sort of living will. Not surprisingly, older people are more likely than young people to have thought about these issues and to have formalized their wishes. Half of those ages 65 and older (51 percent) say their wishes for medical treatment are written down and 54 percent say they have a living will.

So, despite the knowledge that people can take control over end-of-life decisions, few have practiced their right to do so. This lack of directive for life or death leaves your fate in the hands of others. Learn more about living wills at What is a Living Will?

Tags: death panel, living will
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Care News, Death Practices, Other Legal Matters, Talking with Children, Wills & Estate Planning | No Comments »

DeathCare Workers Talk about What Happens After Death

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

What happens when you die

Have you ever wondered what happens to your body after death, especially if you have not planned your funeral? The Guardian ran an article in the U.K. in 2008 entitled, “What Really Happens When You Die,” and this article provides death care workers’ perspectives on their jobs and what those jobs entail. The entire article is worth reading, but a few points from that article are listed below. Remember that these interviews were conducted in the U.K., where some practices carry small differences between those in the U.S.

The General Practitioner

The good doctor talks about how people die in the U.K. Mostly it is in a bed, but many people die from massive heart attacks and lung clots on the toilet, because those fatal occurrences also include the feeling that the person wants to defecate. Special occasions, such as birthdays and holidays also provide higher death rates. This doctor feels that people want to hang on for these occasions, whereas in the state, many people feel that holidays provide too much stress for some people. He also states:

When a death is expected, the ideal place for it is at home, in a familiar environment, surrounded by family. But that is becoming a rarer event. What is becoming more common is people being rushed into hospital for what I believe is a more undignified and worse death, in an anonymous room with nurses who are busy. In my view that is a failure of health professionals, because we should be preparing the families of terminally ill people for death, showing them that it doesn’t have to be frightening and that they can do it at home. Palliative care is all about making death comfortable – you do not need to die in pain, you can die in a dignified manner. People worry that having a death at home will be horrible and traumatic for the family, but a good death is like a good birth – it is a beautiful event, not at all undignified.

The Pathologist

We covered most of the information found in this interview in our coverage of autopsies (see also: Autopsy: The External Examination). However, the pathologist also talks about causes of death:

Most people who come to me for a postmortem examination will have died from heart disease. In the elderly, strokes and pneumonia are also very common. The young are more likely to die from accidents, suicide or particular types of tumors one gets in youth. If a young person dies, the likelihood of them having a postmortem is high because their death is much more likely to be unexpected. Many older people who die won’t have a postmortem because they are likely to have had a known illness that has led to their death.

The Funeral Director

This interview is interesting, as the funeral director talks about various death and funeral practices. Since he works in East London, where cultural diversity is strong, he also talks about sending bodies back home and how this return is safeguarded by embalming:

A lot of my work is arranging for bodies to go back to their home abroad. About a fifth of our work is repatriation now because of the cultural diversity of the area we are based in – east London. This requires tropical embalming because the body may be kept for longer. Tropical embalming takes longer and uses stronger chemicals. Ghanaian funerals, for example, can be anything from two months to two years after death. We’ve had bodies here for three or four months before they’ve been flown home to Africa for the funeral.

The Embalmer

This interview is interesting, as this embalmer also dresses bodies for funerals. So, talk about how to make the person look ‘natural’ is included. A few myths also are debunked here, such as the myth that your nails keep growing after you are dead – what actually happens is that your skin retracts, so they appear longer. What is shocking is the percentage of bodies that are embalmed. According to this interview:

Of the bodies that come to the funeral homes I work in, around 90 percent will be embalmed. The ones that don’t will be where the family have refused or the funeral is taking place very quickly…If a body is going abroad, the strength and amount of fluid used is increased, to ensure preservation and sanitation for a longer period.

The Crematorium Technician

This is, perhaps, the most interesting interview, as this crematorium technician talks about how this industry is regulated in the U.K.:

The cremation chamber is fuelled by gas and has to be heated to at least 750C before we can load, or “charge”, the coffin. We have to adhere to strict guidelines and everything is logged automatically on the computer – time, date, duration, emissions, smoke levels, carbon monoxide, oxygen levels and the temperature in the different parts of the cremator. The computer prints out a report and every few months these are sent to environmental health.

This person also presents a problem with ‘natural’ burial containers:

People think wicker and cardboard coffins are saving the planet, but they burn very quickly instead of creating a slow, even heat like wood. That means you need more heat to cremate the body, so use more gas. It’s also more hazardous for us, because they catch alight so quickly and harder on us because we can sometimes see the body through the wicker.

The Cemetery Operations Manager

U.S. burial practices are far different than those in the U.K., because the U.S. offers more space (currently) for cemeteries. Therefore, more people can be buried in one plot in the U.K.:

If a person buys a grave plot, they have a choice of that grave being used for anything between one and five people. For a single grave, the law requires that the coffin be buried under at least 3ft of earth, unless the ground conditions are suitable and then the shallowest a coffin can be buried is beneath 2ft 6in of soil. The ideal is light, dry soil, not wet, heavy clay. With a grave for five people, the first person would be buried at 11ft and the next coffin would go in at 9ft 6in and so on. You have to have at least six inches between each coffin in a multiple grave.

Note the distances between the coffins above and then hear what this person says below about shallow graves. In the U.S., more stories are appearing where graves are being dug too shallow to skimp on burial costs, and these shallow graves can cause problems. Also note the time it takes for a skeleton to decompose – this is a generalization based upon a body in a coffin in ideal conditions. Some bodies take longer to deteriorate (even with embalming), and in some conditions, bodies take much less time to decompose:

If a body were buried illegally in a shallow grave less than 2ft deep, the decomposition rate is only 18 months to three years. That’s banking on disturbance by small mammals and insects. Whereas, with a proper burial, with the coffin deep in the ground, the decomposition rate is much slower. The ground conditions affect the decomposition rate. If the coffin is sealed in a very wet, heavy clay ground, the body tends to last longer because the air is not getting to the deceased. If the ground is light, dry soil, decomposition is quicker. Generally speaking, a body takes 10 or 15 years to decompose to a skeleton.

The Resomation Technician

You may not be familiar with the term, resomation, or the work it entails, but it has come about thanks to interest in an alternative to cremations. During resomation, the coffin is placed in a special chamber and, instead of fire, a water- and alkali-based method is used to advance the natural process of decomposition. According to this technician:

At the moment there are only a few resomation chambers in operation in the world, all of them in the US – ours is at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota – but there has been interest from several UK councils and cemeteries about installing them. It does offer people a greener option…It [the process] breaks down the body and neutralizes everything, including the chemicals used to preserve the body, such as formaldehyde.

And, if you ever wondered what you were made of, this technician will tell you:

…nitrogen, phosphate, proteins, amino acids, salts and sugars. It’s [the remains] got a greenish-brown tint and it flows just like water.

Tags: embalming, heart attacks, resomation
Posted in Alternatives, Causes of Death, Cremation, Death & Dying, Death Practices, Traditions | No Comments »

The History of Funeral Cards

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

A German holy card from around 1910 depicts the Crucifixion.

If you attended a funeral, you may have received a card – similar to a bookmark or the size of a playing card – that commemorated the deceased. Although these cards became popular in the 1880s, today they most often are issued by a funeral home or church. You may be surprised, however, that the history of these cards dates back to the invention of lithography in the 1700s, when the Catholic Church began to print and issue Holy Cards.

Holy Cards typically depicted a religious scene, such as the one shown here, or a saint in an image about the size of a playing card or a collectible baseball card. On the reverse side of the image, a prayer with a promise of a indulgence for the recitation of the prayer was printed. Some Holy Card later were embellished with lace surrounding the borders, and they were known as dévotes dentelles by the French. The cards known as dévotes dentelles or Andachtsbilden (German origin) were carefully crafted of paper or parchment with paper cuts of saints, borders, and the like.

Lithography allowed a wider circulation of these Holy Cards, and the reach was broadened by card especially made for distribution at funerals. These funeral cards were known as “memorial cards” and carried details of the deceased with a photograph as well as prayers printed on the reverse side. By the end of the nineteenth century, Protestants began to print their own images, known as Bible Cards or Sunday school cards with images of Bible stories and parables, modern scenes of religious life and a printed sermonette instead of a prayer. Not to be left behind, the Protestants also began to print funeral cards for their deceased.

These card usually were mass-produced until the 1920s. According to Jay Ruby in Secure the Shadows: Death and Photography in America, the companies that manufactured and printed these cards all altered their mass-production to single-user production to expand their businesses. This quote, from Your Guide to Cemetery Research, state:

[H.F. Wendell and Company, for instance,] would pay a penny an obituary to women from all over the United States who would collect the notices from local newspapers and mail them to him. The women were recruited with small ads in dozens of small-town newspapers. Based on the information obtained from the obituary, a card would be printed on speculation and sent with a catalog and other promotional material.

Today’s funeral cards come in a variety of formats. In most instances, the card will contain the name and vital statistics of the deceased and may contain a photograph. In other cases, the cards are “memorial obituaries,” where the obituary is clipped from the paper and encased in plastic.

You can find fascinating collections of Holy Cards and funeral cards online, such as the one offered by Hrynkiw Genealogy. Modern funeral cards are offered by various companies as well, including those produced by MoMorial Cards or Remembrance Cards.

Tags: funeral cards, memorial cards
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals | No Comments »

Mourning Jewelry Customs

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Mourning jewelry, jet brooch dated 19th century.

Have you been to a funeral lately where the loved ones of the deceased handed out party favors? Probably not – but this custom was in force from the fifteenth century throughout most of the 1700s and beyond, but with much less fervor since the Civil War.* Popular gifts at the time were rings, brooches, scarves and gloves, and many ministers stockpiled these items and handed them down through their families.

You may have a piece of mourning jewelry or other token on hand and not know the significance of the piece. Gloves were sent as invitations to funerals, as the custom was to wear gloves during a funeral and burial (especially if you were the pallbearer). The earliest known example of a mourning ring is a 15th-century English piece, decorated with a skull, a worm and the name “Iohes Godefray.” Colonial mourning rings were made of gold and usually enameled in black with a winged death head, coffin or skeleton decoration. Often, the name or initials of the deceased were engraved on or inside the ring.

According to Sharon Carmack’s book, Your Guide to Cemetery Research, funeral spending got so out of hand in Massachusetts that the colony passed laws in the early 18th century to prohibit these gifts (and the consumption of spirits during a funeral). But, like good law-defying citizens, the people of Massachusetts continued their customs anyway.

During the Victorian period, funeral jewelry and tokens were mass produced, and their prices and availability made rings, lockets and brooches popular among what might be considered the middle class at the time. But, even pauper funerals took note of custom and gave some token to the living who attended a funeral. Sometimes these pieces contained miniature portraits of the deceased and/or a lock of his or her hair.

The hair pieces became so popular that braided-hair watch chains, bracelets (like friendship bracelets today) and necklaces were made and sometimes whole wreaths of the loved one’s hair were braided and woven into elaborate designs and framed and hung in the parlor.

Black onyx also was popular along with jet (a fossilized coal), black enamel, Vulcanite (hardened black rubber) and other materials that reflected the popular use of black for mourning. During the Victorian era, the jewelry also reflected the tombstone art, and contained symbols such as weeping willows, broken columns and urns. Initials or the name of the deceased continued use, but a death date might have been added as well.

In America, mourning jewelry met its decline after the Civil War, when so many widows wore black that walking down the street became depressing. At one point, the governor of Mississippi actually tried to pass a law banning Victorian mourning garb because of his citizens’ low morale. While people continued to collect locks of hair from their beloved deceased, the jewelry rage was over.

Today, while Goths may revel in jewelry that imitates gravestones and braided rings from locks of hair that has survived a century or two, the market for mourning jewelry and trinkets has remained low except for the most exquisite pieces. You can buy a braided hair ring for as little as $299, or a white enamel skull ring for as much as $5,500.

Be aware of inexpensive jet jewelry that goes for ‘mourning jewelry,’ as jet has remained popular as a jewelry component throughout the twentieth century, especially during the “Roaring Twenties.” With that said, jet – which is warmer than glass and similar in look to anthracite and Vulcanite – often is prized by collectors, no matter the use of the bracelet or brooch. According to Wikipedia, The structure of jet (which is remarkably like the wood that it is derived from) can be seen under 120x or greater magnification.

* Today, you can make a diamond from your own or your loved one’s cremains for posterity. These diamonds could be called the current custom, or the new twist, on traditional mourning jewelry!

Tags: funeral traditions, hair jewelry, jet, Vulcanite
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals, Traditions | No Comments »

Historic Funeral Traditions: Mormons

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Monument to four generations of a branch of the Smith family, prominent in LDS history.

Mormons, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Mormons see themselves as a new branch of Christianity; therefore, they often use Christian funeral practices, but they have developed a culture and customs that include how they see death and bury their dead.

For instance, the emotions that surround a Mormon funeral rite usually combine sorrow and hope, as they believe that the soul separates from the body at death and they anticipate a reunion with their deceased loved ones when they die, too. These emotions are shared in gatherings as the body is viewed at a funeral home. Preparing a body for viewing is based upon Temple Worthy status. To be Temple Worthy means that the person holds the highest degree of member commitment. This status is indicated by robes and undergarments worn during the endowment ceremony and during burial.

In areas of the country were a high population of Temple Worthy individuals live, the funeral home may be familiar with the custom of dress during burial. In other parts of the country where funeral homes are unfamiliar with Mormon custom, the family may dress the deceased for burial at the funeral home – men dress men and women dress women (similar to the Amish). Those individuals who are not Temple Worthy are dressed in whatever clothing the family chooses.

Mormon funerals usually are held in an LDS chapel or a mortuary under the direction of the bishop of the ward. Funerals open and close with sacred music and prayer, sometimes involving congregational singing or a choir. It is customary for a church member to begin the service with a prayer on behalf of the family, and the funeral includes reminiscences and eulogies as well as talks about the Atonement, the Resurrection, life after death, and related doctrines that comfort and inspire the bereaved.

Graveside services usually are simple, and attended only by family and friends. Mormon cemeteries are similar to other Christian cemeteries in that the dead are buried on an east-west axis. Before 1904, when the practice of plural marriage ended with the Second Manifesto, a man was buried with his wives in a row next to him.

One who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood, usually a member or close friend of the family, dedicates the grave asking God to protect it as a hollowed resting place until the resurrection. Local law in some countries may dictate cremation rather than burial, but in the absence of such a law, burial is preferred because of its doctrinal symbolism. Ultimately, however, the decision is left to the family of the deceased. Bishops are counseled to show regard for family wishes. The grave site often becomes a sacred spot for the family of the deceased to visit and care for.

Mormon headstones often are simple affairs, but many contain detailed genealogical information, especially the woman’s maiden name. Headstones that mark a married couple’s grave may include a marriage date, if not all the names of the parents and children. Symbols include the all-seeing eye of God, which also is common on Masonic headstones. This symbol stems from the time when Mormon leaders associated with Freemasons during the nineteenth century.

Other headstone symbols include a hand of God descending from a cloud, the handshake, a beehive (industriousness) or a sandblasted image of the membership temple or the temple where a couple was married. The significance of the temple indicates the union will extend past the resurrection into eternity.

Tags: LDS, Melchizedek Priesthood, Mormon
Posted in About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals | 2 Comments »

Want to Last Forever? Become a Diamond.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

: A LifeGem ring with signature yellow diamond.

Did you neglect to provide your wife with an engagement or wedding ring? If you set aside a bit of cash now, she can have that diamond she deserves – once you die. In fact, you’ll need to die before this particular diamond can be created, as it’s made from your cremated remains – or at least from a lock of your hair.

LifeGem spent over four years researching the need for a new memorial and developing diamonds that range between .20 carats and 1.5 carats. The carbon from human or pet remains is converted to graphite after purification, then placed into a diamond synthesis press. The diamonds are made by thermal gradient method, which uses alloys as a flux at pressures of 5.0–6.0 GPa and temperatures of 1,600–2,000 C. The entire process, from cremation to finished stone, takes up to six months for yellow LifeGem diamonds and up to nine months for blue LifeGem diamonds.

: Blue diamond from LifeGem.

LifeGem produces diamonds in light, medium, and intense shades of yellow or blue. But, they now also offer white (clear), red, and green diamonds, and they are offered in three standard diamond cuts: round brilliant, radiant, and princess. The finished stones are laser inscribed with an identifier, graded by gemologists, and owners are provided with a signed certificate of authenticity which contains a LifeGem ID number. The client also gets a report with a GIA serial number, a description of the stone’s color, and the fact that it was lab-produced.

In September 2007, LifeGem announced the completion and auction of the Ludwig van Beethoven LifeGem diamond, created for charity auction. This blue .56 ct round brilliant diamond was the first ever created from the carbon of a celebrity or historical figure. Three diamonds were created from 130 mg of carbon extracted from 10 strands of hair from the remains of Ludwig van Beethoven and from added carbon. One of the three diamonds was listed for auction on eBay, with the proceeds to be donated to assist underprivileged children. One of the other two diamonds was given to John Reznikoff, provider of the Beethoven hair sample, to be stored at the University Archives, and the final diamond is being kept by LifeGem to start a LifeGem “Chain of Fame” collection.

Prices range from USD $3,499 for 0.20–0.29 carat (40 to 59 mg) stones to $19,999 for stones weighing 0.90–0.99 carats (180–199 mg). As little as 227 g of carbonized remains are needed to make one diamond, and up to 100 diamonds can be created from the remains of one individual for memorial gems for the entire extended family. Diamonds made from pet cremains are priced the same as those made from human remains, but the size of the animal may limit the number of possible stones.

Established as the International Research & Recovery Corporation, LifeGem is the first U.S. company to develop a means to extract carbon from human remains. The company was founded in 2001 by Greg Herro, Mike Herro, Rusty VandenBiesen, and Dean VandenBiesen, and was based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. It is now headquartered in Chicago and a second office, under the name LifeGem UK, was recently opened in Hove, England. LifeGem’s services are offered at over 580 of nearly 20,000 funeral homes in the United States.

Tags: cremains, memorials
Posted in Alternatives, Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements | 1 Comment »

Learn More About Roadside Memorials

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

: Tony Potter

If you’ve ever taken a trip down an Interstate highway, no doubt you’ve noticed a few roadside memorials. These memorials recognize a site where a person died, most likely in a traffic accident. Unlike a grave site marker that indicates where a body lays at rest, the roadside memorial marks the last place where a person is noted as alive, even if the person dies later in hospital.

The U.S. origin of roadside markers has its roots with early Hispanic settlers in the southwest. The markers, or “descansos,” at that time were used to mark the places where pallbearers would stop and take their rest. Every place where the coffin was laid on the ground, that place was marked with a cross. Today, roadside markers often are created and maintained by family members. However, these markers recently have come under scrutiny, as each state has come to place legal restrictions on the number and size of roadside memorials.

In California and Montana, for instance, residents are allowed to erect memorials on roadsides, but only if the death was alcohol related. You won’t find roadside memorials in Colorado and Massachusetts, as those memorials are banned in those states. In Birmingham, Alabama, roadside memorials are not allowed along Interstate highways. New Jersey and Wisconsin limit the length of time memorials can remain in place.

Delaware has taken a different approach to the proliferation of roadside memorials. This state has established a memorial park near a highway exit in hopes of discouraging roadside shrines. While governments try to avoid legislating how people mourn and honor their dead, the number of roadside memorials has forced many state and local governments to place restrictions on these public spaces.

According to one perspective, “For us, the memorials raise serious church-state constitutional concerns because they usually feature religious symbols and are placed on state property,” said Robert R. Tiernan, a lawyer with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, who successfully defended a Denver man arrested in 2001 after he removed a religious roadside memorial.

The popularity of roadside memorials has prompted the creation of sites such as Roadside Memorials Register, whih contains an online database with maps to markers as a permanent reminder to those left behind. Roadside Memorials & Descansos of South Texas logs memorials along Texas roadsides and Descansos.org also logs roadside shrines along Florida highways. These sites are a handful of many roadside memorial sites that now are popping up on the Web.

If nothing else, a roadside memorial may remind you to drive safely. If not, some memorials – like the one shown above for Tony Potter in Virginia – may try to help jog your memory.

Tags: accidents, memorials, roadside memorials
Posted in Alternatives, Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements | No Comments »

What are Coroners and What do They Do?

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

: A Coroner at a Crime Scene

Have you wondered what a coroner does and how that job might differ from a medical examiner? The office of the coroner, or “crowner,” dates back to medieval times when the crowner was responsible for making sure that death duties were paid to the King.

Today, the coroner’s main duty is to inquire into deaths and complete death certificates. In all cases, coroners/crowners investigate unusual deaths.The position of coroner predates that of the medical examiner, but the latter position replaced the coroner in many instances during the late nineteenth century in the states. The medical examiner, unlike the inexperienced coroner at that time, was and is a physician or a person with medical education and experience. Coroners relied on hiring physicians pathologists or forensic pathologists to perform autopsies when deaths were suspected as foul play.

While some states still use the elected coroner system (and many coroners today are physicians), those same states and other non-coroner states may also use medical examiners. In England, where the coroner’s occupation originated, coroners are doctors or lawyers who are responsible for investigating deaths and who also can arrange for post-morten examinations of the body.

Indiana maintains a site specifically for that state’s county coroners, where they state that, “Because Indiana coroners come from such varied backgrounds and have such varied professional preparation and education, we have assumed that very few people know absolutely everything necessary to perform the duties of the Coroner.” Their guidebook illustrates the tasks that any non-specialist can follow to work as a county coroner in that state.

Genealogists often research coroners’ records to learn more about their ancestors’ deaths. These records may have contained information about the deceased and how that person died, but those records also could contain information about the deceased’s personal belongings, especially those that were found on the body. Coroner and medical examiner files usually are open to the public, but some courthouses or medical offices may ask for legitimate reasons to examine certain records. Many older reports have been microfilmed and are available through the Family History Library of through its many branches.

Tags: autopsy, Coroner, medical examiner
Posted in Death & Dying, Death Practices, Deathcare Careers | 1 Comment »

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