When mourners want the deceased’s favorite motorcycle wheeled into the funeral chapel, Kendra Hollings worth, funeral director at Fairmont Mortuaries, doesn’t bat an eye.
“We have them put plastic down so it isn’t leaking all over the carpet,” she said.
The number of people doing something to personalize a funeral service is growing as baby boomers plan services for parents and themselves, and an even younger generation copes with death, Hollingsworth and others in the funeral industry say.
Traditional hymns are being replaced by rock ‘n’ roll and country music anthems; multimedia memorials that track a life in photos, film clips and music are common; carved figurines in the form of golf bags and other items significant to the deceased can be attached to the corners of caskets; sports fans can rest in coffins decorated with the logo of their favorite team.
Doves and balloons are released at the grave. And cremation is replacing burial in many parts of the country – including Colorado, where 66 percent of those who died in 2005 were cremated – as the most common method of disposing of remains.
“There is no question that the boomers are now burying their parents, so if anything else, they are getting experience as consumers and coming away with things that they like or not,” said Bob Fells, spokesman for the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association.
Advances in technology are contributing to the trend.
Aurora-based Vidstone LLC, for instance, produces the Serenity Panel, a 7-inch screen and solar panel that is installed on a tombstone and displays multimedia tributes. The weather-resistant contraption – which retails for $1,499 – is good for 15 years, said Sergio Aguirre, Vidstone CEO.
For a minimum of $67,000, Salt Lake City-based Summum Mummification will mummify your remains using a modern process that leaves the corpse supple and lifelike, according to the company’s website. Prices for pets start at $4,000.
LifeGems, a Chicago company, turns carbon from cremated remains into synthetic diamonds, for prices starting at about $2,600.
Atlanta-based Eternal Reefs takes the cremated remains and pours them into an environmentally safe cement mixture designed to create coral reef formations at prices starting at about $2,400. The company then transports the artificial reef out to sea and drops it to the ocean floor.
“Boomers want something unique; they want to choose something that nobody else has done,” said Steve Trevino, owner of Ponderosa Valley Funeral Services.
Trevino asks mourners to think of a tribute that has meaning to them. He remembers the funeral of a young girl who had been sick throughout her life and was frequently tended to by emergency workers. A firetruck carried her to the cemetery, he said.
“Funeral directors tell us this is not the business of their fathers or grandfathers,” said Jon Austin, executive director of the Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield, Ill.
But the boomers aren’t the only generation looking for something different.
When Jackie and Greg Sund’s daughter, Cassandra, died after a car accident on her 18th birthday, Jackie Sund, 38, wanted something special to memorialize her. She picked the Vidstone.
Visitors to the grave in Lake City, Fla., can view pictures of Cassandra on the screen while listening to Faith Hill’s “There You’ll Be” and Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You.”
“I don’t watch the video a lot, just sometimes when I can handle it. But her friends love to go out there and watch it,” Jackie Sund said.
Some of the changes are taking a bite out of the funeral business, said Debbi Dalton, owner of Greeley Monument Works.
“Cremation is hurting the monument and funeral business. You don’t have to buy a casket, so there is a big savings and most cemeteries allow multiple cremation burials on one cemetery lot,” Dalton said. A multiple burial of cremated remains on one plot also cuts into monument sales. And some people don’t bury the ashes at all, instead scattering or keeping them.
American funeral practices have gone through change before, said Austin.
Funerals were once held in private homes, hearses were drawn by horses, special jewelry and clothing were made for mourning.
Today, simplicity is trumping ceremony, Austin said.
“Many families are also choosing to look at the funeral as a celebration of the life of the deceased rather than as the end of life.”
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
