When most people receive the cremated remains or ashes of a loved one, they either keep them in an urn or a box in their house, have them buried, or spread them where a family member requested, such as the beach, a park, under a tree, or the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney!
A few times a year, we hear stories of rides getting shut down at Disney because people decide to open a huge bag of crushed bones and dust while going through a ride. Maybe that is the real reason there is so much dust in the Haunted Mansion!😜
One of the more dramatic options is sending ashes into space. Memorial spaceflight companies place a small portion of cremated remains into a capsule and launch them beyond Earth. This has been done for several well-known people, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and psychologist Timothy Leary. For a person who loved science fiction, astronomy, or adventure, space becomes the ultimate resting place.
Another unusual memorial is turning cremated remains into a diamond. Companies that specialize in this process extract carbon from ashes and use high-pressure, high-temperature technology to create a lab-grown gemstone. The result can be worn as a ring, necklace, or other piece of jewelry.
For music lovers, ashes can be pressed into a vinyl record. Companies have offered to mix a small amount of cremated remains into the vinyl itself. Families can choose music, spoken words, a favorite song, or even a recorded message.
Some people choose a more explosive goodbye by having ashes placed into fireworks. The cremated remains are incorporated into a professional fireworks display, allowing the family to watch their loved one light up the sky one last time.
There are also memorial tattoos made with cremated remains. In these cases, a tiny amount of ash is mixed into tattoo ink. The tattoo might be a name, a portrait, a symbol, a handwriting sample, or something meaningful to the person who died.
One of the most unsettling pop-culture examples came from TLC’s My Strange Addiction. A young widow named Casie appeared on the show after the sudden death of her husband, Shawn. Her grief had become so consuming that she carried his urn everywhere, spoke to it, cooked meals for him, and eventually began eating it!
According to the episode, the habit began after some of the ashes spilled onto her finger and she licked them off. From there, it became compulsive.
And finally, when you thought you had heard it all, a woman has recently gone viral because she embedded the remains of her “babydaddy” in her fingernails!
“My babydaddy passed away a year ago, yesterday I used some of his ashes for a design to get my nails done. His Mama was angry at me for doing it, but idgaf I had a kid with him, NOT YOU!”
With all of these choices, do you have any special plans for your cremains after you die? Have you done anything unconventional with cremated remains, or do you plan to in the future?
I always joke that if my husband dies first, I will wear his remains in a Flava Flav-type clock around my neck!
Poor Gabe 😂
My best friend and I have joked for years about being put into snow globes. However, on my dad’s side of the family a few have had their ashes sprinkled into the ground and a tree planted on top. The trees are in a location where lots of family and friends have gathered since the 60’s, and where even one of my cousins was married a couple of years ago.
The snow globe is a cool idea!
I asked to be POTted in a plant 🪴
One of my best friends passed away from the horrible ALS 😔. I have about 1/2 of her ashes and I leave in really great places! Just a sprinkle at the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. A tiny bit at the Sistine Chapel. I 100% know you’re not allowed to do that at the Sistine Chapel so don’t yell at me. She was very religious. I took her to the ocean cause she had never been there and because I’m from New Jersey…I sprinkled her in the ocean at Wildwood Beach. She’s going to Hawaii soon!!!
I love this. 🥰🩷
I want to be donated to a body farm😃
I originally wanted something done with some of my dads ashes. When he went to the funeral home they automatically took fingerprints. I have decided to get some jewelry with his fingerprint on it. My mom has the ashes at home and whenever I visit I go to them place my hand on them and tell dad hi.
There’s a local glass artist in my area who offers a service where he swirls a small amount of cremains into a glass blob along with some color. End result: you get a glass paperweight/sculpture as a nifty memorial. My ex and I had it done for two of our cats when they passed.
I’m being cremated, mixed with the ashes of all my dogs and thrown outside. I don’t really care where, specifically.
My Dads friend died and his daughter gave his ashes to my Dad and 4 other friends. The spread his ashes to 5 different places where they hunted and fished over 70 years.
When my husbands best friend died, he put some of his ashes in the parachutes of his Top Fuel dragster. When he pulled the chutes at the end of the run going 325MPH the ashes blew out.
PBC – when my Māmā was alive she gave me a job to do when she passed, I think she knew I was both death positive enough and loved animals enough to understand. My job was to make sure the cremains of her soul cats were with her and in her hands.
So when she passed at the end of 2024 I made sure she both had them in her hands and they were resting on their lap just like they used to.
😭😭😭 I want this too. That’s so beautiful
My 17 year old cat passed away in April and we had his remains processed with alkaline hydrolysis. I have most of his ashes in an urn but also had the company that processed his body put some into a tiny onyx pendant that on a necklace.
If you haven’t looked into alkaline hydrolysis, you should consider making a post on it!
I could see doing the fireworks thing when my mom passes (hopefully not for many more years). She loves fireworks.
When my grandma passed away we bought a heart shaped medal container and put her ashes in it, I wore this necklace for 2 years. I had a hard time processing her passing, I also needed therapy to “know how to grieve”. As I got “better” and processed the circumstances of her passing I could took the necklace off. Also my mom made epoxy jewellery and she put it in. That.. I didn’t want to wear somehow.
My mother passed away in February. Just a few weekends ago we — about 17 family and friends — spread her ashes (mixed with a pet cat’s ashes she’d been saving for just this purpose) in a meadow where she had once lived and wanted to be. She had contacted the current owner of the property before she died and he agreed. When we showed up for the small ceremony, he had put chairs out for us under a Norwegian pine. It was a lovely ceremony.
My husband and I spent our honeymoon at Niagara Falls and when we were there we did a simulated ride over the falls. He was so scared and thought it was real. So when he died unexpectedly 22 years later, I took our daughter and his ashes and we sent part of his ashes over the falls in a barrel full of monkeys barrel.
I have a little bit of my uncel’s ashes in a necklace. I mixed it with nail gel, put it in a charm and cured it with a UV lamp.
So my kids and I have already decided I will be composted, and spread in their gardens. If they grow vegetables, they can eat my nutrients and keep me with them! I also decided, if I can get my hands on my dad’s cremains, I’m adding some into clay, and making him into bong. I really believe that’s something he’d appreciate! 😂
Haha I actually like the nails. That episode of “my strange addiction” was very upsetting, it was almost hard to feel sorry for her it was such strange behavior
My dad made me promise when he passes away I put a red clown nose on his face, people can come pay their respects for one last laugh on him. If they want they can honk the horn. After the viewing he is to be cremated and thrown off the pier for his last criminal act. His first and only criminal act was when he got his first ticket as a kid jumping off the pier. Sorry for grammar
, I was in a hurry to type this at a red light.
I personally always loved the jewelry one. I once read that this girls dad was dying and wasn’t going to make it to her wedding, but all he wanted was to walk her down the aisle. She got his ashes in a piece of jewelry, so in a way – he still walked her down the aisle. High key still emotional over that
I tell my wife to plant my ashes as a tree so she can kill me again 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I am going to be buried the old fashioned way. At the National Veterans Cemetery in my hometown of Sarasota, FL. I will have a simple graveside service with family and a few friends if they are still alive, Taps, a 21 gun salute, and have my flag folded and given to my son as an heirloom he can pass on to my grandson when the time is right. Most of my family has been cremated and their ashes are buried in the water near Key West, where an artifical reef has been growing for many years now. My mother didnt want that, so she is with me up here in Minnesota.
As for me, I want to be buried along with my brother and sister veterans in the Florida sunshine. I was born in Sarasota and I want to be laid to rest in Sarasota. That would be meaningful to me.