Have it your way, even after you die

So he didn't blink when a family called to ask if they could set their deceased loved one afire on a Viking-style raft and push his floating funeral pyre into Puget Sound.

Webster, who now runs a business providing services to local funeral homes, had to say no. An ordinary fire isn't hot enough to burn a body to remains, and it's not legal to put a body in the water.

The request may sound outlandish, but it's part of a rapidly growing trend toward cremation.

Nationally, at least 26 percent of bodies are now cremated, up from only four percent in 1967.

The shift is especially strong in Washington, where 60 percent of bodies are now put to fire, the third-highest among all states.

That means more people are seeking ways to personalize what they do with cremated remains.


		Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
	A cremation gets under way at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery. During the cremation process, the body is wrapped in plastic and placed in a reinforced cardboard box called a cremation container.

Take Webster, whose plan for his own body involves a trip south of the border.

"When I die, my wife's going to put me in the suitcase and she's going to scatter me in the Bay of Mazatlan," he said, with a hearty laugh. "So I know I always have one more vacation coming."

Once considered "out there," scatterings on land, air and water are now common.

Cremated remains have been exploded with fireworks, blown into glass vases, melded into artificial reefs, become parts of jewelry and more.

A new Chicago company called LifeGem is taking carbon from cremated remains and making red, blue and yellow diamonds, starting at a hefty $3,000 for a quarter-carat. They also make the perpetual sparklies from pet remains.


		Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
	Crematory operator Allan La Fontaine brushes out remains from one of the chambers after a recent cremation at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery. Last year Evergreen handled 980 cremations.

Celestis Inc., a Houston company that rockets cremated remains into space, has 150 customers signed up for its upcoming fifth launch. For $5,300, seven grams of an individual's remains are put into a capsule and launched into Earth orbit with commercial or government satellites. The capsule circles the globe for up to 15 years before burning up on reentry. Celestis clients range from teenagers and housewives to blue-collar workers, astronomers and the space-obsessed. They've beamed up a few grams of LSD counterculture guru Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek."

Another, more terrestrial approach to flying cremains came from the father of the Frisbee disc. Ed Headrick had his ashes molded into plastic discs that were sent to friends and family earlier this year.

Today's urns, priced from inexpensive to astronomical, come in just about every material and design imaginable, including biodegradable ones that dissolve in water. The selection of urns at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery in North Seattle begins at $20, with a high of $2,950.

But some people forgo a formal urn for a treasured vase, a clay sculpture, fishing tackle box, family chest, jewelry box or even a sealed trophy cup.

P-I reporter Kristin Dizon can be reached at 206-448-8118 or kristindizon@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Lifestyle headlines to