In this crummy economy, folks dig deep to find ways to save money.
Phillip Thompson of Everett is no exception. He built his own coffin.
“You don’t realize what the cost of a funeral could be,” said Thompson, 77. “This will save money for my wife.”

It's hard to always be ecologically correct - especially when you're dead.

In the Bay Area, however, it's getting easier to die green. No need for embalming fluids, mortuary wakes, fancy caskets and concrete vaults. Instead, a corpse can be propped up in bed at home to receive visitors one last time before returning to the earth, wrapped in a shroud or nestled in a biodegradable coffin.

Find out ways to save on funerals from Funeral Consumers Alliance. Kyra Phillips interviews Josh Slocum, Executive Director of Funeral Consumer Alliance about the benefits of Home Funerals.

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.

Instead, Mr. Roe’s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe’s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.

Talk of the Nation, April 30, 2009 · When a loved one dies, most families look to professionals at funeral homes to help with the final arrangements.

But until the last century, most funerals took place at home. In home funerals, family members prepare the body for viewing and burial.

Guests:

Max Alexander, author and freelance journalist. His story, "The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral," appeared in the March issue of Smithsonian magazine

Lisa Carlson, executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization, and author of Caring for the Dead

Glenn Taylor, president and owner of Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory in Owensboro, KY, and president of Selected Independent Funeral Homes   Read more »

By GABRIELLE GLASER
Published: April 18, 2009

The same generation that questioned convention in sex, birth and marriage will probably do the same in death care, says Char Barrett, 48, a funeral director in Seattle and the owner of A Sacred Moment, a business that helps families prepare the bodies of loved ones at home. For a home funeral, she charges $1,450 to $2,595.

“It’s your funeral, your choice — and the industry needs to recognize that,” Ms. Barrett says. “Or it can stay in the box, and drive itself out of business.”

CLICK HERE FOR TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE   Read more »

It's environmentalism after death: ashes to ashes, dust to dust, just hold the concrete.

Ruth Faas and Sue Cross watched attentively as the crimson ecopod decorated with the gold Aztec sun symbol was lowered into a grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery last May. Cemetery administrators had proposed a test run with an empty casket to see how its papier-mache material, shaped like an Egyptian mummy's sarcophagus, would work with the hydraulic equipment that typically handles heavy, oblong coffins. Despite a little wobble, the conventional lift handled the 40-pound ecopod just fine - good news for Faas and Cross.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE PHOTOGRAPHS

Marian Spadone is sitting at her sewing machine on this atypical winter day in Portland — atypical because the sky is bright blue, nary a cloud in sight and sunshine pours through the massive windows of her art studio in Northeast Portland.

Also featured in this article: Green funerals, burials

• Char Barrett, founder and owner of A Sacred Moment, is a licensed funeral director and certified death midwife, although she prefers to be called a home funeral guide.

"A green burial/funeral means that there is no embalming chemicals, the body is bathed and is then dressed," Barrett says. "The body is kept from decomposing by using dry ice under and around the body. (At the burial) the body is placed in a biodegradable casket, an unfinished wood casket and/or a shroud — the shroud is used as a vessel for placing the body in touch with the Earth."

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE PHOTOGRAPHS

Many people in the Northwest like to live with the environment in mind. Now they can be buried the same way.

Moles Family Funeral Home recently announced the opening of The Meadow at Greenacres, a "green burial" option at Greenacres Memorial Park. It's the first such program at a traditional cemetery in the U.S. that's been certified by the Green Burial Council.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE PHOTOGRAPHS

The Meadow, a new, natural burial ground, opens this week in Ferndale, Washington. Giving added meaning to the phrase "pushing daisies," Western Washington's first green cemetery opens this week.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY

Char Barrett left a lucrative career with a design giant for the unconventional mission of injecting some joy into the funeral-service business.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE PHOTOGRAPHS

Like most of us, you're probably looking for ways to lead a greener life. But what about a greener death? KPLU environment reporter Liam Moriarty recently spoke with journalist Mark Harris. He's the author of "Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial." Harris was in Seattle to speak at the national conference of the Funeral Consumers Alliance.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO LISTEN TO LIAM MORIARTY'S INTERVIEW WITH MARK HARRIS

REDMOND, Wash. - When a loved one dies, a funeral home is the normal routine for many families.But there is a movement gaining strength in this area to leave the deceased and the funeral preparations at home.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW - KING 5 VIDEO

First we live, then we die. Most of us do a pretty good job of planning for the living part, but not many of us spend a lot of time planning for death. Or, more specifically, what happens to our bodies after death. Why is it important to have a funeral? What happens to the body when it gets taken from the hospital or your home? Open casket vs. closed casket? Does anyone use a hearse anymore? And what are cremains anyway? Washington State is third in the country when it comes to the rate of cremation. Why? Do funeral directors take advantage of grieving family members to scam their customers? How do our spiritual beliefs affect our decisions about what happens to our remains? What will your final decision be and why?

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE RE-BROADCAST OF THE 3/19/08 SHOW

Everyone has attended an impersonal funeral service at least once. We attend the service out of duty and respect to our loved one, but five minutes into a generic reading in which the decedent’s name is inserted, or not, into a script, we look at our watches wondering when it will be over. No one cries. No one laughs. No one reacts. In fact, the service could be for anyone.

CLICK ON THE LINK TO READ THE FULL STORY

Small but growing trend helps people reclaim death rituals, experts say. Pam Howley watched her daughter Daron endure chemotherapy, surgeries and steroid treatment in the year-and-a-half after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 15. When she died in December of 2005, Howley and her family chose to tenderly care for Daron's body themselves at home.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR DARON'S MOM, PAM, DISCUSS THEIR DECISION TO HAVE A HOME FUNERAL

New People's Memorial Funeral Cooperative opening in Seattle June 11th, also providing home funeral services through A Sacred Moment.   Read more »

Click here to listen to an interview with Char Barrett about the profound impact home funerals can have on families and friends dealing with the death of a loved one.   Read more »

Posted on March 19th, 2007, in Columns, FuneralWire.com
Reprinted in Washington State Funeral Directors Association – Newsletter, April 2007   Read more »

Propped up on the hospital bed where she spends most of her time, Doris Jean Powers eyes a wooden box about the size of a refrigerator a few feet away. Messages written in bright markers are slowly covering the pale yellow wood. She reads the notes, or has them read to her. She likes to hear what people have to say. "It's looking more and more like a steamer trunk every day," Phyllis Powers said from her mother-in-law's bedside. "Well, it's going to be quite a trip," Doris Jean joked.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

The Stranger – Seattle’s Only Newspaper
Funerals go “Outside the Box”
March 6, 2007

People's Memorial Association
A Sacred Moment Home Funeral Service
March 2007