Services

Traditional, Full Service Burial with Visitation

The family will select a casket and provide us with the cemetery of their choice. We will coordinate burial details and order the vault if required.

Your loved one is prepared for open casket visitation and services. Visitation can be scheduled for come and go throughout a day, or have set calling hours where the family will be present to greet the community,. A time is set aside  to gather together to say goodbye, while being in the comfort of those closest to you. We can personalize the visitation to be as unique as your loved one with a tribute video, items or displays that were important to your loved one on a memory table, or simply pictures displayed in the room. We will work with your family to design the perfect gathering experience.

The funeral service can be held in our chapel, a church, or any other venue the family chooses. We work with our families to design a service that honors their loved one with stories, music, or scripture. We also have life celebrants that lead services where clergy may not be chosen. Celebrants are trained in creating experiences that help start the healing process.

The funeral service can be held in our chapel, a church, or any other venue the family chooses, even on your own beautiful property.

We work with our families to design a service that honors their loved one with stories, music, or spoken word. We also have contacts for life celebrants that can lead services if you choose. Celebrants are trained in creating experiences that help start the healing process, and create a more custom farewell in their storytelling abilities, capturing the essence of your loved one.

In lieu of a big indoor event, a graveside can be a small intimate gathering of those closest to you If your family already owns cemetery property or you need help finding the perfect location for burial, we can help.

Families can share words, or participate in a flower laying ceremony graveside. Sometimes, paper cranes are folded, or notes of love laid one at a time in the grave, before the urn is laid to rest. We have many ideas to make your graveside services personal and special.

So many have a deep connection to water, so we are pleased to offer burial at sea.

A full body burial at-sea is carried out in approved federal waters 6 miles from shore at a depth of 600 – 2000 feet.

The un-embalmed body is  wrapped in a natural 100% Biodegradable custom denim or bamboo shroud and weighted with 160lbs of pebble stone ballast.

We can accommodate up to 20 guests on our Charter Boat for this beautiful and unique send off.

Green Burial is burial in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition, but allows the body to be naturally recycled. The body is not embalmed, but rather bathed, dried, and dressed, then held in a temperature controlled environment until burial.  The specifics of a green burial vary widely, but typically they require far fewer resources for the care of the body and skip a number of the traditional steps, making them better for the environment. Plus, they can save families on funeral costs.

The extent of how “green” a burial can be is up to the individual. The service can be as simple as wrapping the deceased in a cotton shroud before lowering them into the ground. The services can also become more complicated, involving a memorial ceremony and burial in a conservation park like White Eagle Memorial Preserve in Eastern Washington where families can choose to plant a variety of plants, flowers and shrubs on the grave, or Herland Forest, another eastern Washington burial park.

If there aren’t conservation cemeteries comfortably close enough, there are still plenty of ways to minimize the burial process’s environmental impact. Any of our local cemeteries can provide Greener Burials. We can "butter dish" required liners, substitute concrete vaults and metal burial containers for caskets made with sustainably harvested bamboo or wood, and opt for no plastics or pollution when leaving the earth behind.

You may have read about this option in People Magazine, or heard about it on NPR, Natural Organic Reduction, aka Human Composting, is the gentle transformation of a human body into soil. In 2019, the Washington state legislature approved a bill which authorizes the use of Natural Organic Reduction as an approved means of disposition of human remains. We are thrilled to have not one, but two options for Natural Organic Reduction for our client families.

We are proud to partner with Return Home™, who built and operate the world’s first indoor large-scale  (Natural Organic Reduction center. Their unique process uses considerably less energy than burial or cremation and allows for intimate personalization by each family. Their process gently transforms the human body into life-giving soil using alfalfa, straw, sawdust and time. Oxygen flows through the vessel which stimulates microbes in the body. These microbes rapidly transform the body into soil in just 30 days. The soil is screened for inorganics and placed into a cube to rest and cool for the next 30 days. Beautiful life giving soil is ready to Return Home or to be scattered at their conservation property, The Woodland.

We are also proud to partner with Herland Forest  in eastern Washington, who was the first facility licensed in the United States to perform this method of disposition. Their NOR process uses an insulated coffin configured as a cradle to perform the initial reduction. As any gardener knows, effective composting requires turning, and the cradle is designed so that it can be rotated at appropriate intervals. No industrial equipment is needed; just a pair of hands.

The floor of the cradle is prepared with a bed of wood chips and wild flowers gathered from the surrounding forest. After the deceased is laid to rest in the cradle, more wood chips are added (some 200 gallons in all) and the lid is secured. Herland Forest’s NOR process uses solar energy from photovoltaic panels to power a high-temperature composting process. By operating between 160 and 165°F, NOR accelerates the natural breakdown of human remains into soil.  The family can have the soil back or choose to have it spread at Herland Forest. The goal of their NOR facility is to carry out the reduction process in a manner which respects both the wishes of the individual and needs of the environment.

Lock of Hair

Hair is a very versatile reminder of a life passed. It’s a versatile, easy way to keep your memory of your loved one close and with you at all times. Mourning Jewelry is now back in fashion, too.

Eterneva-

Diamonds from Carbon

Create a glittering memorial as perfect as your loved one. Hold your loved ones close in an diamond, available in many cuts and colors. Can be made with 1 cup of hair.