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Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock

Arcadia Publishing has releases a new title in the Images of America series, the historic account of the cemeteries along the New Hampshire Seacoast. This collection is a must for anyone interested in local history, genealogy, or colonial-era art. Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast and browse other cemetery books!

Green-Wood Cemetery By Alexandra Mosca

Arcadia Publishing announces the release of the historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery.

Announcements

Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok

An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!

Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.

A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.

Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.

Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!

Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers

For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.

Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman

Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.

West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark

Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.

Bright alternative to drab coffins

Saturday, 04 September 2004

Woman's colorful cardboard creations allow grieving families to celebrate loved one's life

By Amelia Hansen, STAFF WRITER

EL GRANADA -- Jane Hillhouse is not afraid of death.

The 62-year-old brims with good health, but she already has plans for her funeral, where her ashes should be scattered and how she would avoid a prolonged death. "I would want someone to take me out to sea in a boat, give me a bottle of gin and let me jump off," she said. "You don't last too long in the water around here."

Hillhouse takes death seriously, but she also thinks life should be seriously celebrated. To this end, the English-born woman has created a bright alternative to the more somber ways of dealing with mortality: her new business, Colorful Coffins.

It's still a nascent project, but Hillhouse has begun buying cardboard coffins and covering them with brightly colored paint and artwork.

On a sunny Tuesday morning, Hillhouse lined five of the creations up in her El Granada driveway. In stark contrast to traditional, heavy caskets, the whimsical cardboard coffins looked, well, fun.

"My idea, for myself, was that I did not want to be buried in a big, nasty, shiny coffin," said Hillhouse.

There are environmental underpinnings to Hillhouse's belief. She thinks so much land is being developed for homes, we do not need to take up more earth with nondegradable coffins.

But there is an emotional component as well. The traditional funeral, Hillhouse says, is expensive and impersonal. She prefers the idea of celebrating a deceased person's life at home, surrounded by their family and loved ones.

Hillhouse's close friend, Barry Lifland, understands this idea, too. When Lifland's wife, Beverly, died of cancer in

June, he did not want to send her to a funeral home while he waited for her to be cremated.

Instead, Hillhouse brought over one of her cardboard coffins, and Lifland's friends and family members decorated it themselves.

"People got to write on it and in it. It was really personal," he said.

Lifland kept his wife's body in the coffin at home in Half Moon Bay until it was time for the cremation, then transported the body himself.

Hillhouse has been taking classes on home funerals at Final Passages in Sebastopol. The founder of the organization, Jerri Lyons, has performed more than 200 home funerals and has used cardboard coffins, for about $35 each, in many ceremonies.

Giving people a chance to decorate their own coffins, Lyons says, is a way to let people participate in the grieving process.

"We are conditioned to believe that we cannot handle these emotions, but when families are in charge, just the opposite happens," Lyons said. "People feel absolutely wonderful to be able to create something beautiful at home."

Staff writer Amelia Hansen can be reached at (650) 348-4301 or by e-mail at ahansen@

sanmateocountytimes.com.

http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/Stories/0,1413,88~10975~2377950,00.html

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