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Diamonds more than just jewelry

Written by DeadGirl
Tuesday, 28 September 2004
BY NORMAN TIPPENS September 27, 2004 HAMPTON -- Jennifer Hambrick's mother, Cecile Hambrick, died in December. She got a part of her mother back earlier this month, and she couldn't be happier. Hambrick, who lives in Caroline County near King's Dominion, hired Berceuse Funeral and Cremation Traditions of Hampton to have the ashes from her mother's cremation turned into two diamonds. Berceuse's Kevin B. Smith drove to Ashland, where Hambrick is building a house, to deliver diamond pendants created by LifeGem of Chicago. "I called Kevin about every 15 minutes," Hambrick said of the time she spent waiting for Smith's arrival. When he arrived, "I couldn't even speak," she said. She already has started wearing one pendant with a 14-karat gold chain to class at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. A second, with an 18-karat chain, is for special occasions. "Some folks think I'm odd when they find out," she said. "They're like, 'You can't do that!' But you can." LifeGem can do it by collecting the carbon left from a person's cremation. The carbon is purified under extremely high temperatures. It is sent to a lab in Russia, where the diamond crystals are grown in a diamond press. They are then returned to the United States for faceting and polishing before delivery. The process normally takes 18 weeks, according to LifeGem's Web site. It took longer for hers, Hambrick said, because a machine broke. LifeGem compensated her by cutting the diamonds to a larger size than she had ordered. A diamond approximately 1.6 carats was grown from her mother's carbon, she said. She received diamonds of 0.51 carats and 0.6 carats, each worth between $6,000 and $9,000, instead of the 0.2- and 0.29-carat stones she paid for. "The brilliance is absolutely beautiful," said Stuart Goodman of Goodman & Sons Jewelers in Hampton, who examined the stones. He noted that man-made diamonds have a yellowish tint, distinguishing them from natural diamonds. Smith said LifeGem offers eight stone sizes, ranging in price from $2,499 for a quarter-carat to $13,999 for almost a full carat. Funeral and cremation services are additional costs, paid to the funeral home. Hambrick said her mother learned that her condition was deteriorating six months before her death. At that time, Hambrick said, her boyfriend, who has an interest in diamonds, heard about LifeGem on the news. She approached her mother with the idea only to discover that her mother already knew of the process. She found Berceuse through the LifeGem Web site, www.lifegem.com. "The only way to describe how useful this was would be to have a picture of Jennifer's face when she received them," said Smith, who said he believes Hambrick's diamonds are the first delivered in the state. "There was excitement and comfort at the same time. Peace." http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-76698sy0sep27,0,3405391.story?coll=dp-news-local-final

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”

Voltaire