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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Announcements
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!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's 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 and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
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, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman 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.
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Eternal rest in the briny deep |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Thursday, 17 June 2004 |
Eternal rest in the briny deep
By James Fisher Daily Times Staff Writer June 16, 2004
OCEAN CITY -- For people who spend much of their lives on, under or thinking about the sea, is there any reason a cemetery need be their final resting place?
Six families decided there is not. This week they came to Ocean City to memorialize their loved ones in an unusual way by sending their cremated ashes, mixed into a concrete-cast artificial reef, to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Scottish tradition holds that when people die, they become flowers of the forest," said Richard Suarez, who came to honor his brother, Edward E. Suarez Jr., who died in 1994. "This way, he'll be a flower of the undersea forest."
A Georgia company, Eternal Reefs Inc., was the organizing force behind the families' journeys here, which ended in a charter boat ride Friday morning to the reef's site in the ocean off Ocean City's coast.
The company offers families a choice of several reef sizes, and lets them attend the casting of the reefs, which look like rough-hewn whiffle balls. They can pour the ashes into the concrete mold themselves if they wish. The casts are thick but hollowed out, and have large holes to allow fish to explore them and sea grasses to get a foothold.
Final ceremonies take place on charter boats, where family members watch as the large reefs are placed in the ocean and float bouquets of flowers on the waves.
Company founder Don Brawley came along for the ride Friday, on rolling seas under a cold gray sky. His father's ashes made up part of the first Eternal Reef molded in 1998.
Six families set out on the charter boat to perform the memorial service. For many families, the ceremony took place months or years after the person had died, and the initial stinging shocks of grief had subsided, replaced by a gentler fondness. Many had come across the reefs years after a cremation as an alternative to scattering ashes at sea, which is often restricted or illegal. The company secures permission from state and federal authorities for the reefs.
The ocean option
John Botzum died last July, and his son said he hadn't known about Eternal Reefs before his death.
"For my father, death isn't very interesting. I knew he wanted to be cremated," Keys Botzum said. "He devoted his entire life to the ocean. I thought, wow, a reef, my father would love that. ... If he knew about this before he died, he would have been thrilled."
For the Suarez family, it has been 10 years since Edward Suarez's death at age 48 in a 1994 scuba diving accident. His brother, Richard Suarez, said Edward was an accomplished diver, comfortable under ice and on deep-sea wrecks. He dove often off the Ocean City coast, and some of the shipwreck memorabilia he recovered is displayed in the Life-Saving Station Museum near the Inlet. Both brothers were Air Force veterans.
"He's done a lot of things in the diving world. I couldn't tell you how many times he dove here," Suarez said.
When the boat left the Inlet and headed into the open ocean, the sea swelled and the boat shifted on top of it on a 30-minute journey to a buoy that marked the precise spot for the reef placement. The Ocean City shoreline had dropped from sight, and the horizon's circle was unbroken.
At the site, the boat dropped anchor, and family members steadied themselves to cast the miniature reefs off the back of the boat. A trail of bright flowers floated on the gray swells and whitecaps.
"That was the hardest part of the trip," Keys Botzum said after placing his father's memorial in the water.
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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
Quote Repository
“Tombs are the clothes of the dead and a grave is a plain suit; while an expensive monument is one with embroidery.” - R. Buckminster Fuller 1895-1
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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