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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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"Ashes To Ashes" Wins New Respect |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 10 June 2005 |
by Robert Sanchez
After having the body of his wife cremated and put in a box for safekeeping, Max Saul boarded a plane to Mexico, rented a boat, drank a margarita and cast some of his beloved Jane into the ocean.
And sometime this summer, the 79-year-old Aurora man may drive to Aspen, walk one of his wife's favorite trails and leave a bit of her there, too.
And when he feels like it, Saul will head to Jane's hometown in Kansas for yet another goodbye.
"Every time I spread her ashes, I get the joy of concentrating on her memory and all the good things she brought to my life," says Saul, whose 75-year- old wife died in October of cancer. "I say some good words and let her go."
The idea of burying his late wife's body, he says, scared him. "I couldn't live with the memory of her laid out like that."
In Colorado - where Old West independence, environmentalism and a general lack of religious affiliation have changed the way families deal with death and the afterlife - people are thinking outside the pine box.
With more than half of the state's
29,800 dead cremated in 2003, Colorado has the nation's ninth-highest percentage of cremations.
Burials have dropped to pre- 1975 levels as the state's cremation total doubled from 1990 to 2003. Cremation has become so popular in Colorado that the National Funeral Directors Association, which tracks cremation trends, estimates that three in five in-state deaths will end with cremation by 2010.
"People are taking back and customizing the rites of passage," says Stephen Prothero, who wrote a book on cremation in America and chairs the religion department at Boston University. "In Colorado, partly because of the independence, the lifestyle, it takes another level."
Add to that the fact that cremations can run less than a fifth of the cost of a traditional burial, and the option becomes even more appealing.
"You hear horror stories about funeral homes taking advantage of widows, making them feel like they don't care if they go for a cheaper option," says Carol Cossey, 62, who had her 65-year-old husband, Tim, cremated after his death last year. "Plus, I don't like the thought of his body in the ground, rotting."
The gradual shift has churches across the state creating cremation gardens and has funeral homes outsourcing work or building on-site crematories to handle the increased load.
At Brighton's The Phoenix Company Inc., more than 750 cremations are performed yearly, up from 550 when the business opened in 2001.
"There was a time when cremation was looked down on, like only poor people did it," says Mark Chavez, whose company is a contractor for six funeral homes. "Now we're the norm."
Experts say Colorado is a prime example of the post-death frontier, where populations of tradition-skeptic, highly transient, educated and environmentally friendly people gather.
A study released last year by the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., also showed that the Rocky Mountain West had a high proportion of "nones," or people who claim no affiliation with a religious institution.
In most states - especially in the South and Northeast - families often defer to centuries-old religious rules that proscribe how to handle death. Cremation was taboo in many Christian religions until recently and is encouraged in the Hindu faith, but still is strictly forbidden among Orthodox and Conservative Jews.
"Cremation was my way of taking death back," says Saul, the Aurora man who will have his wife of 52 years spread in at least three places. "I didn't let religion dictate what should be done."
Families these days are "wildcatting," spreading Mom illegally in state parks and other public places; having grandpa made into a reef; shooting Dad into space; or turning grandma into jewelry.
In one 2002 case in Boulder County, a dead woman was put on plywood, covered with a burial shroud and cremated on her land. And it was totally legal.
"She just couldn't burn on a no-burn day," says Jeff Webb, assistant fire chief at the Boulder Rural Fire Protection District, who witnessed the cremation with three other firefighters.
Rayanne Mori, owner of Denver's Monarch Society, has seen families beat drums and chant as their loved ones were placed into a cremator that reaches 1,500 degrees.
And on rare occasions, she never sees the family.
"It's a phone call, an e-mail, a fax and an address to ship" the ashes, says Mori, who opened her business in 1982 and performs 30 cremations a month. "In this day, it's like people don't have enough time to handle death."
Those who visit the Monarch Society's downtown office sit in a parlor as classical music plays over a stereo. They peruse medallions that handle a few ounces of cremated remains and sort through photographs of urns with names such as the "Aristocrat" and the "Czar."
On a mantel, next to several painted boxes, is a crystal-like ball with remains inside that are spread out like glitter.
"You'd never know," Mori says, "that someone's in there."
Cossey, who came to Mori after her husband's death last year, purchased a wind chime that unscrews at the top and holds a tablespoon of ashes.
"Sometimes I put it outside," the Aurora woman says. "I sit on the porch and think about the good times."
Staff writer Eric Gorski contributed to this report.
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_2780199
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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
“We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death.” Nathaniel Hawthorne
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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