Life in the Garden

This month we’re featuring heart-shaped cremation urns, jewelry urns, and memorial stones. One of our favorites are the earth friendly Unity urns.

Unity Floral Urn

These beautiful urns are handmade and feature inlaid fresh flower petals. It is available in three sizes, pet or keepsake size urn, standard adult urn, or a double capacity companion urn.Each urn includes a water-soluble plastic bag for the cremated remains.

The Unity urn is designed for ground burial. Once buried it will degrade naturally over time. Available in three designs with matching keepsakes.

Pink Unity Urn

We’re closing out a line of urns that would be a great value for families and funeral homes alike.  Urn Garden is offering a limited supply of a solid brass urns with engraved floral details, plus matching keepsake urn for $99.99.

According to a letter owned by Phil Castinetti, the sports memorabilia king of New England, Red Sox legend Ted Williams had a longtime wish to be cremated immediately after his death. The letter, dated Dec. 19, 1991, is an authentic writing from the desk of Teddy Ballgame himself.

“It is my wish that no funeral or memorial service of any kind be held and that my remains be cremated as soon as possible after my death,” Williams wrote in the letter nearly two decades ago. “I want you to see that my ashes are sprinkled at sea off the coast of Florida where the water is very deep.”

Williams’ three children fought bitterly over the body of their legendary father.  In a perfect world, the letter in Castinetti’s collection would be used to do justice in the case of Ted Williams,  but rather than have his wishes carried out, Williams was taken to a lab in Arizona where his remains were kept suspended in liquid nitrogen.

Last year, a lab executive documented the brutal inhumane treatment of Williams’ head at the cryogenics center shortly after his death in 2002.

Ted Williams Death Mask

Rather than being scattered in Florida as he’d always wished, the body of the Red Sox legend was mutilated and disgraced.

In life, Williams never got the respect he deserved. The fans in Boston booed him, the media blasted him, his personal life was unstable and troubled. In death, Teddy Ballgame has been treated even worse.

Source:

Ralph B. White was a National Geographic cameraman who spent his life pursuing adventure. His friends have carried out his last wish, taking his ashes to every continent.

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Early examples of mourning  jewelry were found in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Black and white enameled heads or skulls were often set into both rings and brooches and worn to signify a period of mourning after the death of a loved one.

memento mori

The Death’s Head motif (skull) was still used on mourning rings as late as the 17th century. A ring presented after the execution of King Charles I in 1649 shows a portrait of Charles I on one side and a skull and a crown on the other. Inside the inscription reads, “The glory of England has departed.”

The presentation of mourning rings was a status symbol in the 17th and 18th centuries. The wealthy specified the ring design and quantity to be made in their wills.

Samuel Pepys, English diarist and naval official (1633-1703) willed that 129 mourning rings be given away at his funeral.

Either he had a large family or a huge ego.

skull ring memento mori

Urn Garden is pleased to launch a contemporary line of urn rings, inspired by Victorian mourning jewelry.

Keepsake Cremation Urn Ring

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