Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

Television

Billion Dollar Baby: Elizabeth Taylor RIP

Elizabeth Taylor

When Elizabeth Taylor died, she left a fortune estimated at 1 billion, much of it from her perfume empire. Her jewels alone are worth $150 million. Each of her four children stand to inherit $100 million.

Elizabeth taylor jewelry

Elizabeth’s wish was to be buried near her beloved Richard Burton in Switzerland, but Burton’s widow has already purchased the grave site next to him. Liz decided to keep it simple and be buried near her forever young friend, Michael Jackson in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Staying true to her life long reputation of chronic tardiness, she arranged to be 15 minutes late to her own funeral.

lily of the valley funeral flower

According to Jewish custom, Ms. Taylor was buried within 48 hours of her death on March 23, 2011. Her casket was draped with gardenias, violets, and lilies of the valley.

Source: Vanity Fair

Down But Not Out in Joplin, MO

antique post card memorial day

The bad news is Mother Nature threw down one of the deadliest tornadoes in history and blew the doors off in Joplin, Mo and the death toll is climbing. The good news is the list of missing persons is shrinking.  However, people with unaccounted family members are frustrated by the fact that the morgue will not allow access until the dead are positively identified and not released to the wrong families. A lengthy id process is in place which includes pictures, x-rays, and DNA samples all matched against the missing person’s list even before the family is notified.  This is in order to avoid a mix up at the funeral home, which reportedly has already happened.

One family searched frantically for days for their missing 16 month old toddler.  He was discovered in the morgue, where he’d laid since Sunday night.

Jack LaLanne Rest In Peace

Godfather of Fitness

The Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne passed on January 23, 2011 at age 96.  Though for many years dismissed as merely a “muscle man” — a notion fueled to some extent by his amazing feats of strength — LaLanne was the spiritual father of the health movement that blossomed into a national craze of weight rooms, exercise classes and sports clubs. He proposed the then-radical idea that women, the elderly and even the disabled should work out to retain strength.

RIP Jack

Captain Phil Harris – Deadliest Catch Urn

My dad likes the show Deadliest Catch.  In a phone conversation the other day, he asked me if I’d ever seen the show.  No, but I’d seen news feeds and knew that one of the captains had died suddenly.

deadliest catch crew

He went on to describe the season finale, Captain Phil’s memorial service.  Dad knew that we sold motorcycle tank urns, and went on to describe the customized urn that was designed.

Deadliest Catch, Phil Harris Urn
Deadliest Catch, Phil Harris Urn

Well, evidently Phil’s untimely death made for some great t.v., because I found pages and pages on a Deadliest Catch discussion board.  I had no idea it had such a following.  And the urn design by the Killer Paint Company? A huge hit with the fans.