Family turns grandma into diamond
By JCK Online Staff -- JCK Online, 1/2/2003 2:00:00 AM
The cremated remains of 80-year-old Edna MacArthur from Alberta, Canada, have been presented to her family in the form of a diamond stone, the first delivery of this kind in the world, a funeral services official claimed Tuesday.
"This is the first presentation of a synthetic diamond made in this way," Brian Crawford, president of Edmonton-based Fountain Garden Funeral Services, told The Associated Press.
Crawford reportedly said MacArthur's remains were compressed into a three-gram sample and flown to Italy where an Italian firm uses intense heat to incorporate the remains into carbon used to craft a diamond.
The quarter carat diamond was presented Monday to MacArthur's granddaughter, Tracey Somerville, and Tracey's mother, Teresa, who used to keep the cremation urn in their living room, Crawford told the AP. The family planned to have the stone placed in a golden ring.
The quarter carat diamond cost the family $2,052 in U.S. dollars, which Crawford said was much cheaper than the cost of a burial with a moderately priced wooden casket. Its manufacturing process took two weeks, the AP reports.
Crawford said his company has already received three more orders, including a prearranged order from a living person, the AP reports.
Another company, the Toronto-based Images for Eternity, offers artwork incorporating cremated remains on paintings. The ashes are applied with several layers of sealant on top of the finished art.
