Yeah, It's Organic, But You're Still Dead

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jun 23, 2004 8:39PM

Chicago residents might soon be able to participate in an "organic" burial system that includes digging a grave for your loved one yourself. No embalming, no headstones, no nothing: just a GPS and an audio-video documentary about the deceased. A few California funeral businessmen—please, don't call them death-hippies—have launched plans for an organic cemetery and nature reserve in Mill Valley, California. According to an AP story from a few weeks ago (but it got picked up by USA Today um, today) the owners of Fernwood Forever are currently scouting locations outside Chicago.

The idea is returning to the land what we have taken from it," said Cassity, 34, a second-generation veteran of the mortuary business whose family renovated the celebrity-rich Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery in 1998. "If you talk to someone about this concept, they will often say, 'I always wanted to be buried naturally under a tree.' It just rings true to them."

See, we'd probably say, "I always wanted to not die."
Oh man, Chicagoist was way traumatized by Six Feet Under last week when Nate buried Lisa...organically. Well, it wasn't so bad that she didn't want to be in a box, but the idea of clutching your dead, naked wife is nine kinds of awful. So is a blood-belching pipe system, so let's not get into particulars.