Woman Turns Husband's Remains Into Diamond
A Minnesota woman has honored her late husband by turning his cremated remains into a yellow diamond so she could always keep a part of him with her.
Nancy Wodziak wanted to honor her husband Richard in a special way after he died from a brain tumor last October. So, she became the first person in the state to turn a loved one's remains into a diamond. Wodziak received her brilliant,half-carat yellow diamond after eight months of waiting.
“This certainly seems like a neat idea as far as diamonds are forever,” Bradshaw Funeral and Cremation Services spokesman Justin Bradshaw said. “Some people feel it's a neat thing and that they're glad that I told them and other people I think feel that this is not for them.”
“I think that's creepy,” a woman said in the report.
To create the ring, the cremated remains are heated to extreme temperatures, and then the carbon is subjected to a tremendous amount of pressure. The result is a stone identical to diamonds that develop deep within the earth over millions of years. The nitrogen in the air causes the diamonds to be yellow in color. The company says yellow diamonds also occur naturally but are very rare.
The cost for a quarter carat is about $2,500 and goes up to $13,000 for a full carat. The diamonds can be made into any size. Life Gem offers the services and some funeral homes assist loved ones in making the arrangements. The company also makes diamonds from the cremated remains of pets.
I think it's kind of lovely…
(http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)
Most of all, this seems to be a somewhat overly demonstrative thing to do…
i mean, creepy or not – I think I'd rather wear, e.g., a ring that used to belong to the dead person to remind me of them than have a diamond made, just so I can say I've got them with me. It's not that person anyway – nothing is going to change that – and with an “old” ring, at least I can think stuff like “aaah, yes, that was the ring they wore when…”
Whereas with the Diamond-Made-From-Dead-Body, what you can do is tell people that, “you know, I had this made from my husband's remains, so he's always with me, blah blah….”
Hm. I'm just trying to figure out whether that's really how I feel, considering I saved a few hairs of our first cat when he died (nope, haven't got them anymore! :P)
Guess it's more how I think I ought to feel about this.
(http://livejournal.com/users/raspberrysalmon)
If you want to do the same: LifeGem
(http://livejournal.com/users/oraboras)