Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

Confessions

When A Co-Worker Checks Out – Permanently

YOLO Neon

When a former co-worker called me today to report that one of our colleagues had died I was a little taken aback, we’d worked together for a few years and he was my age. On Monday he didn’t show up for work and wasn’t answering the phone which was out of character for him. He’d left the office keys on his desk and taken a few things home like maybe he didn’t plan to come back after the weekend. His online profiles were scrubbed. His supervisor and police officers went to his home and discovered the body.

Suicide is such a mystery and can feel like the ultimate F.U.

My heart breaks for his family. My relationship with him was tumultuous. We argued often.  I hope he found peace.

Image Source: Emily Mughannam, EM Design

Bronze Cremation Urns are Simply the Best

Updated 11/6/17:

It’s been a few  years since I wrote this post and I thought it high time to revisit it. Not because my opinion has changed; if you asked me 100 times “What is the longest-lasting cremation memorial you can buy?” I’d tell you 100 times over: a bronze cremation urn.

Why? Because bronze is, literally, ‘forever’.

Think of the ancient Greek and Roman bronze sculptures housed in museums around the world such as the Artemision Zeus and the Piraeus Athena, believed to both date from the 4th century B.C.E.

athena bronze sculpture

Both are ‘larger than life’, standing well over six feet in height. Each is certainly impressive–both then and now–some 2400 years later.

Bronze is the longest lasting memorial you can buy.  It’s forever and you can expect to pay more for a bronze cremation urn. Discriminating families who want a sculpture piece or art work for the home will choose a bronze cremation urn. These families want something decorative and low key that doesn’t reveal it’s true nature as an urn for ashes.

Bronze Cremation Urn

Bronze cremation urns are considered custom work and buyers should be prepared to wait a few weeks for the final product. Plus, you don’t even want to know what it costs to ship a bronze sculpture overnight. Urn Garden is pleased to support American artists and craftsmen, many of the bronze urns we sell are made in the USA and the main foundry we work with creates custom statues and life size memorial installations that can be seen on college campuses, government buildings, parks in addition to the urns we sell.

Bronze Cremation Urn

Bronze Eagle Cremation Urn

Here at Urn Garden, we’ve established working relationships with the finest American and international artisans involved in crafting custom-order bronze cremation urns. Each of the bronze cremation memorials we offer is a work of fine art–a legacy to be passed down for generations. I’ll be shining a spotlight on some of these fine art sculptures with a purpose throughout the month but for now I invite you to whet your ‘appetite for beauty’ by taking a sneak peek at our complete collection.

Urn Garden Cremation Urns

National Children’s Memorial Day

“It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that is happens all the time, we never see it.” — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

One of the more unspoken facts of life is the death of a child. For generations, when children passed away — no matter the age or cause — it was wrong to talk about or even grieve the young one. But the fact is children die every day from all causes, and they are mourned just as much as a wife who loses her husband or a daughter who loses her dad.

However, it’s only been in the last few decades that it has become socially acceptable to mourn the loss of a child. No longer are parents told that they can have other children or that it’s best to not talk about the deceased.

Today, those young lives are honored, celebrated and most importantly, remembered on National Children’s Memorial Day. Held the second Sunday in December, this proclamation, signed by President William J. Clinton in 1998, validates the grief and despair felt by bereaved families each day. It also allows them to gather and share their loved ones with those who truly understand their pain and anguish.

If you lost a child or know someone who has, take time today to remember that precious life. At 7 p.m. local time, light a candle. Supporters all over the world are doing the same, creating a 24-hour wave of light that encircles the world.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Pearl Harbor

Never forget.

While cleaning out her father’s things, My friend Jenny discovered this list of regulations from the Nita Maru prison ship where William Joesph Brigham was held as a war prisoner after the Wake Island massacre. The rules were punishable by immediate death if not followed.  Zoom in for details.

Japanese prisoner ww2

And my grandfathers account of arriving at Pearl Harbor a few weeks after the bombing as a 20 year old kid.