Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

cremation

Partly Cloudy or Partly Sunny?

The title of this post comes from this haunting story. Our hearts go out to the family, co-workers and community. By appearances, John Winter was living the dream, and it wasn’t enough. Suicide is a mystery. But so is day to day living.

Although we are not doctors, we have played one on t.v. We diagnosed and classified “Storm team” personalities as either “partly cloudy” or “partly sunny” personalities types.

Since it’s arts fest weekend, we’ll showcase our last collection of vintage mourning jewelry. This group features skulls, a popular theme in early English designs from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Death’s Head motif (skull) was still used on mourning rings in the 17th century. A ring presented after the execution of Charles I in 1649 shows a portrait of Charles I on one side and a skull and a crown on the other. Inside the inscription reads, “The glory of England has departed.”

The presentation of mourning rings was a status symbol in the 17th and 18th centuries. The wealthy specified the ring design and quantity to be made in their wills.

Samuel Pepys, English diarist and naval official (1633-1703) willed that 129 mourning rings be given away at his funeral.

Either he had a large family or a huge ego.

vintage mourning jewelry

V.A. Approves Wiccan Symbol for Vet’s Headstones

To settle a lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.

Until now, the Veterans Affairs department had approved 38 symbols to indicate the faith of deceased service members on memorials. It normally takes a few months for a petition by a faith group to win the department’s approval, but the effort on behalf of the Wiccan symbol took about 10 years and a lawsuit, said Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director for Americans United.

memorial garden stones

The group attributed the delay to religious discrimination. Many Americans do not consider Wicca a religion, or hold the mistaken belief that Wiccans are devil worshipers.

“The Wiccan families we represented were in no way asking for special treatment,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said at a news conference Monday. “They wanted precisely the same treatment that dozens of other religions already had received from the department, an acknowledgment that their spiritual beliefs were on par with those of everyone else.”

There are 1,800 Wiccans in the armed forces, according to a Pentagon survey cited in the suit, and Wiccans have their faith mentioned in official handbooks for military chaplains and noted on their dog tags.

New York Times has the full story.

Mail Call

Three Beautiful Things:

  1. Hummingbird scouts
  2. Lush green grass
  3. Finally making a decision

First we go to the mailbox:

“I saw a KISS (the rock group) urn in a movie today. Do you have any idea where I could find one of these or where I could have one made? “

Evidently, the movie Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom & Kirsten Dunst, has a bizarre KISS reference. At one point, a KISS Forever cremation urn makes a brief appearance in the 2 hour film. This might give Gene Simmons an idea for some new KISS merchandise after the infamous KISS Casket..?

We checked out scenes of Elizabethtown, and lost interest immediately. Bloom and Dunst on their cellphones…in the rain….how romantic. No thanks.

Regarding the urn, so sorry.

Speaking of mail, previously the earliest our mail arrived was around 2 PM. Since the route is on wheels, mail is arriving at 11 AM. This should thrill the Wilhelm’s.

Today’s tip for better living: Do some push-ups.

Family Jewels

Greetings!

While doing research for an article on cremation urn jewelry, we felt the need to share early examples of the art form. So we are having an exhibit in the garden this week.

Early memento mori featured skulls and crossbones and we’ll display those later this week. Serpents symbolize eternal life and are often featured in the Victorian designs. Today’s examples will feature brooches and pendents made from jet and ebony originating from the Civil War period.

memento mori

Soldiers going off to war would often leave a lock of hair with the family, in the event he didn’t make it home. Memorial jewelry peaked in popularity during the Victorian era.

Today’s tip for better living: Absorb.

Goodbye Little Sweetie

Asia’s richest woman, Nina Wang, the famously frugal Hong Kong tycoon who died last week, is to get a hugely lavish, no-expense-spared send-off April 18, reports Agence France Presse. Wang’s family is spending millions of dollars on flowers for the funeral of the late head of the Chinechem property business.

Wang, known in Asia as “Little Sweetie”, died April 3 aged 69, had a 4.2 billion dollar fortune, was famous for wearing discounted clothes and dining out at fast-food restaurants. She built up the Chinachem Group into one of the city’s largest private companies after inheriting it from her husband Teddy Wang, who disappeared in 1990, believed kidnapped.

Nina, who famously sported mini-skirts and pig-tails well into her 60s, died leaving no heirs and never publicly named a beneficiary. Her lawyer Jonathan Midgely is reported to have said she left her fortune to just one person, but would not reveal the identity of this person until at least after her funeral. She will be cremated and buried in a Catholic ceremony.

Wang, ranked by Forbes Magazine as Asia’s 35th richest person, had no children but is survived by at least one brother and reportedly other siblings.

Lawyer Wong Tak-sing said under Hong Kong law Nina Wang’s brothers and sisters could apply to inherit her fortune if she did not have a will. Wang’s nieces or nephews could share the wealth as well if their parents had died.

Wang successfully battled her father-in-law for a multi-billion dollar estate left by her late husband Teddy Wang, a property tycoon who vanished more than a decade ago.

Central to the marathon probate case was a handwritten will that Wang said was penned and signed by Teddy in March 1990, a month before he was kidnapped and never seen again. Some reports at the time said Teddy was gagged and bound and thrown out to sea from a Chinese “sampan” boat.

Teddy was also kidnapped in 1983 when his car was hijacked, and only released — left in an iron box at the side of a road — after Nina paid an $11 million ransom.