Thursday 17 April 2008

Sparkly stones from lifeless bones

Here's a weird thought... what if you could turn the ashes of your departed loved one into a beautiful diamond to treasure forever?

Well, now you can! Yes, strange and macabre though it may be, the Americans (who else?) have come up with a process that allows the carbon to be extracted from the ashes of your cremated pooch or great aunt to be made into a sparkly roack - your choice of colour and size. And now, ladies and gentlemen, the technology is available in SA! Don't believe me? Visit www.lifegem.com and you'll see what I'm on about!

I discovered this through a friend at my cell group that runs a pet crematorium. He has now brought this technology into the country and they've already transformed some lady's dead dog into a pretty piece of jewellery. Charmed, I'm sure. Anyway... trying to convince one of my editors to let me write a story on this. She's (understandably) worried that it may just gross people out.

What do you think? Could you wear your dear departed husband/granny/cat around your neck or on your finger forevermore? I reckon this is taking the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing a little too far!

10 comments:

Sweets said...

thanks but no thanks! gross that's just wrong! eeeeeeeeeehw

Patchwork said...

GGGRROOOOSSSSS!!!!!!

What a morbid welcome for me!

Erm ... what is going on with the HTML on this here site? everything is squished together?

Anyhoodle, thanks for popping by my place.

Tamara said...

Sweets: thanks for stopping by. Glad to know I'm not the only one that finds it distasteful!

Bridget: Yes, sorry about the welcome. I'm usually happy and full of posts about fluffy squirrels and Bambi. Not really, but I don;t usually post about death. Promise. Shot for visiting. HTML looks fine from my side. Will try to see if anyone else is having issues with that. Weird.

Anonymous said...

The thought is nice...but it just plain creeps me out!!

Zee said...

Creepy Creepy ideas..

PS i love the free rice site.

Tamara said...

It's addictive, hey?

Anonymous said...

sowwy to burst ze bubble, but i read about that a few months ago in a magazine, so no point trying to convince your editor to let you write about something which is pretty old news by now :)

Tamara said...

anonymous... who is you?

The angle of the story would centre on why the technology has been brought to SA and what the response has been. Since it hasn't been covered in the SA media and it's for a tiny lifestyle mag that talks about South Africans doing interesting things, I reckon I might get away with it. But, as I mentioned, the ed is not keen coz she figures it;s gross ;-)

Anonymous said...

If you do talk your editor into it, do some research into how these places scam people. Sometimes you don't end up with your loved one in a gem because they screw up the process, instead you end up with a cheap substitute.

I don't really find it that creepy, it's the same as people who keep ashes in urns on their fireplace really :P

Tamara said...

Goblin: thanks for stopping by :) I reckon keeping urns full of ash is creepy too. There may be a backlash on that comment.

They give people cheap substitutes? Jeepers. That's low. Gross thought... what if they mix the bodies up and you end up wearing someone else's uncle on your ring finger?! Eish.