Exit strategy

A warmhearted, witty, and beautifully illustrated guide to the most important exit any of us will ever make: how we choose to leave this life.If you thought a dreary and expensive funeral arranged by professional morticians was your only option-think again! Michelle Cromer offers a plethora of creative alternatives to traditional funerals. From having one's remains shot into outer space or turned into a piece of jewelry, to being sifted into the roots of a tree, spread across the sky in a fireworks display, or scattered over Mount Rainier, the options for how we preserve our remains are limited only by our imagination.Cromer attributes the growing demand for unconventional end-of-life ceremonies to several causes: the high cost and impersonal nature of traditional funerals; the geographic distance separating most American families that makes visits to the cemetery increasingly difficult; and the desire of baby boomers to apply their relentless pursuit of personal expression to the art of dying.Whatever the reasons, the results are remarkable. Traveling around the country, Cromer meets families and entrepreneurs who are turning the funeral into an occasion for celebration and more intimate remembrance. All these innovative funerals, Cromer writes, "represent an effort to make the passage from life to death more personal and connected with the rest of our lives. And they remind us that physical death and physical decay are natural processes, without which there could be no new life."