Trends

Dying is a fact of life. But throughout our Western culture, death is still sort of a dark subject.

How people celebrate and remember the lives of their loved ones is a fascinating subject to me, so I attended the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) International Convention & Expo in Salt Lake City last October. My objective was to learn as much as I could about facets of the changing funeral industry that pertain to flowers and possibly affect consumers’ purchasing of flowers for funeral, memorial and celebration-of-life services. Billed as the world’s largest funeral services convention, the event welcomed more than 5,000 attendees from across the globe and more than 300 exhibiting companies showcasing the latest products, services and innovations.

“The funeral industry is experiencing changes as drastic and rapidly as many other industries, but at the NFDA annual convention, funeral directors say that flowers are still an important component of modern services to both them and their clients.”

With keynote speakers Laura Bush and Rudy Guiliani, this was no small happening. Workshops ran the gamut of topics and highlighted several of the biggest trends in the funeral industry, including:

• Living funerals Also called pre-funerals or life celebrations, these events are held for living people before death occurs, giving the honorees opportunities to connect with important people in their lives before they pass away. Attendees can rejoice in people’s lives while they are still around to share stories and enjoy the gathering of friends and family. (For more information on this subject, visit neptunesociety.com or us-funerals.com, or do an Internet search for “living funerals.”)

• End-of-life doulas A new frontier in the doula profession, which traditionally centers on birth and postpartum support, end-of-life doulas provide comfort and support to dying people and their loved ones in the final months, weeks or days of their lives. End-of-life doulas provide support, resources, education and companionship for the dying and their caregivers as they fill in gaps in hospice care and medical support systems. (Check out lifespandoulas.com for more information.)

• Cremation options As cremations continue to grow in popularity, options for what to do with loved ones’ ashes also continue to evolve. Today, those options are endless, and although traditional options remain the most popular – scattering cremains over land or water, burying a funerary urn in a cemetery or at home, keeping an urn at home, interring an urn in a columbarium (essentially a mausoleum for funerary urns), dividing and sharing ashes with family members – there are scores of innovative new options, including:

• Scattering in the air – Some family members have scattered cremains from hot-air balloons, while hang gliding or bungee jumping, and by releasing helium-filled latex balloons containing the ashes. Firework manufacturers such as Heavens Above, Heavenly Stars and Angels Flight make fireworks with cremated remains.

• Making diamonds and memorial jewelry from the ashes – a growing number of companies are offering these services.

• Mixing cremains into molten glass or clay to create glass and ceramic art pieces (paperweights, vases, etc.) (For more fascinating information on cremation options, visit cremationsolutions.com, smartcremation.com, inthelighturns.com and usurnsonline.)

During the convention and expo, I interviewed two funeral directors who own very different types of operations. The first was James Olson owner of Olson Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Sheboygan, Wis., who is considered an expert on “green burials.”

I asked Olson about working with florists, and he shared that he opened his own floral design operation to create floral designs in house because, “it has been challenging to get what we need from local florists in order to serve our families in the best way.” Having his own floral design studio makes it ultimately convenient and allows him to offer flowers for less cost because there is no overhead, waste or middleman, Olson noted. And he can ensure that his customers get exactly what they want.

Olson Funeral Home & Cremation Service is a “one-stop shop,” offering not only all the traditional products and services provided by funeral homes, but also flowers and catered “celebration of life” receptions. Olson also rents space for special events such as weddings, bar mitzvahs and private parties.

With permission from family members – and when they don’t want them – flowers from Olson services are donated to a local care center where patients can enjoy them and also use them in floral design classes, which helps in their recovery.

During the conference, Olson presented a seminar entitled “50 Shades of Green,” in which he outlined the multiple ways that families can choose to practice environmental consciousness when it comes to funeral decisions. This may include no embalming or embalming with chemical-free products; using biodegradable clothing or caskets, recycled products and/or locally grown organic flowers; gathering in a home or natural setting; and employing natural burial practices. Some of these options include caskets made of natural bamboo, wicker or sea grass and beautifully shaped urns made of dissolvable materials including sea salt, cornstarch or biodegradable paper, for placing ashes in bodies of water. There is also an option called “The Spirit Tree” urn, in which cremated remains and the seeds of a tree (or any plant) are placed into the urn and buried in the ground. The plant then grows as a living memorial to the loved one.

Good news for the floral industry: Whether families choose cremation or burial, Olson says that flowers continue to play a central role. Traditional floral tributes, in which keepsakes of the deceased are artfully incorporated, are extremely popular, as the “personalization” trend continues to grow. Floral wreaths or other designs into which urns can be incorporated and showcased are popular for honoring loved ones when cremation is chosen.

I also spoke with Kurt Soffe, CFSP, a fourth-generation funeral director and co-owner of Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Chapels & Cremation Center, in Murray and South Jordan, Utah. Soffe shared that between their two locations, they produce as many as 650 funeral services per year and more than 1,500 cremations. They’ve had the experience of facilitating all types of services including Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American and many more. Each service is unique to the individual, and with any type of service, Soffe said, flowers are always at the heart of it.

At Jenkins-Soffe, they work with four area florists who they consider to be a vital part of their caregiver team. Families can order flowers from the funeral homes so they don’t need to make additional stops during their difficult times. “We trust our florist partners to listen to and give our families exactly what they need at these important times,” Soffe says. “And they always do. We could not be happier with the floral designers we work with.”

Soffe observes that people are ordering more flowers now then they used to. Arrangements are getting bigger and include photos and personal items that belonged to the deceased. And in some cultures, intricate and beautiful money wreaths are given along with fresh flowers or flower petals.

“Flowers are so healing. They are a beautiful symbol – a piece of ourselves that we can give to the deceased.”