posted on February 8, 2004 06:02:47 PM new
My best friend and I have just agreed to have ourselves "scattered" in this manner. If she dies first, I'm to select fireworks of purple and gold. If I die first, I'll get blue and gold...
Skyrockets in flight -- funeral delight Company helps give dead a big send-off
By Nicholas Grudin
Staff Writer
CASTAIC -- Michael Dirtzu Jr. wanted to go out with a bang.
So when the 52-year-old electronics technician and fireworks enthusiast died unexpectedly near his home in West Lake, Minn., his wife, Cynthia, started making arrangements.
What she discovered delighted her. A new business in Castaic called Angels Flight specializes in packing cremated remains into high-powered fireworks and launching the ashes into the night sky for an explosive memorial that rivals any Fourth of July display.
"With Mike, nothing conventional would have worked for sending him off," said Cynthia Dirtzu, his wife of 23 years who arranged for a dozen relatives from Minnesota to come and watch the pyrotechnic display just off the beach in Marina del Rey.
"Mike's love of fireworks -- his love of the ocean -- it all just fit so well."
Angels Flight is the brainchild of Nicholas Drobnis of Castaic and his partner, Jeff March, who came up with the idea while setting up fireworks shows in 1982 at Knott's Berry Farm. As they were preparing an evening's show, the two started chatting about how they would like to be disposed of when they die.
"Somehow we got to talking about what we wanted done after we go ... I looked at him and said I wanted to be packed into a fireworks shell and shot into the air," Drobnis said. "We both laughed and thought it was very funny. Little did we know."
About 15 years later, after what Drobnis calls "the worst experience of my life" at his father's funeral, he called March and rekindled the idea.
"Funerals are dark and sad, and they don't do what you should do when a loved one passes away," said Drobnis, who works full time as a theme park designer. "I called Jeff and said, Do you remember that idea we had?"
Angels Flight's services, usually done just off the coast at Marina del Rey, involve taking the fireworks onto a boat just offshore and launching 20 shells, each containing some remains. The fireworks rival any professional spectacle.
Family members can either take a yacht onto the water or stand on the beach, and they have the option of choosing music.
Drobnis charges $3,500 to $3,900 per service and expects to do about 20 this year. His goal is to reach 50 ceremonies each year.
"Everybody's first reaction is to laugh -- and their next reaction is, that's what I want to do," Drobnis said.
In fact, Angels Flight is just one of many business throughout the nation riding a new trend in "creative scattering" of human ashes.
"People are living longer, and they're really celebrating their life rather than mourning the passing," said Jack Springer, executive director of the Cremation Association of North America. "It's the remembrance of life rather than the mourning of a death."
From 1980 to 2002, cremation increased from 10 percent of all deaths to 28 percent. And in California, 46 percent opt for fire instead of burial, among the highest rates in the nation, according to statistics collected by the association.
The increase has resulted in more creativity among survivors as they decide what to do with a 7-pound urn containing a relative's remains, said Chan Tysor, president of Celestis Inc., a Houston scattering business that sends small capsules of ashes into outer space.
In 1997, Celestis made headlines by launching LSD guru Timothy Leary's ashes into "low earth orbit" in the cargo of a rocket launch.
"Cremation enables flexibility in terms of scattering options that were not possible in traditional casket burials," Tysor said. "It enables these creative options because the remains are inert material -- it's bone fragments, calcium phosphate. It can be easily divided among family members."
Fireworks displays and trips to space are just the beginning.
Aside from the staples, such as scattering ashes at sea and over the Rocky Mountains, there are many innovative alternatives.
A company in Chicago claims to turn cremated remains into diamonds, and another company mixes the ashes with epoxy and builds statues and trinkets. Yet another company mixes the "cremains" with oil paints to craft portraits.
"I applaud all of those options," Tysor said. "People should have options. They have options while they live, why shouldn't they have options as to how they're remembered?"
Lora Lee Chapman of Santa Cruz agrees.
She held an Angels Flight ceremony for her father, Ronald H. Austin, on Jan. 17 and said it was the perfect memorial.
"I had been taking care of my father as his health declined, and we talked about things such as what should happen once he dies. He mentioned that he liked the idea of being cremated and set off in fireworks," Chapman said. "I wanted to make that dream a reality for him."
And apparently, those who watch the shows are tempted to follow suit, according to Cynthia Dirtzu. Cynthia said that Mike's ceremony was so spectacular and touching that her 76-year-old mother started making plans of her own.
"My mother insisted on coming to California with us," Dirtzu said, "and now she wants to do this, too."
posted on February 8, 2004 06:40:47 PM new
Artist: John Prine
Song Title: Please Don't Bury Me
Album: Sweet Revenge
[Buy " Sweet Revenge " CD]
Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:
Chorus:
Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have "em" cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get "em" out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I've got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose
Repeat Chorus
Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don't pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It's a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
posted on February 8, 2004 07:04:03 PM new
I always thought that when that time comes I like to go among the stars. Just put me into a rocket and let her rip.
We come from star dust and to star dust we return.
To be able to travel in the cosmos even in death has a certain appeal.
posted on February 8, 2004 07:13:50 PM new Give my feet to the footloose Careless, fancy free Give my knees to the needy Don't pull that stuff on me Hand me down my walking cane It's a sin to tell a lie Send my mouth way down south And kiss my ass goodbye
posted on February 8, 2004 07:20:08 PM new
No joke- My grandfather was a plumber. He always said he wanted to be cremated and flushed down the toilet... So he could see how they worked from the inside!
But they buried him. My parents have no sense of adventure!
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on February 8, 2004 07:53:45 PM new
Hey! You're not pinning this on me!
Who's more deviant?
Me for saying I would pay to watch Pat and Gravid's wife mud-wrestle for his affections?? or...
Pat for wanting to go that (devious) route to gain Gravid's affections?
posted on February 8, 2004 07:54:54 PM new
I'm not scared of dying,
And I don't really care.
If it's peace you find in dying,
Well then let the time be near.
If it's peace you find in dying,
And if dying time is here,
Just bundle up my coffin
'Cause it's cold way down there.
I hear that its cold way down there
Yeah, crazy cold way down there.
I do like what trai says.
We come from star dust and to star dust we return.
posted on February 8, 2004 08:14:51 PM new
You're the one that ruined it, Pat, not us. Our input (especially mine) has enhanced your thread to the max.
