Dust and Ashes

Dust and Ashes 5 comments

Sacred Raka Urn – Fluted — Image by kenne

“And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:” Genesis 18:27

Theologians may debate the right or wrong of cremation, but such an academic debate means nothing in the end, it’s an individual’s choice.

Mother, an avid reader and student of the Bible, grew up in a conservative Christian family in rural northern Alabama. Among her many stories of her childhood, which she titled, “the little girl from Alabama,” was going to funeral services, during which the children would be outside the church playing in the cemetery across the road. Even near her death in 2006, she talked about Hall Cemetery in Lincoln, Talladega County, Alabama. However, the story near her death was not of a little girl playing in the cemetery, but of a black dog and a man in a black suit walking in Hall Cemetery.

Although one might think Willie Agnes Poe (Salter) was fixated on cemeteries and therefore being laid to rest in one, this very holy woman had made plans for her body to be donated to medical science — the Texas Medical Center in Houston Texas, after which her body would be cremated.

In the end, her affairs were very organized, my only responsibility was to see that they were carried out. The one thing neither of us expected was that it would be almost six years before we would receive her ashes. On May 23, 2012 (my brother Tom’s birthday), we received her ashes.

With all her planning, the one detail she didn’t stipulate was what she wanted done with her ashes. There are several possibilities, from which I will be receiving family advice. But for now, her ashes are in the William K. Turner Sacred Raka Urn we ordered from Sacred Ways. (I can hear her now, “You shouldn’t have spent the money!”)

Chase Morris & Great-Grandma Agnes — Image by kenne