Mom Was Laid To Rest - Saturday, August 2nd

Mom decided that she wanted to be buried within the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, so we had her ashes placed near the Christ of the Abyss statue that is in the water about 6 miles east of Key Largo. This is a video that somebody made of their dive to Christ of the Abyss in July 2007. I decided to include it here so you can see the area that Mom chose to be left at.



Actually, we worked with Funeral At Sea in order to take a boat out to the burial site, which was nearby, but not directly over the statue.

All ten of us boarded the boat named, "Silent World" for the 6-mile trip. Mostly, it was comprised of members of Mom's generation and her children, but Luann had also invited Karen along for support.

Funeral At Sea even provided flowers and something for us to drink. The 2 boxes by the flowers contain the water burial urn (seashell) and the smaller urns, one for scattering Mom's ashes at the cemetary where my grandparents are buried and one as a keepsake for my Dad.

We are getting under way and so far, everybody is upbeat.

We have left the 'No Wake Zone' and now they are pouring on some speed.

I decided to simply contemplate about what is soon to occur.

Several of us were talking while Dad chose to hold the box containing the smaller urns in case the rocking of the boat might cause them to fall. Meanwhile, Aunt Donna read a book.

When we reached the 'scattering' spot, Uncle Frank said a few words for Mom, reminding us about all that she had brought to us in this world. (Dad still has his hand on that box...)

We kind of moved a bit closer to each other as Uncle Frank continued with the eulogy.

When Uncle Frank was finished, I removed the seashell-shaped urn from the box.

As I was positioning myself in order to place the urn upon the surface of the water, Dad requested that he have the honor, so I handed the urn to him and held onto his belt so he didn't go 'splash' with the urn. Meanwhile, Captain John of Funeral At Sea took a picture with Dad's camera.

Dad, Jody and Treesie placed the flowers on the water, and we watched as the urn slipped away from the boat.

The seashell looked like it was drifting away from the boat, seemingly headed in an easterly direction. We were making jokes that Mom decided that instead of sinking, she was going sail to the Bahamas, or perhaps even Europe. Actually, the boat has a higher profile and it was being blown away from the seashell in a westerly direction. After the seashell drifted so far from us that we couldn't tell if it was still floating, the boat was restarted and we moved closer to the urn, which indeed, was still bobbing on the waves. Normally, the seashell urn should float from 5-15 minutes, then it should slowly sink beneath the waves. In this instance, it took about 35 minutes and Jody said he was able to take some pictures that showed spurts of water coming from the top vent holes of the urn before it went down (I would really like to see those images).

On the way back in, it began to sink in that we had left Mom behind, as she embarks on the next step of her 'Fantastic Voyage".

As we were heading back in (it took 25 minutes each way), Dad made a funny statement. We couldn't hear what he said on our side of the boat, but the look on his face was priceless. Remember, you can click on any of these images to see a larger version of the picture.

We slowly regained our composure as the boat entered the 'No Wake Zone' and idled its way back to the docks.

The "Silent World", back in her berth.

Here we are, walking back to the cars, still offering comfort to each other.

This is a picture of the keepsake urn I made up for Dad out of components I collected from several stores. The box it is sitting on, is the container Mom's 'cremains' were shipped to Florida in. The tag on the front of the urn is an ID tag that was placed with Mom's body when she was placed in the crematory chamber. This tag was the only way to identify her ashes after the process was done.

This urn was constructed in order to spread some of Mom's ashes on my grandparent's gravesite. I hope it served its purpose well...

About the time I was working on placing Mom's ashes into the 3 different containers in order to comply with her wishes, I turned around and saw a great photo opportunity of this cloudy-sky over the still waters of the ocean. To me, it was just perfect for this blended image I wanted to create. If anybody wants the full, large-sized image, let me know.