The Wall Street Journal did an article last week titled Love, Honor, Cherish and Scatter. The story traces the ash scattering adventures of Michelle Paris, who has been scattering the cremated remains of her husband, Donald Mitchem.
With the help of a group of friends, his ashes have been spread in the Pacific Ocean, in New York’s Central Park, discreetly in a Donald Duck topiary at Disneyland, in the African nation of Namibia, outside a beer garden in Germany, and on the Walk of the Gods trail on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. She never sought permits to do this, so it’s known as “wildcat scattering.”
It’s all a part of the freedom from tradition that cremation offers to folks who want to get creative with cremains. When funeral planning, consider the personality of the person. If they liked to travel, or loved specific spots, scattering the ashes far and wide may be more meaningful than preserving them in an urn or burying them in a cemetery.
Here’s a YouTube video about how to scatter ashes, presented by Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®.