Life Gem is a company founded in 2001, that can turn a dead loved one into a precious diamond keepsake. According to the company, these diamonds are 100% real and made from the carbon in the ashes of a cremated person. The process can be simplified in four steps:
- Cremate the body
- Purify the carbon to a very high degree
- Put the carbon in the diamond press and grow the diamond
- Fasten the diamond according to the family's wishes.
The whole process takes roughly about 16 weeks. One person can make up to 50 diamonds. This is a fairly popular funeral practice because it can turn the loss of a friend or family member into a daily remembrance that people can wear as a necklace or a ring. Customers can choose the kind of gem that they want through the large variations of styles. The company's goal is to help ease the grieving process by offering a keepsake of individual beauty and comfort.
Choosing to turn a loved one into a diamond can turn very pricey very fast. Depending on the carat, colour, cuts, etc the prices can range from $2 000 to $20 000!
Also, if you didn't think your mother wasn't worth turning into a 20 grand gem, you can also take little Fido, your dog, or any other pet and also turn them into a precious, everlasting diamond.
While it is an American company, LifeGem can ship anywhere and they have hundreds of locations around the states.
Personally, I can definitely understand the desire for the diamonds as unique keepsake, but it also shows an interesting side of the growing need to hold on to a loved one that have passed. While losing someone is difficult for obvious reasons, there is so much emphasis on keeping the person close while they've died, it can be almost unhealthy. LifeGem wants to ease the grieving process, but it's possible that obsessing over the person that has died so for so long, could actually aid for them to not let go and get past the grieving stage.
Wow! That's pretty cool Erica! I think that this is a really...interesting...thing to do to your loved ones. I just think its crazy that its possible, it seems like something out of a novel, one where the main character is obsessed with the person who has died and can't let them go. Or, and this is me just going off in lala land, this would be a great start to a cereal killer book where the killer turns his/her victims into diamonds to distroy the evidence and then sells them in a seemingly ordinary mom & pop jewellery store... gives me the creeps just thinking about it!
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