New Cremation Garden Requires the Use of GPS

Cremation allows families to customize their final farewells to loved ones when it comes time to scatter ashes. Families can scatter their loved one’s cremains in the ocean, send cremains off to space in fireworks, or bury cremains in a columbarium niche. Now, a new cremation garden in Oklahoma City allows you to bury cremains and find them later on using satellite GPS.

Reflection Pointe Cremation Garden is owned and operated by Brad Whinery, whose family has been in the funeral business for 60 years. Whinery’s goal was to create a peaceful, serene setting free of monuments and headstones that resembled a community park. Cremains are buried along with a tiny GPS microchip, which is also linked to a website families and friends can visit to honor their loved ones by sharing photos, videos, and memories.

Upon arriving at the cremation garden, families can locate their loved one’s cremains using a mobile device or app with GPS capabilities. Each square foot in the cremation garden can support the ashes of up to four people, which means if you purchase one “plot” space, you will actually be reserving four plot spaces.

Reflection Pointe Cremation Garden is located on a forested plot of about eight acres, and offers families several options for burying cremains. For instance, the property features a waterfall wall that contains 300 niches behind which ashes can be placed, as well as a scattering meadow complete with a red rock stream in which people can scatter ashes. The cremation garden also has a section in which people can be buried with their late pets. In the spring, Whinery says the garden will be home to hundreds of blooming flowers and trees that will help create a comfortable, peaceful environment in which families can honor and pay respects to their loved ones.

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the US cremation rate will increase to 48.8 percent by the year 2017. In 2012, the US cremation rate was only 42 percent. Whinery says fees for burying or scattering ashes at the Reflection Pointe Cremation Garden will range between $95 and $1,600.

Heartland Cremation offers simple and direct cremation services while providing your loved one with the gentle care and dignity they deserve. We have locations through the greater Kansas City region, including Overland Park, Eudora, Columbia, and Jefferson City. Please contact us at Heartland Cremation to learn more about our simple and worry-free cremation services.

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