If you have chosen cremation for your final plans, there is an additional selection and that is whether you would like to have a clean alternative to disposition or distribution of ashes. Callaway-Jones now offers you a “green” alternative to storing ashes in an urn. Instead, there’s a process where 100% of the ashes are converted to a collection of between 40–60 stones.

Stark-looking ashes, in this process, are converted to attractive white stones that can be distributed to family members to have on a bookcase as a memento. Stones are a simple keepsake and they can be shared for many generations.

It may be so far away from an idea you’d considered before, but there is great comfort that comes with the process of cremation. The Scriptures share many statements to that effect. In Genesis 3:19, God tells Adam, ”For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” In Ecclesiastes 3:20, it is written by Solomon, “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”

Many families opt to places ashes in an urn and either bury the urn in a columbarium above ground or in a gravesite below ground. One of the very interesting things about the white stones is that they also make an attractive part of a memorial garden when surrounded by new plants.

A dear friend passed away just a few years ago, and her two grandchildren had been so close to her, and she’d pick them up from their school daily. Her daily presence in their lives was so incredible that their loss of her was devastating. Their mother came up with a perfect solution: a memory garden.

As you can see in the photos of their memorial garden, there is great potential for healing when children have an outlet to remember their loved ones. When they use their own hands and creativity to select colors of plants, help with the digging, planting, and watering, they have solid comfort from knowing they’ve done something to remember their loved one.

Every day they check the progress of the garden, find time to remove a few weeds, make sure the ground has water but not too much, and then to take pictures and share the scenes when they print them for their scrapbook.

Adults might find the cremation stones to be of equal comfort as you consider where you might collect and place them in your home, perhaps sharing with your siblings or others who loved the person you loved.

Saying goodbye is never easy but with this fairly new possibility of what to do with cremation ashes, we call “cremains,” it’s a very eco-friendly and clean, green way to process ashes in a permanent, respectful manner.

You can also add them to a family gravesite of another relative who would be proud to have a stone or two near their space.

Cremation jewelry and fingerprint jewelry are two optional considerations. Some of the ashes can be blown into colorful patterns in glassware and become extremely attractive desk paperweights.

Necklaces can be made for family members of all ages with small blown glass elements making an attractive pattern. Wearing a ring with your loved one’s memory is possible in our cremation diamonds. Visit

to see how these are grown. Check out

to learn more about our Legacytouch Fingerprint Keepsakes.

Cremation glass are custom designs of small portions of your loved one’s cremated remains inserted into glass when it is blown. Visit

to learn more.

Even if you choose burial, fingerprint jewelry is a good option for you to have a small part of your loved one’s memory with you always. All of these options are like a permanent hug from heaven, as many of our families have found.

Come in to our offices in Bryan and College Station to learn more about cremation stones or jewelry, or speak to a funeral director by phone who can help you arrange for this step in remembering your loved one. Although these ideas are not necessarily considered “traditional” yet, it takes a while for new options to become longtime traditions.

Blog Update: Watch our good friend, Justin Crowe, explain his opportunity to the sharks, including guest shark, Gwyneth Paltrow and see how it turned out:   

Cody D. Jones ’02

Owner & Community Member