Parting Stone Hosts Private Lab Tour for Women in Deathcare

On Saturday, May 17, 2025, Parting Stone hosted a landmark event in Santa Fe, New Mexico—welcoming nearly 100 attendees of the NFDA Professional Women’s Conference to its laboratory for a private tour. The visit marked one of the first times Parting Stone opened its doors to such a large delegation, offering an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how cremated remains are solidified into collections of 40-80+ stones.

The event was made possible through Parting Stone’s sponsorship of the NFDA Professional Women’s Conference, an annual gathering dedicated to uplifting and connecting women leaders across the funeral profession. You can learn more about the conference on the NFDA website.

Guests arrived on two buses from the conference hotel, greeted by staff members wearing custom “Funeral Directors Rocks” t-shirts—a playful nod to Parting Stone’s flagship service. As attendees waited for their scheduled tours, they were invited to enjoy complimentary refreshments, a specialty drink called “Funeral Directors Rocks,” and curated goodie bags.

Tours departed every 10 minutes, guiding small groups through the entire solidification process from intake to completion. For many funeral professionals, it was their first time seeing the technology and meticulous care behind a process they routinely recommend to families.

Lindsay Harden with Crevasse’s Simple Cremations in Florida reflected on the emotional weight of the experience:

“All who attended the tour of the Parting Stone lab last weekend were forever changed in a way that was not anticipated. Funeral directors all have a fleeting moment of sheer terror at the Post Office when we mail cremated remains away to a third-party vendor to create the product requested by the family who entrusted their most beloved person into our care… During the tour of the Parting Stone lab, those fears were put to rest.”

“We all can now attest to the shared mindset of thoughtful care and consideration within the entire Parting Stone team. The gifts of precision, professionalism, compassion, knowledge, and truly wanting to make the best quality product possible were all extremely evident in our time together.”

That level of personal care was echoed by Jeri Lynn Davenport of Smith Family Funeral Home in Arkansas:

“It was such an honor to be able to visit and tour the Parting Stone lab. To see how the Parting Stone team personally handles each family member was touching. Each person is known by their name—not a number. This shows so much dignity and respect for the deceased.”

Parting Stone’s VP of Production, Kelse Lighthizer, welcomed the tour groups and shared her personal mission to always put families first. From growing the production facility from the ground up to building a team rooted in care, Kelse emphasized that every order is handled with dignity and precision.

CEO and Founder Justin Crowe addressed the group, sharing how powerful it was to see so many women leaders in deathcare gather under one roof:

“Having nearly 100 of the most influential women in funeral service walk through our lab was incredibly meaningful. Some we’ve known for years, some we just met—but all of them are shaping the future of this industry. It was an honor to share what we’re building at Parting Stone with people who care so deeply about families.”

The educational tour has been approved by the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice (APFSP) for 0.5 CE credit—a bonus for attendees that underscores the value of the solidified remains option in the modern deathcare profession.

The event was a clear success, offering both inspiration and assurance to funeral professionals exploring the future of memorialization. As Lindsay Harden poignantly summarized, “Parting Stone has the full unwavering trust of our company, and we look forward to continuing to offer this wonderful option to each and every family that uses our services.”

Interested in offering solidified remains at your funeral home? Click here to work with Parting Stone.

Parting Stone, the New Mexico based start-up that takes cremated ash remains and turns them into what they term “Solidified Remains” recently sent out this press release celebrating their 10,000th family served in their short business history.

In the press release the company says this about their achievement, “This milestone marks a significant achievement in the company’s mission to provide a comforting, tangible alternative to conventional cremated remains and highlights an important shift in the modern grief experience in America.”

The company calls their solid form of cremated remains, which results in 40-80 small stones “a complete alternative to conventional “ashes.”

Related Article — In a somewhat related article the New York Post published this article recently titled, “How innovative cremation services are giving a new spin to the end of life”.   The article features Parting Stone but also mentions about a dozen other alternatives for cremated remains.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

The article intimates that with the high percentage of cremations taking place there is also a feeling that burial of cremated remains, niche placement, and even home urn placement are not the preferred ways that people want to memorialize their cremated loved ones.  According to the article, “They (consumers) want customized events paired with tactile experiences. Not surprisingly, a creative movement memorializing ashes is now happening.”

To that end, there are many opportunities, wide and varied in scope, coming to market for the these consumers looking for another option and the article mentions many of them with links to the processes.

I would suggest that you read the article and learn of the options available.  Many of them offer commissions or margins to funeral directors who facilitate the sale and, in a business looking for increased revenue, that revenue may come in handy.

The NY Post article states, “According to the Cremations Association of North America’s 2022 Cremation Memorialization Research, almost one in four US households, or approximately 22 million families, have human cremated remains in their homes.”

Disclosure:  The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Parting Stone.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

10,000 Families, 10,000 Stories: Parting Stone Celebrates a Milestone of Love and Remembrance

Just over four years ago, in September 2019, Connecting Directors shared our first feature on Santa Fe startup Parting Stone, introducing our readers to the innovative concept of solidified remains. Parting Stone was a true labor of love for founder Justin Crowe, who was inspired by the loss of his grandfather to find a way for families who chose cremation to nurture a continuing bond with their loved one.

“People who live with cremated remains desperately want to feel a connection with them,” Crowe told us then, “but they can’t. In their hearts people want to cherish the remains of their loved ones and pets but they feel frustrated because they don’t know what to do with them.”

In their first year, Parting Stone welcomed investments by angel investors, partnered with hundreds of funeral homes, and transformed more than 1,200 human and animal cremated remains into smooth, clean, and solid stones. By 2023, the company had attracted even more investment partners, moved into a spacious new headquarters, expanded into Australia, and won an appearance on Shark Tank, famously securing support from Lori Greinier and Kevin O’Leary.

Today, Parting Stone is celebrating another milestone in the company’s journey: serving 10,000 families.

“At Parting Stone, we have the profound privilege of helping families find meaningful ways to remember their loved ones,” Crowe shared. “As we commemorate serving 10,000 families, we reflect on the stories of love, loss, and enduring connection that have been shared with us. Each family’s journey is unique, yet all are bound by the universal desire to keep their loved ones close.”

The ability to hold and cherish the solidified remains of a loved one has allowed these families to take their loved ones’ stones along on travels, to place them in meaningful locations abroad or keep them close to home, and share them with extended family and friends. Over the years, many of these families have shared their stories with Parting Stone, and we’re happy that we can share a few of them with you. 

“The stories that follow are just a handful of the many that make up our 10,000 families,” Crowe says. “They highlight the deep impact that Parting Stone has had on people’s lives—offering comfort, connection, and a new way to honor the ones we love.”

Kari, who chose Parting Stone for her husband, Jeff

“I have sent my husband’s stones out around the world with friends and family. He is currently in Egypt, Machu Picchu, Italy, France, Spain, Michigan, Hawaii, California, Croatia, where he will now remain forever. He was a traveler and loved adventure and we could think of no better way to honor him than to send him to incredible places. Jeff was born in Michigan and moved to Maui after attending college at Central Michigan to pursue a career working with children with emotional and learning difficulties. We met when I was 23 and he was 24 while I was on vacation with my family in Maui. Our love story lasted 26 years and includes having a daughter and a son now aged 25 and 23. 

When Jeff wasn’t pouring his time into education, he was writing novels and planning our families next great adventures. During our life together we took our children to New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, Palau, St. Thomas, Hawaii and had many road trips. He and I had plans to go to Europe and Croatia when he passed away suddenly in the early morning on 11/11/2021. Anyone will tell you that the numbers 11/11 are magical and Jeff certainly was full of magic.

When we lost Jeff we were approached by a neighbor who had been considering Parting Stone for his brother who had recently passed. It was ironic because Jeff would bring special rocks home for our yard whenever we went on vacation. He collected them as reminders of our travels. Parting Stone seemed like a perfect way to honor him and his adventurous spirit.

I received the rocks after a couple months’ wait. The communication and process was seamless and we were appreciative as we did not want him misplaced. When he arrived I ended up running into a friend that very day and he was leaving for Machu Picchu. The ironic thing was Jeff had been talking about going there our entire life together. It was at the top of his bucket list and he planned to hike it with our daughter someday. My friend was the first person to take Jeff anywhere and it was to one of the most incredible places in the world.  From there he was sent to his best friend and family in Michigan. My daughter took him to France as did my little sister. My neighbor took him to Egypt and left him near the pyramids. My friend took him and left him in a waterfall in Croatia. He is in multiple locations in Italy and the final place he has been placed most recently is on The Camino De Santiago Trail in Spain. I took him to Maui and left him in the waters of the beach where we met and he’s also in the ocean where we call home. I have many stones left and hopefully many more travels ahead including New Orleans which was our last trip together in 2021. He will be left somewhere special when I go in February. 

Knowing he rests under the stars in all of these places or in the beautiful waters of the ocean he loved makes me feel as though I have honored him to his core.”

Eden, Robin, and Tamara, who chose Parting Stone for their parents, Cele and Gene

“This is a love story that goes back 70 years, but it took a tragic turn 24 years into this beautiful, loving relationship between a boy and a girl. You see, this handsome, kind, 6ft 4”, wonderful husband and father lost his precious life to cancer at just 49.  He had three sweet daughters whom he adored very deeply, who would miss him their entire lives.   Most of all he had a loving, devoted wife, one who stood by him through thick and thin, sickness and health, who would love him until she lost her cherished life at 92.  This devoted wife and mom always talked about her Prince Charming and how much she missed him.  Her love and commitment to him never wavered for all those years without him even when Alzheimer’s took much of her memory away.  She always talked about being cremated just like her beloved husband so their ashes could be mixed together.  We three daughters of these wonderful and special parents never imagined that mixing the ashes of both of them could be done in such a beautiful and meaningful way as with Parting Stone. 

So, after 45 years of our Mom and Dad being separated, we were able to bring them back together in this special way.  Thank you to Parting Stone for giving us something solid to touch and hold on to as we remember both our Mom and Dad.  Because of this amazing process we have been able to bring our parents to all the places we wish we could have gone and seen as a family.  Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Rhode Island, the beach, the rivers, the cliffs, we are so grateful that even though we no longer have our Mom and Dad with us, we as their three daughters can still create beautiful memories because of Parting Stone.”

Pam, who chose Parting Stone for her husband, John

“My husband John was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer on 4/20/20 and passed on 7/26/20. His work experience was diverse, though his degree was in geology. In the few months after his diagnosis, he expressed to me that he wanted to be cremated, and for his ashes to be incorporated into a work of art by our niece and her husband, who are artists. They were honored to be chosen, but did not work in mediums that would easily incorporate ashes. As an alternate option I was shown the Parting Stone website, and immediately felt that this was the PERFECT way to honor my favorite geologist. What could be better than to turn him into beautiful stones!?!?! Our niece’s husband offered to create a shadow box to house the beautiful stones.

John was Canadian, and he loved the trillium plant that grows wild in Ontario in the spring. This plant’s white flower has three petals, and he often said that it resembled our little family of 3. The shadow box is built partly of Canadian maple, and beautifully displays John’s stones in the ‘petal’ portion, and stones from his personal collection are represented in the ‘leaves.’

Because John died during COVID, we were not able to hold a memorial for him at the time, so a year after his death in July 2021 we held a gathering to remember his life. John had gone to our daughter’s classroom a few times and talked about geology, and he would always have a dish of polished stones for each student to choose for their own. I offered the same to those who came to honor him. We held the gathering at the pavilion of our subdivision, located on a small lake. The tables featured things from his life, martial arts uniforms, hard hat, computer wirings, and lastly, the beautiful trilium holding John’s stones.”

Cindy, who chose Parting Stone for her husband, Steve

“Steve and I had made arrangements with the Neptune Society for cremation, but after his passing in 2020, I came across Parting Stone and felt that solidifying his remains would offer a more meaningful way to keep him close. Four months after his death, I placed an order.

Steve was the love of my life for 40 years—kind, thoughtful, and a man who could light up any room with his warmth and humor. He loved spending time outdoors, whether it was walking our dog or enjoying time by the water, and he had a sweet tooth, especially for chocolate cake, which became a special tradition for us over the years.

Losing Steve at just 65 made me question what the future would look like without him. The grief was overwhelming, and I often felt lost. But when his stones arrived, I found something I didn’t expect—hope. Holding them gave me a tangible connection to him, something that brought comfort during such an uncertain time. It felt like a way to keep a part of Steve with me, even as I tried to navigate life without him.

The stones became a powerful part of how I remember and share Steve’s presence. I shared stones with family and friends, and to this day, I carry one with me wherever I go. I also have stacks of stones throughout my home, which brings me a sense of peace, as if Steve is always here with me.

On the first anniversary of Steve’s death, we gathered with friends to mark the occasion. We placed one of the stones in a motorized boat and let it sail across a pond where we lived. Everyone watched as the stone took its journey in the boat before finally falling into the water, a meaningful and beautiful tribute to Steve’s memory. Afterward, we returned home and shared Steve’s favorite chocolate cake, a simple but heartfelt way to honor him and reflect on the man we all loved. The solidified remains offer something unique—unlike a grave or a memorial site, I don’t need to go somewhere specific to feel connected to him. The stones are here, woven into my everyday life, giving me the comfort of his presence without the need for a formal visit to talk to him.

Beyond my own experience, those I’ve shared the stones with have found solace in them as well. They’ve told me how having a piece of Steve has helped them in their grief, and some have even shared pictures and personal stories of their experiences with the stones.

This has been especially important for our only child, Erica, who was very close to her father. Without any siblings to share this loss, the stones have provided Erica with a way to hold onto that connection and cope with the weight of grief. Having something physical and tangible to remember her father has been deeply comforting for her.

This experience has profoundly shaped how I navigate my grief, giving me a way to feel close to Steve always”

Kaitlyn, who chose Parting Stone for her husband, Matt

“Matt actually wanted his cremains to be shot off in a firework. I remember the day he told me that when asked, without missing a beat. I think he thought they would all be in a firework but research later told me it was just a tiny bit. I was able to make that part happen for him, but then I wasn’t sure what to do with the rest of the cremains. Then I found Parting Stone and it all clicked into place for me. Matt loved rocks, and would find and collect them wherever we went as a souvenir. He was also a potter, so once I found out the process and how the stones were fired in a kiln it all just felt so right and so natural for him. He is with his family and some friends. And I now take him with me whenever I travel. He is in the creek at his family cabin, the woods from our first date, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Greece, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and even New Zealand in Hobbiton now. Some of his favorite places and others that he never got to go, but I can carry him with me. I’m forever thankful for the work that Parting Stone does.”

Parting Stone, the creator of solidified remains for cremation memorialization, has had created an AI generated desktop calendar for funeral homes.  Here’s what their recent press release says of the calendar:

“Parting Stone, the innovators behind solidified remains, is proud to announce the release of their 2025 “Death Rocks! Calendar,” an AI-generated page-a-day calendar launching on January 1, 2025. This limited edition calendar, with only 400 copies available, offers 365 absurd, entertaining, and thought-provoking visuals to inspire and entertain death care professionals at work.”

Here’s what Parting Stone CEO Justin Crowe says about the calendar,  “Humor plays a vital role in the death care profession.  It helps us navigate the emotional weight of serving families on some of the hardest days of their lives. The ‘2025 Death Rocks!’ calendar highlights how solidified remains can be meaningful, innovative, and even a bit entertaining. It’s about honoring life with creativity—and maybe a few puns along the way!”

To receive this limited edition calendar, please use the sign-up order here.

Here’s a day from the Death Rocks calendar that is less than a month away.

About Parting Stone:  Parting Stone, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is revolutionizing death care with solidified remains, offering families a beautiful and tangible alternative to ashes. Committed to fostering creativity and innovation in the industry, Parting Stone is proud to distribute the 2025 “Death Rocks! Calendar” as a resource for professionals to reimagine how they connect with families.

Click here to see how Parting Stone inspired a son’s journey to remember his father.

Learn more about Parting Stone from their website here:

Disclaimer:  The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder in Parting Stone.

Funeral Director Daily take:  From my point of view, Parting Stone is one of those products that can add ancillary income to cremation dispositions.  It’s a product, like some others, that funeral homes can recieve a commission when families choose the product as part of their memorialization process.

At first glance, when I see this desktop calendar offered, it reminds me back in the day how I could easily suggest that we took credit cards as a form of payment.  We did so by having information on the arrangement tables that simply said, “We accept Visa”.  That information prompted families to ask about our credit terms and led some families to choose that method of payment. . . .instead of having the funeral home carry the debt.

I think I would use this desk calendar in the same way.  It very well could prompt a cremation family who was simply going to take the cremation ash remains home to ask about solidified remains or Parting Stone and result in a commissionable sale for the funeral home.

In essence, like many new products, the power of suggestion (the calendar) may prompt questions that could lead to a better funeral home bottom line.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Secrets to Successfully Sharing Parting Stone With the Families You Serve

Earlier this year, funeral director Lacee Green was surprised to learn from Parting Stone founder Justin Crowe that she was the top seller among the company’s many partners. That’s because to Lacee, solidified remains from Parting Stone aren’t something she “sells.” They are something she simply feels she has to share with the families she serves.

“I did not set out to do that,” says Green, who serves families in the Denver, Colorado area. “It’s just when I started here, I found such value in them. I started to see families’ experiences in their emotions and their feedback. And it just became natural for me to offer.”

Personal stories set the scene

Green loves the concept of Parting Stone: offering families the opportunity to transform the messy cremated remains of a loved one into smooth stones that they can hold, display, and share. She loved it so much that she entrusted the company with the remains of her beloved 14-year-old cat. That personal experience just added to her enthusiasm for and belief in Parting Stone.

Jill St. Laurent has a story similar to Green’s. A licensed funeral director who serves Legacy Funeral Group as Training and Development Coach, St. Laurent has introduced Parting Stone to many Legacy staff members. However, it wasn’t until last year that she came to realize the profound impact solidified remains can have on a family who has lost a loved one.

“I was able to send a portion of my grandfather’s cremated remains [to Parting Stone],” St. Laurent shares. “His stones have gone to six states and back to his farm in Nebraska. There’s a little piece of him everywhere because it continued his life story.”

Certainly, these personal encounters with Parting Stone have provided incredibly meaningful stories for St. Laurent and Green to share with families. Even though that won’t be the case for every deathcare professional who has the opportunity to share Parting Stone with families, these stories — and the approaches these directors have adopted to explain and promote the concept — can serve as an effective blueprint for successfully offering this unique service. 

1. First impressions matter

As St. Laurent and Green explain specifically how they introduce Parting Stone during their interactions with families, both disclose that having Parting Stones on display is foundational.

“We strive to keep them on the arrangement tables so that it’s part of the conversation,” St. Laurent says, explaining that Parting Stone’s training team supplies partners with a complete kit of materials, including sample stones, to share with families.

Green says she, too, keeps solidified remains visible during arrangement meetings.

“I have two sets of stones in two different display table pieces,” she says, adding that she also has a Parting Stone testimonial video brochure from Parting Stone on hand, which she supplements with her own story.

2.  Every time, to every family

Another key to Green’s success is that she tells every family about Parting Stone — even if they have selected a disposition other than cremation.

“I offer them to my burial/traditional casket families,” she says. “There are a lot of people with cremated remains sitting in their closets. I’ve had a couple of families I served when one of their parents died and they’d had the cremated remains of the other parent in an urn at home for 10 or 15 years; they brought both urns to me and I had both turned into stones for them. [I tell every family because] even if they’re not interested, they’re going to know somebody else. I’ve had a lot of referrals from those families.”

St. Laurent agrees.

“You never know who’s sitting across from you at the table,” she says. “And you never know who is influencing that decision maker at the table for other options and how we can impact the entire family.”

She speaks from experience, as she was prompted to send her grandfather’s remains to Parting Stone after getting a call from a cousin who learned of the company during Crowe’s appearance on Shark Tank — one week after their grandfather’s death.

“The next week he texted me and said, ‘What is this?’” she recalls. “I said, ‘We can offer that. My company offers it.’”

3. Educate yourself on the product and process

Despite the exposure Parting Stone received from the Shark Tank deal and the exponentially growing number of social media stories families are posting, there are still millions of people who have never heard about solidified remains. That’s why the educational component of the training St. Laurent provides to her firm’s directors is so important. 

“That gives them the training and confidence to just have a conversation,” she says. “They feel confident that if a family asks about it, they know how to order it, how the process of solidification happens, and what to expect after the remains are shipped back. It gives them a better understanding [so that they aren’t just saying], ‘This is Parting Stone.’”

Top seller Green has provided similar advice to other directors in the Denver market when they call to ask her how she’s been so successful.

“I’ve asked those location leaders if I can come speak to their directors,” Green says, “because if you’re not comfortable introducing something to somebody because you don’t know about it, you’re just not going to talk about it, right? And I don’t feel that directors are talking about it because they don’t know how to introduce it.”

4. Introduce Parting Stone as the innovation it is

Once a director is familiar with Parting Stone, St. Laurent suggests they use some of the arrangement meeting time as an opportunity to pass that education along to the families.

“They don’t know what they don’t know,” she says. “They don’t know what’s out there until we say, ‘Can I have just five minutes of your time to tell you about some of the other options that weren’t’ around five or ten years ago?’”  

During those conversations, St. Laurent explains that burial and cremation are no longer the only forms of disposition, and ashes are no longer the only form of cremated remains that can be returned to the family. She adds that asking questions of those folks around the table about what they and their other family members would like or need is important.

5. Know enough to share alternative solutions and benefits

Both St. Laurent and Green admit that not every family is going to automatically choose Parting Stone for their loved one’s remains. Green has had to overcome family members’ objections to the new idea of transforming ashes into solidified form plenty of times. To her, that’s an opportunity to propose new options.

“I share experiences of what other families have done with the stones, and I can see their wheels turning,” Green says. “I see them thinking. But some people may not be super hot on the stones. I tell them that’s ok, because they can send in all of the remains, or they can send just a portion of them, and keep the ash part to scatter. That’s the awesome, flexible part of Parting Stone.”

A director at one of the locations where St. Laurent trains asks an especially effective question of direct cremation families who want just that — cremation services only.

“They have found great success in saying, ‘Tell me what you’re going to do with Mom afterwards,’” she says. “They explain that there’s no amount of personalization you can do on an urn to make it as personal as solidified remains, which you can hold in your hand. This is not a disposition. This is not a keepsake. It’s not a fingerprint. It’s just Mom, in a different form.”

6. Anytime is a good time

Sometimes those initial conversations about Parting Stone are simply an opportunity to plant a seed of an idea that sprouts at a later date. Parting Stone also provides directors a wonderful reason to reach back out to cremation families years after they’ve received the cremated remains of their loved one.

“You can always go back and serve those families that have maybe taken their loved one home in the past years,” St. Laurent says. “It’s a good time to have a phone call with them just to say, ‘Just want to let you know we’re thinking of you. And you know, we do have a new option now.’ I feel like it’s our duty as an industry just to give the options.”

Green agrees.

“I am so thankful that this company is out there and that families have another option,” she adds. “There are so many people sitting with ashes at home. They can do something more meaningful. This is another avenue I can offer their family. And it’s brand new. And they’re going to love it. I’ve not had one family come back and tell me they did not like the stones.”

Want to learn more about solidified remains? Sign up for their informational webinar on Halloween at 2pm EST to learn how other funeral homes are growing their business with Parting Stone.