Rising for the ashes

Death is a topic I avoid, for it is my greatest fear. Whenever I go to the memorial park, the feeling I get is almost surreal. I am constantly in denial of the inevitability of death and envy those who view death with equanimity (as one line in the song Falling goes, "I’m afraid to fly, and I don’t know why. I’m jealous of the people who are not afraid to die.") . Life is so real, so vivid to me I find it ludicrous that I am just passing through this world. Must one go to the next life to experience heaven? Life isn’t perfect, but I do feel that heaven is already here on earth.

I was around three years old when I experienced death in the family. My Uncle Buddy was stabbed, and he subsequently bled to death because he was not given prompt medical attention. During his wake, I was awed by the sorrow around me and so I asked my mother, "Why do people cry when someone dies?" And my mom answered, "Because you won’t see that person anymore." That made a lot of sense to me, for at the time in my life, it was a heart-wrenching experience every time my mom left me to go to the grocery store, even just for an hour. And it made a lot of sense for a person to be sad when someone he loves is gone from his life–forever!

It is the thought of not being in the company of those you love, those you feel you cannot live without, that makes me fear death. I guess I have to work on strengthening the bedrock of my faith, for it teaches that there is life ever after.

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Whew! Having gotten that fear off my chest, maybe I can proceed to write this article. When a colleague asked me if I wanted to feature someone in the business of providing people their "niche" in this world–literally–I was intrigued. I feature people from all walks of life, so why not feature one who specializes in one aspect of death? Someone’s got to do the morbid task, after all.

"Oh, but I’m in a caring business," insists Jake Fleta, Jardin de Paradiso Properties, Inc. president, which is building the biggest columbarium (or repository of ashes) in the country.

"This business has the biggest market simply because everyone is a prospect. Besides, everybody is saying that business at the moment is dead (‘Patay ang negosyo’), so what better business to engage in than the death care business?" quips Fleta, a CPA with an MBA from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business.

Why did he go into this "caring" business?

"Because it is also a business where we can assure you of excellent service, as certainly not one tenant will complain!" he answers. Fleta, of course, is joking.

Turning serious now, Fleta points out that there are only two choices of interment–cremation or inhumation (burying a person’s remains underground.)

"With growing concerns for health (leaching), the environment, and land use–God has stopped creating land but continues to create people–more and more people are veering away from the traditional ground burial."

Fleta believes these circumstances are giving life to cremation, which he stresses has been accepted by the Catholic Church since 1963. Fleta reveals that due to the population’s growing acceptance of cremation (to date, of the 124,280 households in Metro Manila, six percent accept and can afford cremation), there are already 19 crematoriums in Metro Manila alone!

"But since scattering the ashes of a person in the sea or from the air or keeping them permanently in an urn in one’s house is not in keeping with Church norm, we’ve built a hotel-like structure intended primarily and exclusively as a happy home for cremated remains," says Fleta. Despite our grim topic, Fleta talks without a tinge of queasiness and uneasiness.

He describes this hotel-like columbarium, to be called "Caelum, The Home of Happy Souls," as a "happy home for cremated remains." Caelum means "sky" or "heaven" in Latin and it will rise (for the dead) late next year along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City, which Fleta jokingly (again!) refers to as "Death Row" because of the funeral parlors in the area.

According to Fleta, the Caelum will have its own air-conditioned Church (the dome of which is fashioned after a bishop’s miter), complete with five-star features and amenities, and artworks by famous Filipino artists Fred Baldemor and Impy Pilapil. There will be function rooms for private celebrations (as death anniversaries), coffee shops and religious stores. Each niche in the Caelum can accommodate four urns, and costs a minimum of P60,000. Puede ring hulugan, according to Fleta.

"It is going to be the only columbarium that offers a choice of various settings for the niches–inside the Church, the Garden, the Building. There will be no embalming room, crematorium and funeral wake parlors within the facility," emphasizes Fleta. Unlike in memorial parks, there will be no sit-ins in front of the niche (with eating, gambling and other forms of merriment not allowed). Brief visits and prayers are encouraged.

"It’s really a paradigm shift," says Fleta. However, upon special request, an urn may be taken out of the niche for a certain period of time (like birthdays or anniversaries) and brought home, to be returned, of course.

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Jardin de Paradiso Properties, Inc. (which may be reached at 687-1253) is headed by former Presidential Adviser Roberto Aventajado as chairman. Aventajado vows that a "significant amount" of expected gross revenue earnings of the Caelum will go to the upkeep of the monastery of the sisters of the Order of St. Clare in Marinduque. In a manner of speaking, from the ashes will rise these sisters’ new home.

Life really goes on, despite death.

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