Funeral home in Moose Jaw offering different way to remember loved ones

A funeral home in Moose Jaw is offering a unique cremation option, in the form of parting stones. Damian Smith has the details.

A funeral home in Moose Jaw is offering a unique cremation option called parting stones for families to hold onto loved ones who have passed away.

Dayna Chamberlain, the general manager of W.J. Jones & Son Funeral Home, explained why they decided to offer families the option.

“As a funeral home, we want to ensure that we are watching for ways for family to be able to honour their loved one,” she said. “We know that in times where there’s cremation that takes place, not everyone is comfortable with an urn and they’re also not comfortable with placing it in a cemetery.”

Chamberlain then reached out to Parting Stone - a company that compresses cremated remains.

The New Mexico based company takes the ashes, converts them into powder, and adds water to make a clay like substance - and put them in a kiln.

The company has grown to around 25 employees - even making an appearance on “Shark Tank” in 2023.

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“Once the firing [of the stones] is complete, this is where the solidification takes place. This is when they come out of the kiln, and they really feel like a natural stone. They have kind of the properties of ceramic,” Justin Crowe, the CEO of Parting Stone said.

This stone formation service remains quite rare. For Crowe, the business is also personal, he told CTV News while holding a piece of his grandfather.

“My grandfather is all over the United States,” said Crowe, who started the company in 2019. “He’s in Denver, Akron, Ohio, with my family. He’s in Washington, he’s in the Santa Fe River. We developed this alternative form of remains so families could hold their loved ones again and they could share them with the people in their community, and in their family.”

Chamberlain said the stones are in gradual demand in Moose Jaw - as this is a less traditional way for family and friends to grieve.

“The urn can be heavy, but that’s just the way that it is, where they can take a stone and they can hold the stone, and they can reconnect,” she said. “You’re actually touching your loved one now, right? You’re connecting with them this way rather than holding an urn that contains the ashes.”

The stones can be created from a variety of different colors and can also be created from pets.