Moles Farewell Tributes

The Albert J. Hamilton American Legion Post No.7 Memorial Day Observances begin at 9 a.m. at the City of Bellingham’s Sunnyland Memorial Park at the corner of King and East Maryland streets behind Sunnyland Elementary School on James Street. A second service is at 11 a.m. at Bayview Cemetery’s Memorial Wall, 1420 Woburn St. Father Charles Whitmore is master of ceremonies at both events, with vocalist Sonia Alexis. Retired Navy Capt. Chuck Luttrell is keynote speaker, and Lt. Col Kevin Park, Washington Army National Guard & Chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital, will give the invocation and prayer. Also participating will be the Albert J. Hamilton American Legion Post No. 7 Honor Guard, the Bellingham High School Alumni Band and the Bellingham Pipe Band. At each of the programs there will be the traditional laying of the wreaths ceremony as well as honoring those individuals, families in the community who have lost loved ones while serving in the armed forces. ? ?Whatcom County Cemetery District 10 and VFW Post 9301 in Lynden is having two Memorial Day ceremonies. The first one is at 10 a.m. at Lynden Cemetery, on the corner of guide Meridian and Front Street. The second event is at 1:30 p.m. at Greenwood Cemetery, on East Wiser Lake Road between Hannegan and Guide Meridian. Both cemeteries will feature State Rep. Luanne Van Werven; Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo; Whatcom County Executive Jack Louws; Lynden Mayor Scott Korthuis; as well as the Lynden Middle School Band at the Lynden cemetery and the Meridian Middle School Band at the Greenwood cemetery; a member of each band will be playing “Echo Taps” with Louws; VFW Post 9031 will play an active role with the honor guard, laying of the wreaths; local Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops will be on hand for the raising of the flag and to assist with other duties and will place flags at each plot that are final resting places of veterans in both cemeteries; life Scout Kyle Glenn will lead the Pledge of Allegiance at both cemet... (The Bellingham Herald)

But as artist and poet Khalil Gibran once wrote, “For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.”Some of our aversion to seeing death as part of life, however, may be due to our culture’s tendency to view death as morbid — a theme that becomes even more apparent during traditional burial ceremonies and memorials.Moles Farewell Tributes’ General Manager, Lead Funeral Director and Green Burial Coordinator, Brian Flowers, is working hard to offer Whatcom County residents an alternative, environmentally-conscious approach to burial that is more consistent with Gibran’s sentiment. Moles Farewell Tributes’ unique and flexible approach allows friends and family to honor their loved one’s passing by returning them to the earth in a meaningful way that fosters healing.“We give people about two weeks to two months to deal with a loss and then we expect them to get over it,” Flowers says, criticizing the societal norms that have been formed around death. “The measure of our grief is our love, and so we never really get over it. We get through it and maybe we learn to carry it gracefully, but you never really get over it, nor should you have to,” he adds. “Our culture has no prescriptions for grieving loss — no rituals anymore — we take a very passive approach to mourning. Someone dies and they are often whisked away, perhaps never to be seen again.”Moles’ Brian Flowers assists a family with transport of their loved one to The Meadow using a muslin shroud. Photo courtesy: Brian Flowers.In addition to the emotional stress losing a loved one can cause, the way we’ve evolved to deal with death has also had a significant impact on the environment. “In the US, we bury enough reinforced concrete in burial vaults every year to build a two-lane highway from the nearby Canadian border to the Oregon-California border, along with enough casket steel to build the Golden Gate Bridge one-and-a-half times,” Flowers explains of the true cost of traditional burial. “We bury enou... (whatcomtalk.com)