In Florida, there are at least seven cemeteries that offer the service. One in ten Americans say this is how they’d like to be buried, according to a 2023 survey from the National Funeral Directors Association. “Green” or “natural” burials - which sometimes happen at specialized conservation cemeteries like Prairie Creek, but can also happen at a handful of conventional lawn-and-tombstone cemeteries - have become increasingly popular over the past two decades. Each of these graves also helps ensure that this wild corner of Florida will remain undisturbed by future development. Since Prairie Creek’s first funeral in 2010, about 1,000 people have been buried there. McAliley’s grave lies in the middle of roughly 600 acres of preserved Florida wilderness, of which 40 acres are devoted to burials like hers. “It was as kind-to-the-planet a way as she could think of to have her body disposed.” “She liked the idea that her body would just be returned to the earth and that there weren’t any chemicals involved,” said her daughter, Chris McAliley, a retired federal judge for the Southern District of Florida. They marked the grave with a simple brass stake that bore her name and the dates of her birth and death. Then, to the trill of cicadas, the volunteers covered the casket with dirt and a pile of pine needles. Her family shared memories and placed roses on her casket. Instead, McAliley’s family lowered her biodegradable casket into a grave lined with palm fronds that had been dug by hand by a group of Prairie Creek volunteers who call themselves the Pick and Spade Society. And no concrete vault, which prevents the microbial denizens of the soil (for a time) from decomposing a body and returning it to the earth. No embalming fluid, which seeps out of caskets and can pollute groundwater. There would be no cremation, a process that contributes to climate change by producing as many carbon emissions as a 500-mile road trip. She chose to be laid to rest in what’s known as a “green burial” - in her case, at the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery outside of Gainesville, Florida. In death, she wanted to add to her environmental legacy. In life, McAliley was a moral pillar of Miami-Dade County: a 16-year school board member who crusaded for civil rights, the fair treatment of immigrants and many environmental causes. As bagpipes played, Janet McAliley’s family pulled her casket of woven seagrass on a wooden wagon down a dirt path through a wild green meadow in Central Florida.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |