We put him in a golf cart to take him out there. He was in pretty rough shape as he was in hospice at the time. We’re going to have a fundraising concert, and we’re going to get the money.”” She said, “Look, he doesn’t have any family and doesn’t have any life insurance or any money, but don’t worry – we’re well connected with the musicians in the Atlanta area. They were all in their twenties, and one of the friends pulled me aside pretty early on. He was a musician in Atlanta, and he had lung cancer. “I remember early on there was a very young man that came to see me in June of 2008, the first year we were open. “It’s hard to watch what they go through, but it’s just awesome to see the strength that people have.” “You bury men who die at 40 and leave behind children. “I wish every person I’ve buried would have lived a nice long life and just kind of faded out at the age of 95 or something, but that’s not the case,” says Joe. When I asked Joe, what he has going to hold onto from his time at Honey Creek Woodlands, he said it would it would be the people he’s met and the strength he’s seen in them. But typically it’s very moving, very touching.” It can be a little dicey sometimes, because they don’t have a whole lot of experience doing this. They take care of everything themselves, which in a bygone era used to be the norm. But we just want you to know that you are welcome to do as much as you’d like.”” “I told my clients, “You can sit there and watch us do everything just like any other funeral. I’d say the vast majority of the time it’s actually the family that is lowering the body.”Ĭommunity burial at Honey Creek Woodlands (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands). We’ve had families help fill in the graves. That’s something that you wouldn’t see at most modern cemeteries.” We see a lot of painting on caskets and writing and decorating of caskets. “Those are a nice canvas for people to express their feelings and their loss and their love. “The pine box burial is probably the most common in terms of what people are going to be buried in,” says Joe. “The modern American funeral can start to have a little bit of a cookie cutter kind of a feel to it.” “We pride ourselves on the fact that every service is a little different,” says Joe. In this last segement, you’ll learn more about the burial services at Honey Creek Woodlands, what Joe will remember from his time there, the wildlife this green cemetery supports, and what Joe is doing now. You and I can learn about the challenges and rewards of answering that calling from Joe. Second, when God calls you to make a difference for the future of God’s earth, you will need to step outside of your comfort zone. It also brings us back to the humility and radical Creation kinship of dust to dust. Burial intimately connects us with Creation. The burial of our loved ones offers a great opportunity to do just that. First, for Creation to be healed and renewed in any significant way, we need to integrate a commitment to God’s earth into our culture.
It was, I’m convinced, his life calling.Īs I wrote earlier, two elements of Joe’s story compel me to share it. He played a pivotal role in the founding of the Honey Creek Woodlands green cemetery on the grounds of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. In two previous posts ( here and here), we have been sharing the story of Joe Whittaker. Familiy and friends pitch in during a burial (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands).
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