User:Sam Hanpton

Recently there has been a huge movement for “green energy” and sustainability. From consumers buying hybrid cars and purchasing green building materials for homes, to eating organic food and using non-toxic toiletries, people are embracing this lifestyle. The energy crisis has created a need for people to do things differently.

Even when it comes to planning death.

“People thought I lost it, they didn’t know it was legal to have an at-home funeral,” said Detroiter Verlene Mc Lemore Wallace, a retired Michigan Department of Corrections worker talking about her 36-year-old son Dean, who passed away in November 2007. He had been ill for six years from juvenile diabetes.

“The hospital had to come get him to pronounce him dead and that kind of thing, but we made arrangements to have him laid out here (at the home),” said Mc Lemore Wallace. “I had a little bit of assistance with cleaning him up. I was taught how to put the (dry) ice on him. And then we used a different type of casket.