Family feels 'a lot of peace' after woman receives end-of-life aquamation service in Manitoba

The family of a woman who recently became the second person in Manitoba to have a water cremation said they feel at peace knowing that they could give her the burial she wanted just weeks after it became available in the province. 

Elizabeth Crossley said her mother, Elizabeth Crossley Sr., had been talking about alkaline hydrolysis — or aquamation — since she first heard about it a few years ago.

Instead of traditional fire cremation, aquamation is an eco-friendly alternative that uses a hot water and alkali solution to break down the body's proteins and sugars, speeding up the natural decomposition process until only the bones remain.

Crossley said her mother was instantly drawn to the process and started discussing it with family, friends and medical providers. 

"I guess she identified more with the water process. She loved water and I guess her soul just liked the idea of that better," Crossley said. 

"I feel a lot of peace knowing we could give her what she wanted."

When Crossley's mother died a few weeks ago at the age of 65, the service had just become available in Manitoba.

Had her mother died sooner, Crossley said the family would have had to travel out of province to ensure she received the end-of-life care she wanted. 

Saskatchewan was the first Canadian province to legalize aquamation in 2012, followed by Ontario in 2014. 

Headingley-based funeral and aquamation services company Tillwell Inc. got its final licence approvals to start operating just a few weeks ago. It is the first and only company in Manitoba to offer the service. 

"Had she died three weeks sooner, we would have been shipping her to Saskatchewan to have it done. So good timing, I guess," Crossley said. 

Crossley Sr. was just the second person to have an aquamation service in Manitoba, according to Tillwell.

"Death is a personal experience and people ought to choose the form of final disposition that means the most to them," said Dwayne Till, CEO and founder of Tillwell. 

Till said aquamation is a "much gentler, way less energy intensive" process compared to traditional flame cremation that uses machines that run at up to 1,000 C for several hours. 

Till said the deceased person's body is put inside a hot water tank, where the alkali-water solution is heated to just under 100 C and circulated over the body for about 18 hours, using propellers in the back of the tank. 

The fluid is then sent through the sewage system, where it is treated. 

"You can actually repurpose some of the fluid that's left behind," Till said, adding he would eventually like to see it used by local farmers as a natural fertilizer, if provincial regulators allow. 

The bones are then dried and processed into a powder and returned to the deceased's loved ones, much like ashes after flame cremation. Except this powder — or  "mineral remains," as Till's company calls them — has a neutral pH level and is safe to return to the earth. 

Till's company charges $1,895 for direct aquamation services and $3,500 for aquamation with a tree ceremony and burial.

Crossley's family decided on a tree ceremony. 

"My mom, she always said she wanted to be a tree," Crossley said. 

"We are planning on putting a tree in my brother's backyard and that way she's close by … and her soul can go back to the earth."