Funeral Service Times August 2017 October 2018 | Page 30

30 LIVING ON THROUGH MEMORIAL TREES
Living on through
memorial trees
Responding to the desire for new and innovative ways to memorialise those who have passed,
Marko Dakin from Memorial Trees speaks about the alternative option offered by the company
P
eople and mourners alike
continue to look for new and
innovative ways to memorialise
either themselves or their loved
ones who have passed. At a time when
ashes are being put into vinyl records or
sent for a trip to space, the sector will only
continue to see increasing demands for
alternative memorials and more options
become available.
One company which has been offering
an alternative since 2016 is Memorial Trees,
established when founder Diederik’s wife
Jose was underwhelmed by the memorial
options at a crematorium near Maastricht,
Netherlands. The ceramicist had some
interaction with the funeral sector and
shortly after coming up with the idea of
the trees, passed away leaving a legacy for
her husband. “Ever since then he's been
very, very busy in the Netherlands, I’m a
family friend and I’m now working for him,”
OCTOBER 2018
says Marko Dakin, UK co-ordinator for the
company. “I’m responsible for the UK and
Ireland, Italy and France.”
The company has grown since its first
installation two years ago at the Walpot
crematorium in the Netherlands, with a
total of 13 trees in the country. The concept
has since been brought to the UK where
April saw the first installation at the Lincoln
crematorium, Lincolnshire in partnership
with The City of Lincoln Bereavement
Services. The company also installed a tree
in Ireland at the Colliers Funeral Directors in
Bray in May.
Based on Jose’s drawings, the trees are
laser cut and welded by a steel company
based in the Netherlands called Tosek
who also transport it to the crematoria
and cemeteries which purchase them.
For its UK’s operations, a Derbyshire
steel company - AK Bryan - handles the
production of the trees and UK contractors
Greenacre and Gem precast take care of
the foundation and installation. Although
Jose’s choice for the memorial objects to
be a tree is not explicitly known, Dakin
notes that, in general, trees are known to
“symbolise life and renewal”. Aside from
that, despite clearly being made from COR-
TEN weathering steel, Dakin states that
the memorial trees fit nicely into a natural
setting, making them appear seamless at
grave sites and crematoria amongst the
existing nature.
Dakin explains that the trees are
delivered on a “big transporter” with a 1.5
ton concrete foundation. He says: “The
foundation is put into the hole in the ground
then the tree is attached with steel rods and
bolts and then its landscaped.” As far as the
company is aware, there are no planning
restrictions or requirements in the UK when
it comes to the installation of this type of
memorial.
www.funeralservicetimes.co.uk