Yes, be afraid. Hold Me Urns, Inc. has come up with a new product: Huggable Urns. Basically, you put the ashes of your loved one into a little velvet plastic-lined pouch. The pouch then goes into a zippered pocket in a pillow (for human-sized ashes) or a smaller stuffed teddy bear, dog, or cat (for “smaller portions” of ashes). The animals and pillows are embroidered with the words “Hold Me,” and you can further personalize them, even with t-shirts or sports memorabilia in the case of the stuffed animals. As the site states, “It’s nice to know that your loved one’s final resting place is in one of these Huggable Urns (TM) and always around you ready to hug when ever you feel the need.”
I understand that people cope with grief in all sorts of ways, and if this company is providing comfort to grieving families, that’s great. But personally, the idea of hugging a stuffed animal or a pillow with someone’s ashes in it creeps me right the hell out.
Found via Nealz Nuze.
This is the second site where I saw a comment regarding the teddy Bear urns.
You are entitled to your opinion…but go through it and maybe you will understand…or change your opinion…
I am finally after losing my son on 5/18/09 am able to search memorial sites for URNS without breaking down…The Teddy Bears caught my attention…not necessarily to HUG…but to put on display as you would if it was made of ceramic, glass, etc…
I feel its appropriate since he was barely an infant.
RAWK: Okay, first of all: I am sorry as hell to hear that you lost your son. I’m not even going to pretend that there’s anything I can say that will even come close to helping with that, but just know that the thoughts of everybody here go out to you on that.
Secondly, you’re right: It doesn’t work for me. And my opinion is just that, my opinion. And it is an opinion expressed on a humor website which means it probably shouldn’t be taken very seriously at all. But as I hoped to make clear in the post–if it works for you in your time of grief, then I’m glad it works for you and more power to you. And that’s no joke.
Actually, I came across this company called Cuddly Cremains (cuddlycremains.com) that seals the pet’s cremains in a material similar to amber and seals it inside the stuffed toy. My cousin’s dog died and she got one of these and she LOVES it. She carrys it around with her all the time. It has really helped her with her grief. I presume that once her grieving is eased she will stop carrying it around so much, but who knows? The thing that I liked about this over the ones with the pouches is that even if the stuffed animal gets torn up, the ashes will be safe and can be installed into a new stuffed toy.
2 months ago I would of thought they were creepy.. but after the experience of my precious perfect baby passed away I have different feelings. The normal “urn” type things freak me out! I have looked everywhere, every website for something that would be almost as perfect as she was. Nothing has even come close but I keep coming back to the Huggable Urns. Loosing my child has ruined my happiness and if I can find somewhat comfort in hugging what I have left of her, then that’s what I will do.