Last year, a year my family was plagued with too many deaths, I came face to face with something I never knew existed: ugly, clunky marble urns.
I took one look at the unsightly receptacle that came free with my grandma’s cremation package and shook my head. Sure, she was the queen of the kitchen, but there was no way my grandma would want to have her ashes kept in what looked like the mortar and pestle she used to crush garlic with. My grandma—who, even in her 90s, set her hair with rollers every day, never abandoned her Clinique skincare routine, and got antsy when she missed a mani-pedi appointment—needed something more elegant.
And so, amidst my heartbreak and grief, I set off in search of a beautiful urn, one my grandma would be happy with. Funeral homes usually stock nice urns, too—so nice you have to pay extra for them. But there is also no shortage of local companies and online sellers that offer them.
Here are some of the most beautiful urns we found.