By Robbie Byrd, THE HUNTSVILLE ITEM
OAKHURST, TEXAS— She had been battling cancer for nearly two years now, and finally she drew her last breath surrounded by friends and family. They took her frail body — wrapped in a warm down comforter — and lined her grave with Spanish moss, just as she had asked them to. They placed her on a plywood plank and, with ropes, mourners slowly lowered her into a hole on one of the many wildlife preservation sites she had dedicated her final years to protecting.
Over tears, they covered her in the moss, and covered her body with the earth.
And here, just a stone’s throw distance from a rock cliff overlooking Lake Livingston, two bronze lions guard the grave of Marjorie Haw Russell, a woman who died but whose memory will live on.
Russell, 91, died Sunday, May 27, at 9:30 p.m., and in line with her wishes, was buried less than 12 hours later as the sun rose over Lake Livingston.
Her body was placed in an open grave as part of what’s become known as a green burial, a foreign process to some, but one her son, George Russell, said is in line with his mother’s environmentalist nature.
“It is an experience, since I have only one mother, that thankfully I will have to endure only once in my lifetime,” Russell said, staring out over the mound of dirt topped with a red geranium and a dogwood tree planted at the head of her grave, a request she made in her final words.
In death, as in life
The Green Burial Council, a non-profit organization that has established guidelines for the natural burials, calls a green burial one that “encourages sustainable and ethical practices.”
And this is something Russell said his mother believed in.
“Her life is a perpetual legacy to the future of, not only Texas and the U.S., but to the entire biosphere that keeps us all alive,” Russell said.
In her lifetime, Marjorie and her husband, Kenneth, have set aside hundreds of acres of land in San Jacinto and Walker counties to serve as nature sanctuaries.
And 10 acres of that land is the Russell Family Cemetery, the only family-owned eco-cemetery in the nation.
“It’s what she wanted,” Kenneth Russell said.
Green burials are different from traditional funerals in two major ways: bodies are not embalmed and no vault is used.
In some instances, a wicker or pine coffin can be used, but most often the body is wrapped in a natural fiber blanket and placed directly into the ground and covered with soil.
The goal of green burials, according to the council, is to have as little economic impact on the environment as possible.
While not a new process, green burials have come into the limelight after the first commercial eco-cemetery was established in 1998 in South Carolina.
Green burials are significantly different because of the reduced environmental impact they have, according to the council.
In fact, statistics compiled from the Casket and Funeral Association of America and Cremation Association of North America, show more than 104,000 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, more than 1.6 million tons of concrete and 827,060 gallons of formaldehyde are buried each year through traditional burials.
These non-biodegradeable substances collect and, in some instances, can contaminate groundwater sources and nearby water reserves.
With green burials, the council says, the amount of non-biodegradable material introduced into the earth is none. “I’ve talked to a couple thousand consumers over the last four years, and I know what’s driving them (to look into green burials),” said Joe Sehee, executive director of the council. “Allowing people to feel as though their last act on earth contributes to a positive purpose connects them in an almost religious way to this concept. It makes people’s eyes sparkle.”
Most burial grounds are not landscaped, left to grow naturally with as little impact to the environment as possible, including minimal use of excavation tools to dig the grave.
After Marjorie Russell’s body was placed into the grave, friends took a shovel and covered her.
“It was a very personal experience,” George Russell said. “To me, the artificial nature of the modern burial … is much less human than when the family can gather around the person who has died.”