Home-Based Business Offers Wide Selection of Urns

A Saanich woman's frustrating search for suitable funeral urns for the remains of her mother-in-law and family pet took her to the other side of the world and head-first into an unusual home-based business.

Teresa Westhead started importing decorative urns from Indonesia and Vietnam earlier this year to give people an alternative to what she calls the often bland and higher-priced urns provided by funeral homes and the containers used by animal hospitals.

Eternal Vessel offers hand-made marble, ceramic and bamboo-lacquer designs that are affordable and blend in with home decor, said Westhead. She carries more than 25 styles of cremation urns -- almost all of them selling for $99 or less -- about a third of the cost of funeral home urns, said Westhead.

She is currently marketing her products on the web at www.EternalVessel.com

"Our father had difficulty finding an urn that was not hundreds of dollars and something that would reflect our mother's taste and style," said Westhead, a former paralegal. "After sharing our story with many people, we discovered there was an ongoing theme of frustration in locating a suitable urn or vessel for people's loved one's remains.

"Our vessels hide their true nature and allow you to keep your loved one close without the nature of the vessel being obvious to others."

British Columbia leads all Canadian provinces in cremations at 78 per cent of all deaths, according to the Memorial Society of B.C. The national average is 56 per cent.

People are also increasingly providing funeral services for their pets, or at least having their remains cremated and stored in urns. A new pet funeral parlour is opening next month in Victoria providing various services, including cremations.

The death of Westhead's dog, Bitta, a rescued giant schnauzer who died at age 12, helped to spur her quest. When the family pet's ashes were returned in an animal hospital urn, "we were disappointed, to say the least," said Westhead. "The urn that was provided was not something we would place in our home. She sat hidden in our basement for several years."

Westhead said buying a funeral urn online can be helpful to families coming from different parts of the province, country or world. "They can all have a say in what's chosen before the funeral," she said.

Westhead is among a growing number of British Columbians opening their own small businesses.

A report being released on Monday by the provincial government shows more British Columbians received wages last year from small business than anywhere else in Canada. Annual earnings for B.C.'s small-business workers increased 19 per cent over the past five years, compared with an increase of 11 per cent for employees of larger businesses. Small businesses also provided nearly 57 per cent of all private-sector jobs in British Columbia, the highest rate in the country.

Small businesses, defined in B.C. as companies with 50 or fewer employees, also account for 32 per cent of the province's gross domestic product, above the Canadian average of 28 per cent.

Westhead will deliver the urns locally or via Canada Post. She can be reached at 250-885-5871.

SOURCE