To contact Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, go to Cemetery Contact Information
The Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery Story
Freddie Johnson, Executive Director, Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, Gainesville FL
“ I first learned about the concept of conservation burial in early 2007 when a friend, Larry Schwandes, gave a presentation about his experience of visiting Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve. I became passionately drawn to the vision of such a choice in our community in Alachua County, Florida. Larry and I set up a meeting with another friend of mine, Robert (Hutch) Hutchinson, who at the time was the Executive Director of Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT).
“We shared with Hutch the idea of creating a conservation burial ground for our community and he showed us an article in a conservation magazine that he had recently been reading about the same concept. That was the beginning of the formation of the non-profit organization Conservation Burial, Inc. (CBI). ACT and CBI became partners in a project that eventually became Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery (PCCC). The CBI board of Directors met monthly for about three years researching and planning before PCCC became a reality.
“The opening of PCCC was urgently motivated by Dr. Kathy Cantrell, local medical doctor and land conservationist, after she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Dr. Cantwell was the first person to be buried at PCCC, which was a home funeral facilitated by her family and many friends who also had made her shroud from her accumulated environmental t-shirts. Her body was carried through wooded trails by cart and local donkey followed by a walking procession of family and friends.”
“We shared with Hutch the idea of creating a conservation burial ground for our community and he showed us an article in a conservation magazine that he had recently been reading about the same concept. That was the beginning of the formation of the non-profit organization Conservation Burial, Inc. (CBI). ACT and CBI became partners in a project that eventually became Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery (PCCC). The CBI board of Directors met monthly for about three years researching and planning before PCCC became a reality.
“The opening of PCCC was urgently motivated by Dr. Kathy Cantrell, local medical doctor and land conservationist, after she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Dr. Cantwell was the first person to be buried at PCCC, which was a home funeral facilitated by her family and many friends who also had made her shroud from her accumulated environmental t-shirts. Her body was carried through wooded trails by cart and local donkey followed by a walking procession of family and friends.”
A Prairie Creek Family Story: The Thomas Family
Sgt. Todd Thomas is a take-charge kind of guy. So when the time came to prepare a final goodbye for his elderly mother, that’s exactly what he did. He took charge! Through grief and confusion, he applied leadership skills learned from a lifetime of public service in law enforcement.
First, he marshaled his family’s resources. He assessed the quality and quantities of their practical knowledge, skills and determination, and he considered their grief and heartbreak. Then he considered the strength and love his family could bring to the task at hand. So, along with his wife, two daughters and a son… they decided, “We can do this!”
“I can do just about anything,” Thomas says. “Law enforcement is about problem solving. But I couldn’t do this by myself,” he concedes. His wife, Diana, agreed to take on the task of researching local funeral homes and burial options. His daughters and son committed to help any way they could (which turned out to be quite a bit). That’s how the concept of a home funeral and a natural burial became reality for the Thomas family.
According to Thomas, having strangers and professionals do all the work always felt a little artificial. Over the years, as his parents aged and their health declined, most of their friends had faded, too. So a small, simple home funeral and natural burial seemed the best way to honor his mother.
“It was up to us to take care of her, and say good-bye, as a family,” Thomas says. “There were hoops we had to go through,” he adds, “but, as it turned out, they weren’t as bad as we thought they might be.” With the help of Dennis Shuman, a local death-care consultant who heads a volunteer group called Final Friends, the Thomas family began removing obstacles and overcoming hurdles to an alternative after-death care plan for his mom. Then, when his mother passed away at the hospice house, Thomas and his son worked with the staff on the logistics of removing her body and taking her to their home to prepare her for the burial. At first, even the hospice workers were surprised and impressed at the family’s do-it-yourself plans.
But with a little education on home funerals (possible in all 50 states) and the advantages of natural burial, and with a lot of help from Final Friends and cooperation from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Thomas family swung into action. “I found myself crying like a baby at times,” Thomas explains, “but it had to be done.”
As they transported her body to their home and began final preparations, Thomas says his family had some rough times, too. “There was some initial discomfort at seeing, and touching, her,” Thomas recalls. “But we hugged it out for a minute or two… and then we got to work.”
His daughter, who has excellent cosmetology and fashion sense, took charge of preparing her grandmother’s final makeup and dress. She had researched old family photos and was able to recover a sense of her grandmother’s beauty in by-gone days.
And during those last hours at their home, Thomas’ elderly, grief-stricken dad was finally able to come to grips with his wife’s passing. “He talked to her quietly, and told her how pretty she looked,” Thomas says, particularly pleased that his elderly father had opportunities to sit with her. “And then he said good-bye.”
That was important, according to Thomas. “Dad was able to say good-bye at several stages during the process. In our own home, on our own family time… not according to some other schedule, or at a funeral home.”
The morning after she passed, Sgt. Thomas and his son personally dug and prepared her grave at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery (PCCC), a Green Burial Council certified conservation burial ground in Gainesville, Florida. The non-profit cemetery is dedicated to providing a natural and affordable option for folks to be reunited with the earth. Its 93 acres of prairie and woodlands are a part of Alachua Conservation Trusts’ 600 acre Prairie Creek Preserve.
Thomas’ mom is leaving a legacy of Florida wilderness to be preserved and appreciated by future generations. “Mom would love that,” Thomas says. “PCCC was the natural choice,” says Thomas, a native Floridian. “The idea of embalming just doesn’t cut it for me.”
That afternoon the family all met at Prairie Creek and they laid their mom to rest among the peaceful trees, chirping birds, and quiet wilderness of North Central Florida.
“It brought us greater understanding of the meaning of family,” Thomas says, still choking up while remembering how his wife and children helped care for his Mom through the end of her life. “Together, we did it.”
—Chris Roeder, lives in Gainesville, Florida and works, occasionally, as an Operations Coordinator at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery.
First, he marshaled his family’s resources. He assessed the quality and quantities of their practical knowledge, skills and determination, and he considered their grief and heartbreak. Then he considered the strength and love his family could bring to the task at hand. So, along with his wife, two daughters and a son… they decided, “We can do this!”
“I can do just about anything,” Thomas says. “Law enforcement is about problem solving. But I couldn’t do this by myself,” he concedes. His wife, Diana, agreed to take on the task of researching local funeral homes and burial options. His daughters and son committed to help any way they could (which turned out to be quite a bit). That’s how the concept of a home funeral and a natural burial became reality for the Thomas family.
According to Thomas, having strangers and professionals do all the work always felt a little artificial. Over the years, as his parents aged and their health declined, most of their friends had faded, too. So a small, simple home funeral and natural burial seemed the best way to honor his mother.
“It was up to us to take care of her, and say good-bye, as a family,” Thomas says. “There were hoops we had to go through,” he adds, “but, as it turned out, they weren’t as bad as we thought they might be.” With the help of Dennis Shuman, a local death-care consultant who heads a volunteer group called Final Friends, the Thomas family began removing obstacles and overcoming hurdles to an alternative after-death care plan for his mom. Then, when his mother passed away at the hospice house, Thomas and his son worked with the staff on the logistics of removing her body and taking her to their home to prepare her for the burial. At first, even the hospice workers were surprised and impressed at the family’s do-it-yourself plans.
But with a little education on home funerals (possible in all 50 states) and the advantages of natural burial, and with a lot of help from Final Friends and cooperation from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Thomas family swung into action. “I found myself crying like a baby at times,” Thomas explains, “but it had to be done.”
As they transported her body to their home and began final preparations, Thomas says his family had some rough times, too. “There was some initial discomfort at seeing, and touching, her,” Thomas recalls. “But we hugged it out for a minute or two… and then we got to work.”
His daughter, who has excellent cosmetology and fashion sense, took charge of preparing her grandmother’s final makeup and dress. She had researched old family photos and was able to recover a sense of her grandmother’s beauty in by-gone days.
And during those last hours at their home, Thomas’ elderly, grief-stricken dad was finally able to come to grips with his wife’s passing. “He talked to her quietly, and told her how pretty she looked,” Thomas says, particularly pleased that his elderly father had opportunities to sit with her. “And then he said good-bye.”
That was important, according to Thomas. “Dad was able to say good-bye at several stages during the process. In our own home, on our own family time… not according to some other schedule, or at a funeral home.”
The morning after she passed, Sgt. Thomas and his son personally dug and prepared her grave at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery (PCCC), a Green Burial Council certified conservation burial ground in Gainesville, Florida. The non-profit cemetery is dedicated to providing a natural and affordable option for folks to be reunited with the earth. Its 93 acres of prairie and woodlands are a part of Alachua Conservation Trusts’ 600 acre Prairie Creek Preserve.
Thomas’ mom is leaving a legacy of Florida wilderness to be preserved and appreciated by future generations. “Mom would love that,” Thomas says. “PCCC was the natural choice,” says Thomas, a native Floridian. “The idea of embalming just doesn’t cut it for me.”
That afternoon the family all met at Prairie Creek and they laid their mom to rest among the peaceful trees, chirping birds, and quiet wilderness of North Central Florida.
“It brought us greater understanding of the meaning of family,” Thomas says, still choking up while remembering how his wife and children helped care for his Mom through the end of her life. “Together, we did it.”
—Chris Roeder, lives in Gainesville, Florida and works, occasionally, as an Operations Coordinator at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery.
It brought us greater understanding of the meaning of family. Together, we did it.
—Sgt. Thomas
