Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America

-Uh, yes. -Man: What is the company your with?

A-I-M Holographics.

Amazing.

It's just amazing.

The NFDA is the largest funeral directors organization,

and they've got the single largest convention in the country.

If you've got anything to do with the funeral industry,

you're here.

So, I'm happy to be here.

This is great.

So, what we're doing is we're holding a mobile device

near any of our products, and up comes

a full digital footprint of that person.

All their social media links, picture albums, video albums,

even a GPS location of where that person may be at.

-(clicks) -Ooh!

- Celebrate life today. -Carl Minardo: That's right.

Let my values guide you.

Minardo: Why wouldn't you wanna do this for your own legacy,

and say it yourself from your heart

what was important to you in your life with no filter?

Your words, your image.

But this gives you an idea of how realistic it is.

That's what you would look like

in your eulogy or your life legacy

when you're talking about yourself.

So everything that you see here that we create

is fully customizable.

If you think it, we can make it.

You know, it's all about making that dream come to reality.

Woman: This is Beloved. We write custom

personalized obituaries, and we...

turn over a custom piece within 30 hours or less.

This is a Handful of Home,

beautifully crafted containers holding pure Irish earth.

It allows families to lay their loved ones to rest

in the very earth of their ancestors.

Man: We provide biodegradable and eco-friendly urns

and caskets for those alternative consumers

that maybe don't want embalming

or traditional caskets or traditional burials.

Many of the funeral homes don't use the word "urn"

anymore as much as they use the word

"memorial art" because there are so many options.

You can take cremated remains

and place them in a sculpture,

give them to an artist and put them inside portraiture,

or interwoven inside of the glass.

Man: In the next 10 years,

I believe a lot of funeral homes will end up closing,

just because they're afraid of change.

Those who aren't afraid of change,

they will be very successful.

Leila Johnson: My dad passed away a handful of months ago,

and I'm here with my Auntie Brenda and my mother

to offer his cremains to the ocean.

Oh, you got that picture. That's great.

-(laughing) -And as you see, he loved boating, and we loved fishing.

-A lot of that happened. -Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

This is my favorite picture.

-Brenda: I know, that's so beautiful. -Linda: Isn't that lovely?

Leila: He loved the ocean and spent his whole life on the water.

So, I did research and spent a lot of time

on trying to figure out...

what would be right, how to honor him,

what felt good, and, um...

I wish he, um...

he could know, um...

the decision I made.

'Cause I know how much he would love it.

Um, I know how much the ocean meant to him.

These are my dad's...

cremated remains.

I'm finding it very hard to let go,

but, um...

putting them in a good place to rest is...

is the idea.

We've been waiting

for a resting place.

We've been waiting to do something

very, very significant,

and it's happening.

So, this is allowing us to go forward in a very positive way.

Just don't wanna let them go.

As much as I feel that it's part

of the process,

and, you know, just holding onto them didn't quite feel

right as well, but...

still, I don't wanna let them go.

Okay, so...

We have to do this, let's do it.

Brenda: My family used to have

these big funerals in the cemetery,

and my brothers and I both have very bad memories of that.

-(chuckles) -Do you?

Yeah, we didn't like that.

Well, all of our family were in this Brooklyn cemetery,

the grandparents, the uncles and aunts,

and it was like this Sunday afternoon thing to do.

We just didn't like it.

So, this is a very different way to...

-very different way to honor somebody, I think. -Absolutely.

Very good thing to do.

Linda: It's gonna be very good for her.

She has not had time to grieve.

These are called layer cakes,

and these are actually-- this is all part of the plan

for helping to rebuild the environment,

and create new habitat.

Our whole goal is making people understand

that reef loss is serious.

You know, in Hawaii, coral bleaching has devastated the reef.

The Great Barrier Reef has been really devastated

by coral bleaching.

Engineered reefs are one of the solutions that can help

try to offset the reef that's already been lost.

When we place your father's remains in our reef,

we mix the ashes and the concrete in a small container,

which then gets cemented inside the reef ball.

That structure's gonna last 500 years or more.

And that is the legacy.

Not only is it a resting place for your loved ones,

but it is an active, producing part of the environment.

It's creating new life

and will do so for hundreds of years to come.

This is awesome.

-Isn't it? -I think it's so awesome.

Oh, it feels so good to be a part of.

Berkoff: Okay, so what we're gonna ask you to do is pour the ashes

-into this bucket. -Leila: Can I mix it by hand?

Berkoff: If you'd like.

-I think we're well mixed. -Berkoff: Yeah, whenever you're ready.

-Whenever you're ready, dear. -Okay.

-Do you need a hand with that? -Nope.

-Can you handle that? -Yep.

Berkoff: Okay.

Berkoff: Excellent job. Excellent job.

That's so special, honey. You put a lot of love into it.

I felt it.

These are just to keep him company.

-Linda: Have you got more chalk? -Yes.

-I'm gonna grab more... -Yeah.

-Man: You going? -Man 2: Yeah.

Man: Okay. One...

two... three.

-(music ends) -Sí, señor!

This is my Sunday morning routine:

prepare Mom and Dad's medication for the week.

Dad, he has COPD,

and he has lung cancer,

and he's got cancer in his liver,

and he's got renal failure.

Mom has Parkinson's and Mom has diabetes.

It's been rough on the family because there's

five boys and one girl,

and we all have jobs.

We all have responsibilities, and we all have to...

live our lives, but in the past year and a half,

we've learned to alter our lives

to take care of Mom and Dad now because that's...

They did a good job taking care of us.

Now, we need to take care of them.

And, you know,

they're good parents.

I wouldn't trade them-- Like I tell everybody,

I got the best job in the world. I take care of Mom and Dad.

I get to drink a cup of coffee

with my mother and father every morning.

And then I do my life.

Hey, bro.

-Daniel: What are you doing? -Breakfast.

-Daniel: Huh? -Making breakfast today.

Yeah.