NEWAYGO, Mich. — Under the trees shading the beating early summer sun, and beneath the green grass blowing in the breeze, a West Michigan couple plans to bury the dead.
“I never thought that I would be doing this particular thing," said Peter Quakenbush.
It all started when Quakenbush, a biology Ph.D. student, was thinking about a dilemma.
“One of the worries about cemeteries is that, like, once they're full, they don't really serve their purpose anymore, like generations down the line, nobody knows those people anymore," he said.
Quakenbush decided he wanted to be the one to change that. He read books on something called “green burials.”
“We've been doing this as long as, you know, humans have been around," he said.
It soon became his new life’s mission.
“There isn't going to be a vault in the ground, it's just going to be a hole, and you're placed in that, and you can be in a casket, and it can be as fancy as you like, but the requirement is that it's biodegradable," he explained.
Gravestones are made from engraved rocks or simply just trees.
“They kind of fit into the natural aesthetic of the forest," he said.
Peter believes it's a new way of going dust to dust.
“It's very simple, it's taking a body and placing it in the earth," he said.
His wife, Annika, took some convincing.
“I remember saying to him one day, 'I will not be married to a grave digger,'" she laughed, “that has clearly changed.”
Her day job is in the business of life.
“I'm actually a birth doula," Annica said. "There's a surprising number of parallels between birth and death.”
"Having been born and dying are the two things that I think are the most human things that we'll ever do," she said.
The couple bought some land in Newaygo in 2022.
“Instead of maintaining it, like a cemetery, maybe like mowing the lawn or keeping up that aesthetic, like we're going to be maintaining it as a nature preserve," Peter said.
They're on the road to making a cemetery that's the first of its kind in the state of Michigan. The burial method is on the rise across the country.
The Quakenbushes already have a waiting list that’s 100 people deep.
“It's popping up more and more in other states," Peter said.
It's an interesting new way people can visit the gravesites of their loved ones, too.
“You can have your mind cleared, you can experience all the senses of nature, and you can kind of feel connected to life again," he said.
For now, their family of four spends their days on adventures around the property, feeling alive in a forest that will soon be filled with those resting for eternity.
“I like the idea that something I’m working on now, will exist long into the future,” Peter said.
The Quakenbushes are still waiting on their land conservancy status before they open up their operation. They hope to sell their first plots this year.
Check out their website here for more information and to join the waitlist.
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