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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho urn business aims to improve experience of scattering ashes

Scotty Crandlemire, right, inventor of the Angel Aire urn, and AngelAire franchisee Sarahlee Ziesins, left, display a custom cover that can wrap around the urn that has a built-in fan that scatters ashes at the new Caldwell, Idaho, business. (Greg Kreller / Associated Press)
By Torrie Cope Idaho Press-Tribune

CALDWELL, Idaho – Family members held each other tight as they gathered around an urn to say their final goodbyes to a man they loved.

After pulling a lever on the square urn, the family watched as his ashes flowed out of the box and floated in a fine cloud over the Snake River before gently falling and dispersing.

That experience is what Scotty Crandlemire dreamed of as a better way for people to honor their loved ones after death, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported. Crandlemire, of Meridian, Idaho, has patented an urn that automatically scatters ashes. It’s meant to be more dignified and less traumatic than attempting to scatter ashes by hand.

Crandlemire got the idea for his AngelAire urn after a bad experience he had while trying to honor a friend’s final wishes. Instead of scattering the way Crandlemire hoped and thought they would, the ashes came out in clumps. They pooled around his feet and even got into his shoes.

“It was a terrible experience, so I fixed the problem,” he said.

Crandlemire, a pilot with no previous experience in the death care industry, saw his idea form in a dream.

“I woke up, took down the notes and approximately four years from there I got patented and invented the (AngelAire) urn,” he said.

The square urn has a fan mechanism inside that spreads the ashes in a controlled manner. Once the lever is pulled, the ashes spread from the urn for about two minutes.

Crandlemire’s invention has been used in about a dozen scattering events. He has turned his idea into a business that he’s now in the process of franchising. The first location opened in Caldwell in April.

AngelAire has several designs of urns to choose from, and staff can plan an event around the scattering.

“We developed a business plan with the idea of it being a funeral service with the ash scattering as the central focus of our services,” said AngelAire Vice President Jim Thorpe.

The prices range from $500 for a scattering done by AngelAire employees with a video provided to $1,500 or more for an event.

Patsy Forsberg-Young, of Meridian, chose AngelAire for a service to scatter her husband Jay L. Young Sr.’s ashes at their property in Kuna.

“We set it on a hill overlooking the creek,” Forsberg-Young said. “We let the ashes go, and when it was all over, everyone that was there commented to me that it was the most peaceful funeral they had ever been to.”

Forsberg-Young liked the experience so much that she decided to plan cremation for herself. She had originally planned a burial but changed her mind after the AngelAire service.