Beatrice Adele Styles, “Bea” was born on February 21,1931. Bea was native Los Angeles resident who was beloved by her many friends and family.

I’m not sure if it was her Pisces nature that made her love the sea so much? Or the beautiful backyard that was her Pacific Ocean. Either way we always knew her final wish was to rest here in the blue southern California coastal waters. This is where she always found peace, in life and now in death.

Bea passed away on New Year’s Eve 2001. Leaving us all with a bang, that was her way of doing things, BIG. I’m sure the Lord had something to say about it but still…….The fact remains that it is not a wonder that the stars, or fate brought about the decision to spread her ashes in a way that had her soaring high above the area she loved so dearly. A seagulls cry, an angels wake, glitter in the air. That is my Mother, Beatrice.

Sunday May 18, 2013 Jamie Tanabe made my Mother’s last wish a dream come true. To her our deepest thanks. Jamie my Mom would have loved you, truly another native Californian who can appreciate the beauty of the jewel that is California.

My mother attended UCLA during WWII, then met and married my dad who took her to Indiana.  She always loved California and the time she spent on Catalina Island. Her wish was to have her ashes scattered off the coast of Catalina.  When she passed last year I had no idea how I was going to fulfill this wish.  Thankfully I found Jamie Tanabe and A Journey with Wings.  I talked to many services – but Jamie had the best credentials by far, and more important, was so wonderful to work with.  She took care of everything.  The flight was on a perfect day.  My husband released my mom over the waters as I read a farewell prayer from her friends and family.  A wonderful heartfelt service.  I couldn’t leave all of her behind though – so Jamie took care of putting together keepsake urns for my brother, sister and me.  If your loved one is cremated, I highly recommend A Journey With Wings for a celebration and memorial service to remember. Jan S.

There are a few things you need to address when end of life planning. The three main things are: What to do if you are ill or incapacitated, arranging what happens when you die, and organizing your accounts.

End of life planning starts with choosing what you want to happen if you are ill or incapacitated. For example, do you want to be resuscitated or put on life support or dialysis? When the time comes, you may not be able to make those decisions. A living will or advance health care directive outlines your wishes and is essential to end of life planning. Here is a link to a sample advance health care directive.

And in addition to your advance health care directive, you may want to designate a power of attorney as part of your end of life planning. This is someone who can make financial and legal decisions on your behalf.

The second thing in end of life planning will be what happens when you pass away. Two things to consider are your last will and testament and your funeral arrangements. Wills can be simple or complicated, depending on your assets. Simple wills may be arranged at low cost via internet sites or a paralegal. For a more complicated will, or if you want to make sure that things are done properly, you should consult with an attorney. For more information on California Wills, check out this site.

No end of life planning is complete without planning ahead for your funeral or memorial. This can be done in a few ways. You can make things easier for your loved ones by documenting your wishes in your will or by just writing your wishes down and placing that document with your other important papers. I have made up a wish card  for my clients that they can fill out and place with their important documents. You can even plan ahead and pay for your memorial with your funeral director. This is called a pre-need funeral arrangement, and most every mortuary offers this service.

The third thing you want to consider when end of life planning is to organize all of your personal accounts and put that information in one location that is easily accessible. This includes your life insurance policies, bank account information, loans, retirement accounts, and anything else someone may need to access upon your death. This may also include your digital life, such as passwords for important on-line accounts.

There is a lot to think about when doing end of life planning. Nobody enjoys doing it, but end of life planning can make things much easier for your loved ones. And you will know that things will be handled the way you would like.

When she was 20, she married Ed Bascom. They moved to Albuquerque where they resided for 10 years. After her divorce, she traveled and hunted all over the world. She hunted wild boar in Hawaii, and bears in Alaska, just to name a few. During that time, when she was in her late 30’s, she met and married Jack Palmer. They were married for 10 years and spent their time together in Albuquerque. Through her friend Loveta, she later met J.L. LaFon, who was to be the love of her life. They spent 25 years together until he passed away in 2009. Seven years ago, they moved from Albuquerque’s high elevation to Southern California so she wouldn’t have to be on oxygen full time. She loved being close to her family and spent every holiday with them. She enjoyed and always looked forward to the weekly family poker games and going to yard sales with her brother and sister-in-law, Jane. Roseanne was a beautiful woman who was always well put-together and dressed to impress – a force of nature. She was a kind, caring and generous person. She became very close to many people at Sunrise, where she lived until the end of her life. She loved her family and friends and they loved her. She will be greatly missed.

Clay Lockett was scattered by hang glider on Saturday, August 1, 2009. AFter holding onto her husband for 21 years, Liz decided she was ready to let go. Mr. Lockett was both a private pilot, and hang glider legend. After several discussions with Liz, we decided that a scattering by hang glider would be perfect. I contacted the Hang Glider Association, where he loved to fly. Not only did they give us permission to scatter over their location, but also put me in contact with a hang glider pilot that had been a friend ofClay, and was still flying This was a special scattering gfor me, because I was able to watch the scattering on the ground alone side Clay’s widow as the cremated remains were released and gracefully floated in the air. It was breathtaking to watch Clay have his one final flight. –Jamie

I received both certificates. Thank you very much. They are lovely reminders of a very special day. I appreciated the thoughtful details of your service-the camera under the plane so we could watch Paul’s ashes floating to the sea; letting us choose the location and actually release the ashes. It was very meaningful for us, and a day we will always remember.
Sincerely, C.W.

Here at A Journey With Wings we scatter cremated remains by airplane. We are no strangers to families having unique memorial ideas. So when TLC (The Learning Channel) aired a new show “The Best Funeral Ever” on January 6th, 2013, I was definitely interested. It is a reality show about the unique memorial ideas of the Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas. This funeral home definitely has some unique memorial ideas. It features what they call a “home going” celebration. According to John E. Beckwith, CEO of Golden Gate Funeral Home, their “home going” celebration is more than just a memorial service, it is a “celebration of life”.

The first episode highlights some of these unique memorial ideas. One family is taking turns bringing the urn on rides at an amusement park. Another made the casket into a sleigh because the deceased loved Christmas. Another had a fountain of BBQ sauce for the ribs served at the memorial service.

It is obvious that these unique memorial ideas are not for everyone. Some comments on the Internet showed that some people loved the idea and would want something like that done for them, while others were not so enthusiastic. Whatever your personal thoughts about these unique memorial ideas, there was no doubt that these funeral attendants were not mourning. Instead, they seemed genuinely happy. Mr. Beckwith said he was “making them extremely happy at the worst moments of their lives”. It is hard to argue with that.

Like the unique memorial ideas of the Golden Gate Funeral Home, our services are personalized for the deceased. Many families have unique memorial ideas and we try to do our best to honor their wishes. We have performed scatterings over unique locations and in unique ways. For example, one family had the unique idea to have a memorial service at the location they were they were gong to watch the scattering AND have the scattering performed at a specific time in a poem that a family member wrote. We accomplished this unique memorial by having one family member in the airplane with a copy of the poem. We flew past the family at a specific time, started the poem on board the airplane at the same time the family on the ground started reading the poem. We then had to make precision turns so that we would arrive back at the location at the exact time in the poem.

Another family had the unique memorial idea of having the scattering precisely at 6:00 pm in front of the Huntington Beach Pier so that the clock tower would chime right as the cremated remains were being released. The family was so please to be standing on the pier witnessing the cremated remains released from the plane and hearing the chiming of the bells in the background. An added bonus was that the sky was the beautiful pink/ orange that winter sunsets bring.

Many families choose to have a memorial service at the scattering location and then watch the scattering from the ground. Others choose to be part of the service on board the plane.

Like the families highlighted in “The Best Funeral Ever”, our families have chosen this unique memorial idea because it was right for them and right for the deceased. Many of our clients were pilots, adventurers or just interesting people that want something unique and different that reflects who they were in life.

Here at a Journey with Wings we scatter cremated remains by airplane.  Our service is a way to have a cheap funeral that is unique, beautiful, and memorable.

We consider ourselves to be a cheap funeral option because the cost for our service is a fraction of a traditional funeral, and so much more memorable. A basic, traditional funeral in California costs about $10,000, not a cheap funeral. This includes the prep fees, the casket and the cemetery plot etc. Our cheap funeral service is about one tenth of that. The cost of a direct cremation with a simple cremation casket is about $500 to $600.  Our most popular service, a witnessed scatter at sea, is $500. So for about $1100 you will give your loved one and all in attendance a very meaningful farewell.

Our service does not appear to be a cheap funeral. In our witnessed scattering at sea your family and friends gather at a beach location of your choice in Los Angeles or Orange County, at the day and time chosen by you. Some families will choose to have a small memorial service right there at the location. We will circle overhead at that special time to signal we are ready; we then perform the scattering right in front of you. The cremated remains make an elegant twist as they leave the plane. All in attendance will be moved as the cremated remains disappear into the wind. This cheap funeral appears to be anything but cheap.

If you have any questions about this cheap funeral option or any of our other services, please contact us at any time.