Mother’s spirit still shines

She had seen the ring before -- on television and in promotional

catalogs -- but never on another person’s finger.

So when Corona del Mar resident Janet de Michaelis laid her eyes

on the 1.27-carat yellow diamond earlier this week, she couldn’t help

but smile.

As president of the Omega Society, a family-owned funeral-,

burial- and cremation-services company, de Michaelis is always

searching for new ways to help her clients memorialize their loved

ones.

This one, she said, is unlike all other mementos.

Mounted on the ring was a diamond made out of a mother’s cremated

remains.

“I can see myself as a diamond,” de Michaelis said. “What an

incredibly personal way of preserving the memory of a loved one.”

Laura Curtin thought so.

The Westminster resident is the first Orange County resident to

purchase the customized ring. De Michaelis helped coordinate the

transaction between Curtin and Chicago-based LifeGem Co., which makes

the product.

Curtin’s mother, Betty Hess Wright, died March 22. Curtin and her

mother worked together in a family income-tax and bookkeeping

business, and Curtin said the two were close.

They went shopping on the weekends and often browsed through

jewelry departments together.

“My mom had a lot of style,” Curtin said. “She said, ‘However you

want to remember me, that’s fine.’”

Curtin decided on the ring. She sent LifeGem a cup of her mother’s

ashes, and the company extracted carbon from the existing remains.

Curtain ordered a three-quarter-carat diamond, priced at about

$8,000, but LifeGem created a 1.27-carat diamond for her at the

lower-carat price.

Tuesday, Curtin picked up the ring from a store in Orange.

“When I actually saw the stone, it took my breath away,” Curtin

said. “It hit me that I’d be able to see my mom shine all the

time.... This is a much better memorial than to have a burial in a

cemetery.”

De Michaelis said LifeGem has delivered about 1,500 stones across

the country.

She said she first contacted the company about three years ago,

soon after they started making the product. She began telling her

clients about the option.

“When I tell people about it, I still get half the people looking

at me cross-eyed, and the other half saying, ‘That is the coolest

thing,’” de Michaelis said.

She said jewelers and customers are picking up on the idea of

personalizing jewelry. Another of de Michaelis’ customers has already

purchased a blue LifeGem diamond through the Omega Society.

De Michaelis said she is pleased with Curtin’s product and enjoyed

seeing her enjoy her mother’s company once again.

“Death isn’t a pleasant experience,” de Michaelis said. “This is

the first time something nice has come out of a death.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

o7elia.powers@latimes.comf7.