Because there are not yet terramation facilities operating in California, choosing the right partners matters deeply.
At LifeSource, we believe end-of-life care is not simply a service. It is a relationship of trust, one that asks families to place the people they love into the hands of others during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. That responsibility deserves extraordinary care, transparency, and integrity.
For us, partnership is an extension of the community of care we are building for Los Angeles families. We intentionally align with organizations whose values reflect our own: deep respect for the deceased, support for the living, operational transparency, and a commitment to allowing natural processes to unfold.
That is why LifeSource chose Return Home as our terramation partner.
We sat down with Jake Miller from Return Home so families can hear directly, in his own words, about the philosophy, practices, and level of care that shape their work every day.
Terramation is still new to many people. And when something is unfamiliar, transparency matters.
"For the last hundred or so years there's always been a curtain between the professional aspects and the back of the funeral home versus what the family sees on the front end,’ explains Jake.
LifeSource sought a partner willing to pull back that curtain.
"One of the reasons that LifeSource has specifically sought out working with Return Home is the level of transparency they have" says Braeden of LifeSource.
Return Home believes families deserve the ability to fully understand the process, even if on the rare occasion they ultimately decide terramation is not the right fit for them. Rather than restricting access, they welcome families into the conversation through educational opportunities, and in-person and virtual tours of the facility itself.
“When some people hear human composting, they’re coming up with their own ideas of what that means,” Jake explains. “But when we have the ability to walk people through how that all works, it opens up the comfort level to better understand how everything works.”
“That’s such a unique approach,” adds Braeden. “Not all terramation facilities or providers offer this level of openness. It’s pretty unparalleled, in the funeral industry as a whole, regardless of disposition.”
At its heart, terramation is about partnership with nature, and Return Home’s process is intentionally designed to support decomposition in a way that mirrors natural systems. While some terramation providers may rely on supplemental heat, or have overly engineered vessels that are prone to breaking down mid-cycle, Return Home’s approach is simple and incredibly gentle. Instead, the process is allowed to unfold naturally, with time, oxygen, gentle turning, and microbial activity doing the work of transformation.
“The microbes in our body break down the body when we die,” Jake explains. “If I were to die out in the woods, the microbes would transform my body over time. That’s what they’re designed to do.”
The terramation process unfolds in two phases. In the phase approximately 90% of decomposition occurs naturally, leaving only skeletal remains. In the second phase, the bones are reduced and then placed back in a second vessel along with the remaining material and continues transforming into compost.
Jake explains that while soft tissue naturally decomposes, bones can remain intact for centuries because microbes eventually lose access to their dense interior structure. Return Home gently reduces long bones into smaller fragments, allowing microbes access to the porous interior so decomposition can fully continue — completing the transformation naturally over time.
For generations, many families have been kept at a distance from death care processes- rather than active participants. But that is beginning to change.
"This specific industry has not really one that's evolved in quite a few decades,” explains Jake, “but I think that is beginning to change... I think that we are right at this changing point, more families are wanting to be more interactive, be that with terramation or something else."
Return Home has created intentional space for that participation.
Families may take part in every step of the process from bathing their loved one to laying-in ceremony, to ceremonially placing organic materials into their loved one’s vessel. In one deeply moving example, a mother asked to place the remaining organic fill into her son’s vessel herself, and later encouraged Return Home to share the experience so other families might feel empowered to participate too. Upon its original conception, Return Home did not anticipate families wanting to be active in the process, but these practices were adopted by Return Home out of continual requests of families.
"We just set ourselves three basic pillars that Return Home holds itself up on. When a family wants to do something that we haven't done in the past, we support it, so long as it's safe, so long as it shows love, and so long as it works and is legal.”
For LifeSource, Return Home’s humanity, flexibility, and care make the partnership feel so aligned.
"It’s that level of detail and care that you show every family that you work with that makes Return Home so special,” adds Braeden, “I can't imagine working with another terramation provider because I just don't think anyone else is providing this level of care and opportunity for families.”
While the rest of Los Angeles moves at its fast pace, your world may feel like it has come to a halt after the loss of a loved one.
