Ascend to afterlife the cosmopolitan way
Funerals should be an opportunity for the living to start accepting the passing of their loved ones. Memorial chapels should be a place of reflection, prayer and comfort, while creating a sense of ease, lightness, privacy and tranquility. After all, the death of a loved one can be a traumatic and stressful experience for the bereaved family.
This is the promise of Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels and Crematory at The Ascension, a new death care facility opening today along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City. The facility was developed and owned by Ascension Phildevelopers, Inc. (APDI), a corporation founded by several stakeholders from diverse industries, and managed by its partner-operator Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels, the leading mortuary services provider in the Vis-Min Region.
No less than APDI chairman of the board Ricardo Pascua is pleased and reassured about the facility’s opening.
“I am very excited for this facility to begin serving the community. If you look at the facilities here in Araneta Avenue and compare it with us, ours is significantly superior; but the pricing we offer is reasonably competitive with the existing facilities in the area. We are also highly confident we have chosen a good partner-operator that has extensive experience in the industry. We were convinced that Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels is the right partner for us. We invite you to visit us and try our services,” Pascua said.
Meanwhile, for APDI president and Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels president and CEO Renato “Oly” Dychangco, Jr., being a partner of APDI in the facility is like a homecoming.
“What most people know is that we started in Cebu, but actually, our family’s involvement in the funeral industry began right here at Araneta Avenue. Our family was once part of Capitol, where another columbarium now stands. Hence, when we started talking to Ascension Phildevelopers, Inc. last year to discuss the possibility of joining the group and building and operating the facility, I felt that Cosmopolitan was coming home,” Dychangco said.
Visitors to Cosmopolitan at The Ascension will easily spot the Ascension Columbary, an imposing, four-story structure in the shape of a bishop’s miter, which exudes a feeling of holiness.
Also, water cascading on the building’s welcome sign greets visitors, creating a sense of calm and freshness.
The facility itself is composed of four floors with 18 chapels, ranging from luxury and mid-range to budget-friendly types. Escalators and elevators transport visitors to the upper floors. Each chapel follows a white motif, ornately designed to project a heavenly feeling. It also has a café, convenience store, mini playroom, and counseling rooms for bereaved families. Visitors will have a sense of being in a posh mall or luxury hotel instead of a mortuary.
But Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels and Crematory at The Ascension is more than just aesthetics. Everything in the facility is state of the art — from the embalming area and process to the cremation of the dead.
It has one of the best embalming and body preparation processes in the country, conducted in a very sterile lab where trained and certified embalmers preserve the body according to the family’s preferred preservation method, either through refrigeration or through the use of chemicals.
For families who prefer non- invasive techniques in body preservation, the facility offers refrigeration, wherein the body lies inside a refrigerated viewing room in a chapel. A body can lie in such a state for seven days without deteriorating.
Apart from embalming, the facility touts of the fastest cremation process in the country, at 30 minutes. South Korean firm Dae Hae Techwin exclusively provided the facility with this innovation. Among its other partners include top-notch casket maker Batesville and embalming chemical supplier Dodge Chemical.
Other features that make the mortuary even more one-of-a-kind are its pet cremation services for those who lost their beloved pets, as well as its environment-friendly features, such as sewage treatment, solar air conditioning and use of LED and natural lighting.
Indeed, Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels and Crematory at The Ascension is a union of aesthetics and innovation in order to give the highest quality of service to the families of the bereaved and provide the dead with a very cosmopolitan afterlife experience.