Farewell Without a Cemetery: How a Woman from Artà Offers New Rituals for Mallorca

Farewell Without a Cemetery: How a Woman from Artà Offers New Rituals for Mallorca

From Loss to Remembrance — a Project That Quietly Makes Space

In the early morning in Artà you can hear the church bells above the market, the scent of freshly baked pa de pagès mingling with cool mountain air — a sound featured in Assumption of Mary on Mallorca: Between Devotion and Cossiers. It was here that a woman from northern Mallorca began a reorientation that now opens up new possibilities for farewell and remembrance to other people on the island.

The project founder is 57 years old and knows from several stages of life how life plans can change: earlier years as a model in Rome and London, then a degree in interior design, and finally the move to Mallorca in 2014 with her husband and son. In 2018 she founded the event agency Loove, which organizes weddings. A very personal loss — the death of her horse — triggered a deep process of reflection. In dealing with grief and memory she searched for forms that focus less on silent separation and more on connection.

Together with her business partner she traveled to Mexico to experience the Día de los Muertos. Beyond the celebrations she found above all an attitude there: death as part of a larger cycle, remembering as a communal act. Back on the island the idea took shape. The agency remains, but from 2026 a new area will be added: "Beyond Loove." The aim: farewell ceremonies that are individually designed and respond to the wishes of the bereaved.

At the core of each ritual is a hand-painted sphere, outer as a keepsake, inner a second sphere made of organic material. In this inner shell ashes or other mementos can be placed; it is designed to break down in earth or water. The outer, visible sphere stays in the home or in a special place as an anchor. This domestic focus echoes ideas from Mallorca Vibes for the Living Room: Small Rituals, Big Impact. The choice of shape — round, closed — is deliberate: it evokes continuity and memory without drawing a final boundary.

On Mallorca this form of farewell can be used comparatively easily. People are already coming forward who want to plan their own burial differently, as well as relatives looking for alternatives for a dignified farewell. Initial contacts with funeral homes exist; classic procedures remain just as possible as personal ceremonies by the sea, in a finca or in an olive grove. Traditional cemetery practices are described in Flores, autobuses especiales y momentos de silencio: así se vive el Día de Todos los Santos en Mallorca.

What can the project mean for the island? A small everyday example: on the Plaça de la Vila older Mallorcans sit with their coffee while young parents push prams by — few topics are as secularized as the handling of grief. Offers like this create a framework to rethink farewell; they invite people to make memories visible instead of keeping them alone. For neighbors, florists and undertakers new encounters arise; for residents it is another piece of cultural diversity.

The initiator does not describe her path as a turning away from the familiar, but as an expansion. Working with colors, shapes and personal rituals has something conciliatory in practice: families choose motifs, sounds and foods that were connected to the deceased. Sometimes the ceremony takes place under pine trees, sometimes in a small studio in Artà — often accompanied by conversations that are otherwise less frequently held.

Practically speaking, this means: anyone curious already can find information, arrange appointments and develop a ceremony together with the designer and her team. The combination of an artistic object and an ecologically biodegradable inner shell feels appropriate to many — it links remembrance with an ecological handling of the material.

An outlook that gives courage: small initiatives repeatedly arise on Mallorca that complement traditional ways of dealing with life and death. Some residents find in new rituals a way to give their own end of life or that of a beloved being more meaning. Whether by the sea, on a finca or at home — farewell need not be only formal. It can be a moment in which stories are told, struggled through and laughed about.

Anyone in Palma or passing the editorial office on the Passeig watching the island will see people who feel at home in both old and new places. "Beyond Loove" is not a loud break, it is an offer: a possibility to create, make visible and pass on memories. For an island that brings many life paths together, this is more than a business idea — it is a new note in the larger conversation about life and its end.