STOCKTON, Calif. — Ruth Gottstein owned a publishing company in San Francisco, was champion of the city's fabled Coit Tower and a civil rights, gay rights and La Raza activist.
She was all of that and much more before settling in the tiny town of Volcano in Amador County.
"She was as healthy as anyone I have ever seen. She was on zero medications," said Adam Gottstein, her son who took care of his mother in Volcano.
But, in August, she died of natural causes at the age of 100. Her end of life choice was to be composted and returned to the earth.
"I explained it to her, and she gave me her typical Ruth-smile and said, 'Do whatever you want. I'm not going to be around,'" Gottstein said.
Gottstein actually took a two-day trip driving his mother preserved in dry ice to the Seattle area-based company called "Return Home."
In business for over a year, it has done 85 "natural organic reduction" human compostings, or what the funeral home calls "Terramation." A vessel holds the body, which is then filled with straw, alfalfa and saw dust.
"We place a layer of organics. The body on top of that and the remaining amount of greenery on top and we let it sit for a total of 60 days in a two-phase process," said Return Home CEO Micah Truman.
The remaining bones are then cremated and returned to the vessel for another month, completing the composting process.
"This decision we make is the last one we make on this planet. It's really important that we do something. The last decision that we make is one that gives back to earth," Truman added.
California will make the process an option for end of life care in 2027. Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed AB 351 authored by Los Angeles County Assemblywoman Christina Garcia.
Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Vermont also allow for "natural organic reduction."
The human composting process can also be more inexpensive than the two other traditional options. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost for a funeral is $7,848. A funeral with cremation is $6,970. Return Home charges $4,950.
However, not everyone is on board.
"It's weird. I can't imagine anything like that, so to me it's strange," said Stockton resident Fawn Burns.
As for Adam Gottstein's mother?
"She was delighted at the idea that instead of her ashes, her remains would be part of the property here," Gottstein said.
When the process is completed, there are 200 pounds of soil.
Return Home says if you would rather not take home the composted remains, it will spread them at no extra charge on an eight-acre green belt property they own in Washington.
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