MARLBORO, Mass. -- Everyone knows the phrase ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but now, from the ashes and dust of a loved one, a diamond can be created as a keepsake.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES LifeGem Gemological Institute Of America

An Illinois company called LifeGem recently delivered a blue diamond to a family in Phoenix made from the cremated remains of their daughter. About 200 funeral homes have signed on to offer the option to clients, including one in Massachusetts.

When John Barber thinks about his wife Lynn, who died from cancer a few weeks ago, he remembers her eyes.

"She had beautiful blue eyes," Barber said.

Now he's anxiously awaiting the arrival of blue diamonds, created from his wife's ashes.

"You know that the diamond is a part of them, something you could hold close to you forever," he said. "It's perfect."

When Lynn was diagnosed, she was given three months to live. She chose to be cremated. Then the couple heard about LifeGem.

Carbon is the primary element of all diamonds, and all humans have carbon in their bodies. LifeGems developed a process to separate the carbon from cremated remains. It's purified and then heated and pressurized under extreme temperatures. In months, blue diamonds are created.

"It's rated by its color and clarity and it's certified, so it's a real diamond," said Richard Collins, of Sullivan, Fitzgerald and Collins funeral home.

Collins is the first funeral director in Massachusetts to offer the service, and Barber is one of two clients who have signed on.

"The cremation rate in Massachusetts and New England is increasing -- not like the West Coast -- but it's growing," Collins said. "Some people don't want to bury cremains or scatter them, so this is another option. It's positive."

Barber has ordered a diamond he will make into a ring. He's also ordering three more gems for Lynn's children and her brother.

Because the diamonds are manmade, they wouldn't be valuable on the open diamond market. But that doesn't make them cheap. Prices range from about $2,300 dollars for a quarter carat to $9,000 for 1.3 carats.

"There's no price you could put on it as far as I'm concerned. I think it's priceless," Barber said. "You don't want to let them go. You want them there forever. What you are left with are pictures and memories, but this is something more than that. It's a part of them that will be immortalized in a stone forever."

The first LifeGem was delivered a couple of weeks ago to a Phoenix family who lost their 27-year-old daughter. Collins said he knows there are skeptics out there.

"If you don't believe in cremation, you're probably going to think it's weird," he said.

But Barber said he believes in the concept LifeGems' brochure spells out: "Like the memory of a loved one, a diamond lasts forever."

"It will be something beautiful created with someone who was beautiful," Barber said.

LifeGem's Web site lists the Gemological Institute of America as certifiers of the diamonds. GIA said it can only identify that a LifeGem is a laboratory-created diamond, which does not add to its value.