Frederick Pearson is proposing setting up a national mausoleum and wants to hear what the people think. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Death is something we do not like thinking about but Englishman Frederick Pearson is braving the subject and has come up with a concept to solve the cemetery overcrowding problem while offering burial choice.

The solution, he believes, lies in building a national mausoleum that would allow for burial beneath or above ground, cremation or other technologies.

The mausoleum would be owned by the public who become paying benefactors of the non-profit Resurrection Foundation that would be set up.

Mr Pearson, 78, estimates that building the mausoleum – complete with crematorium and landscaped gardens – would cost about €15 million that would be raised through donations over five years; €5m of this would go into a sinking fund to act as a safety net.

“It seems like an awful lot of money but it isn’t... We are looking for a facility for the public, funded by the public...

“If you think about it, if you love your parents and look after them in their old age, why don’t you also do the best for them when they pass on,” said Mr Pearson, a retired UK services’ consulting engineer who specialised in public buildings that included crematoria.

Mr Pearson has been coming to Malta frequently for some 30 years and two years ago he moved to Sliema.

Over the years, as he attended funerals in Malta and read about the lack of burial space and dissatisfaction with funeral services in the newspapers he started thinking more about the matter.

It would be a place of joy rather than a place of depression

In April the government released a consultation document for cemeteries to look into new funeral methods.

A crematorium was among the new funeral management techniques being explored together with burial at sea, promission (freeze drying of bodily remains) and resomation (dissolving of bodily remains in a mixture of water and sodium hydroxide).

Mr Pearson believes building the mausoleum could bring various options, including traditional burial, under one roof and allowing for choice while keeping funeral prices reasonable.

To achieve this, the mausoleum would be run by the non-profit foundation. Its benefactors would be able to pay a range of annual fees and receive free services or discounts in return.

The foundation, that would be willing to work with existing funeral directors, would also support families who cannot afford funeral fees.

It would also set up Friends of the National, made up of volunteers, including bereavement councillors and people organising community events at the mausoleum such as exhibitions and concerts.

“The mausoleum would house the body. If you think about it, it’s quite depressing so I thought I would take a leaf out of the Americans’ book: it’s a commemoration of life.

“It would have a facility for small concerts, works of art and landscaped grounds. It would be a place of joy, rather than a place of depression,” he said, adding that he now wanted to hear what the public thought about his idea.

Mr Pearson can be reached on infor.resurrectionfoundation@gmail.com.