Mar 06, 2018
ASD is pleased to share this guest blog post from Sarah
Giavanio
, Assistant Marketing Director of
Safe Passage Urns. Safe Passages Urns is
dedicated to providing unique, one-of-a-kind cremation urns to memorialize the
ashes of a loved one. Sarah is dedicated to providing helpful information
to consumers about funeral expenses and planning, as well as partnering with
funeral homes. In this guest post, she explains how crafts and DIY projects can
help families to memorialize loved ones and preserve memories.
Guest Blog Post: 5 Unique Ways To Preserve the Memory of a
Loved One
Loved One
Holding on to meaningful memories shared with a loved one who
has passed away is a helpful way of dealing with your grief. As time passes,
memories have a tendency to fade away unless they are revisited occasionally.
The best way to refresh the memory of a loved one is with visual stimulation.
Working on the ability to revisit these memories from a place of happiness is
paramount to finding peace with their death. These 5 Do It Yourself ideas, are
all fun ways to preserve the memory of a loved one, and to never forget their
personality and smile.
1. Start a New Tradition
Traditions are at the core of all families. Whether that
tradition is Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches on the 4th of July, or carving your annual rendition of
Mickey Mouse on a pumpkin every Halloween. When a loved one dies, it provides
the perfect opportunity to start a new tradition. The tradition itself can be
as adventurous as you choose. What’s great about starting a new tradition is
that you can have the idea be as simple as going for a morning walk, or as
creative as you want. The exact logistics of the new tradition are not nearly
as important as what the tradition means to you. By starting a new ceremony,
you can include family and friends to make it into a really special event that
is celebrated every year.
2. Create a Memory Pillow
Memory Pillows are a creative way to preserve the memory of
a loved one with their very own clothes. It might be hard for you to go through
the clothes of a loved one after they’re gone but transforming the clothes into
a beautiful keepsake pillow will make it less daunting and more meaningful. Memory
pillows also make great gifts to other bereaved family members. You do not need
to needlessly throw away all the recently deceased clothes, when you can
recycle some of the clothes into a comforting keepsake pillow. Check out this
great
DIY
article
on crafting your very own memory pillow.
3. Plant a Tree
Planting a seed is a perfect way to symbolize the cycle of
life and death. You can also visit the tree and see it grow as the seasons
progress. Much like a seedling grows stronger and more resilient to harsh
weather over time, so does your resilience to dealing with the many obstacles
of life. Planting a tree somewhere nearby is also an environmentally beneficial
tradition to preserve the memory of a loved one. When you look at what could be
accomplished on a national level if everyone chose to have a tree planted in their
memory. Every year in the United States, 2.6 million people die. That’s 2.6
million trees planted every year, which is the equivalent of 3,581 acres of
forest,
every single year. Imagine
the impact that could have in terms of long term environmental sustainability. Check
out,
“Environmental
Impact of Burial Funerals,”
for more information on how the funeral
profession has impacted our planet.
4. Create A Scrapbook
Scrapbooking the memories of a loved is a fun way to keep
their memory alive, and also something you can show to other family and
friends. People love pictures of special moments in a person’s life. A
scrapbook puts these moments together in a unique way. They are also a great
way to showcase the life of someone to family and friends who may not have
gotten the chance to meet the deceased person. It’s like taking a glimpse into
their life. You are able to customize the scrap book and even choose a theme to
creatively bring together all the pictures. Furthermore, scrapbooks are
wonderful for consolidating all the photos of someone so that they are not
spread all over the place and easier to lose.
5. Creating a Mosaic From Many Photos
If you have the digital copy of the decedents photos, then a
one-of-a-kind way to pay tribute to their life is by creating a mosaic, using
hundreds of photos to make a single larger image. There are software companies
such as
Mosaically that will
aggregate the photos by color, in order to form beautiful composite pictures
and portraits. This is really one of those ideas that you just have to see for
yourself to truly understand it.
It is never easy getting over the death of a loved one.
Sometimes people tend to confuse healing from grief with blocking out the
memory of the loved one altogether. It is liberating to be able to look back at
happy memories you had with the loved one without falling back to heart break
and sorrow. Be easy with yourself. The old cliché, “time heals all wounds,” is
accurate. As some time passes, you will no longer have the constant shadow of
grief overhead. Following some of these memorial ideas will hopefully help you
and your family have some fun, while showing admiration to the recently
deceased.
Visit our blog
for more supportive articles on grief, happiness, and saving money on funeral
planning.
Sarah Giavanio is the Assistant Marketing Director of Safe
Passage Urns. She
has been dedicated to
providing helpful information to consumers about funeral
expenses/planning, as well as partnering with various funeral homes in the
Maryland area. Sarah also collaborates with various animal organizations to
raise awareness for adopting pets from animal rescue shelters.
Safe Passage Urns is dedicated to
providing unique, one-of-a-kind cremation u
rns to memorialize the ashes of a
loved one. We understand our urns are meant to be functional pieces of
art that the family can feel comfortable displaying, which means that we take
great pride in the design and craftsmanship that goes into everything we
supply. We guarantee that you will find an
elegant cremation urn that the family will love. We are also very excited
at Safe Passage Urns to be launching our biodegradable cremation urn collection
this summer so that families can preserve the memory of a loved one while
practicing environmental sustainability.
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
