Memorial websites and mementos
Having a photo or memory book or website to go back to to remember and reflect on a life can be an important way to help keep a spirit alive.
Websites:
As we’ve become more digital creatures, our online lives can live past our actual ones. In the age of Googling, it can be meaningful to know that the deceased will be remembered online through purposeful words and photos (more on writing HERE).
If you are a little bit digital savvy, you can build a memorial website yourself with a site like Squarespace, Wix, or Tumblr. There are also services like Panim or Keeper to create an online memorial page for your loved one.
Photobooks:
Photos are a wonderful way to look back at a life lived. There are many online services from Artifact Uprising to Mixbooks to help create beautiful photobooks for yourself or to give to loved ones.
Memorial commissions
Creating a memorial site or commissioning a piece of art can provide a physical place to visit and remember a loved one.
Some ideas include:
Trees
Gardens
Benches
Plaques
Artworks
Ashes and remains can also be turned into materials, objects, and mementos that can be saved or given to loved ones as a keepsake:
Diamonds - Eterneva turns ashes into diamonds starting at US$2,999 up to $50K. Ever Dear also offers a variety of coloured stones from US$900 to $30K.
Stones - Parting Stone turned remains into polished stones that can be held or placed in a garden.
Trees - Capsula Mundi has developed egg-shaped pods in which remains are placed and a tree is planted on top of it. The Living Urn offers an urn from which trees and shrubs can grow.
Reefs - The Neptune Memorial Reef blends cremated remains with a natural concrete substance underwater and tops with an engraved copper plaque. And Eternal Reefs will deposit “cremains” onto the ocean floor.
Art - Interstela creates beautiful artworks from magnifying ashes. And Blooming Ashes creates decor and table top items out of remains.
Vinyl Records - And Vinyl can turn your loved ones into records to let the music play on in their honour.
Tattoo ink - Cremation Ink turns loved ones into permanent body art.