How to Commemorate a Loved One
Funeral Directors
It is never an easy time when someone you love dies. You could spend days or weeks in total grief over your loss. One of the best ways to deal with that grief is to commemorate your loved one and let everyone else know how special they were.
This doesn’t just mean having a funeral and giving a eulogy. A true commemoration is one which lasts a lifetime.
It is something you do to preserve the memory and celebration of your loved one’s time here on this earth. You can get creative with your commemoration to them and do something extraordinary that your loved one would be proud of.
So, what is the best way to commemorate a loved one? The answer depends on what creative skills you and your family and friends have. Just think outside the box when you come up with commemoration ideas for your loved one.
To help give you an idea of what to do, below are seven commemoration ideas which don’t require significant money to get started. They just require a love for the deceased and time to see the commemoration through.
Some of these ideas can be incorporated into a memorial service with a funeral director, others may be suited to another time and place.
Memorial Room
If you have an extra room in your house, turn that room into a memorial for your loved one. You could decorate this room with pictures of your loved one as well as all their most personal possessions.
For example, if they loved to fish then you could hang up their fishing poles on the wall. If they ever won awards for something, you could place their trophies on a mantel.
Just have fun with this and fill the room with everything that represents the person you want to honour. Consider adding some keepsake memorials in the room that are specially created for the occasion and purpose.
Photo Album
This is a classic way to commemorate someone special. Take a photo album and fill it with pictures of your loved one.
You can begin it with photographs from their early childhood and then have it chronologically spread all the way to the last pictures they ever had taken.
Someone who looks at this album should be able to get a bright idea of what this person went through in their lifetime.
Memorial Jewelry
One way to commemorate your loved one daily is to wear a charm necklace or bracelet with their name engraved on it.
Either that or you could wear jewellery that they wore themselves while they were alive. Then, perhaps you could have that jewellery engraved with their name and the years they were alive on this Earth.
Birthday Celebration
Just because your loved one is deceased, doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate their birthday.
When their birthday comes, hold a celebratory party at your house and invite all their friends and family to it.
You could cook some of your loved one’s favourite foods while gossiping about the fond memories that you have of them.
Donate in their Name
Did your loved one have a cause that they were passionate about? You could donate money to that cause and put it in their name. Then people can remember your loved one as somebody who was charitable and wanted to help others.
Write a Book
If you want to get creative, you could write a book about your loved one’s life story. Use any journals they had as part of your research.
You could also interview people who knew them from different time periods of their life. After you’ve collected this information, write a book, and then self-publish it on the internet.
Publish Videos
If you have any videos of your loved one, you could publish them on YouTube or some other video sharing website.
Just create a free YouTube channel as a dedication to your loved one and have all the videos be something related to them. If you don’t have videos of them, you could make a slideshow of their photographs or just get on camera and talk about your experiences knowing them.
Image: Pixabay CC0 License
