Creative ways to memorialize loved ones
Even years after a loved one passes on, those left grieving can still go through periods of intense longing. We need to hear their laugh again, see them wearing their favorite shirt, enjoy their baked masterpiece one more time. But since they’ve moved on, we are left to remember them only with what we have.
It is completely acceptable to make regular visits to your loved one’s grave or niche at the columbarium. If you wish to, you can do more than that to keep their memory alive.
Support a cause or nonprofit organization that was close to your loved one’s heart
Did your friend or family member advocate for a cause? One way to remember them is to continue their patronage.
Hold a fund-raising activity in their name and donate all the proceeds to your loved one’s charity. You could personalize it by asking friends and family to donate an amount that matches your loved one’s age when they passed.
Alternatively, you could spend a day out of every month to volunteer at the nonprofit that your loved one supported. Or you could use your skills to help.
If you are good at graphic arts, maybe offer to make some promotional posters for the organization’s events. If you are born a public speaker, host some of their fund-raising activities. You could also bake your loved one’s favorite cookies and bring a basket over to the organization’s headquarters.
Incorporate their ashes in jewelry
With cremation now being a common funeral practice, many people have become more creative in how they give tribute to their loved ones through the ashes they leave behind.
The usual way is to put the ashes in an urn and leave it in a crematorium. Others scatter the ashes in a place where their loved one felt happiest while they were alive.
One grieving family had several ideas for their loved one’s ashes. They put half of it in an urn, which now rests in a crematorium. Then they hiked to Mt. Pulag as a family and scattered part of the remaining ashes at the summit. Mt. Pulag was their loved one’s happy place.
For the rest of the ashes, they found a local jeweler who specializes in creating jewelry that incorporates the ashes from a cremation. Now each member of their family wears a necklace with a silver pendant. Inside each sealed pendant is a pinch of their loved one’s ashes, so they can carry her with them wherever they go.
Make a playlist of your loved one’s favorite songs
Music has an uncanny way of triggering memories. Create a playlist featuring your loved one’s favorite songs and listen to it whenever you want to. You could even make it a public playlist so everyone your person touched with their light can enjoy the songs, too.
Then make another playlist of songs that you associate with your departed loved one. Perhaps include the song you both loved dancing to, or the songs that were playing in the car on your epic road trip.
Encourage everyone to do the same. Let this group of playlists become the soundtrack of your loved one’s life. And because digital is forever, the music that defines your friend or family member’s life can stay on as their legacy.
Have a quilt made out of their favorite clothes
When you are ready, you will be giving away your loved one’s belongings, including their clothes. There will be some pieces, however, that will be difficult to give away because they hold more meaning.
Instead of leaving them in the corner of your closet to collect dust, ask a professional quilter to make a quilt using these beloved clothes. Quilts are perfect to hold these fabric memories because they can be designed as a collage of patterns.
Keep the quilt on your bed or couch and snuggle in it whenever you need to.
It may be heartbreaking to be left behind by a loved one. But when you think about it, by surviving them, you get the privilege of carrying on their legacy so that more people can be touched by their light.