Blog

Memorial Gifts for Someone Who Has Lost a Loved One

July 1, 2018

When someone you know has lost a loved one, you naturally want to help ease the burden of their grief and find a way to keep a loved one’s memory alive. While heartfelt cards and letters are a time-honored way to express condolences and let someone know that you care, you may want to find an additional way to bring comfort and uplift the spirit of someone in grief. Memorial gifts provide a tangible expression of your sympathy and love.

Photo Credit: auremar/123RF.com

Each person is unique and their path from grief to healing is their own. With that in mind, we offer the following suggestions of memorial gifts – both traditional and unusual – for a variety of ways to let your loved one know that you care:

Garden markers: Being out in nature can be an extremely healing experience. There are a variety of memorial gifts for gardens to both memorialize a loved one and provide a peaceful place for healing for those left behind. Garden benches, stones, plaques and markers can be engraved with expressions of sympathy and healing; inspirational quotes; or the name of the deceased. Garden items can even be personalized with a photo of the loved one which is fired onto porcelain to make it durable.
Plant a tree: Planting a tree in memory of a loved one is a gift that will grow over time and provide a lasting memorial. Seeds of Life will select the correct tree for the recipient’s growing region so that it will grow in honor of the life that was lost. If the loved one was cremated, memorial tree urns provide everything needed for a tree to grow from part of the cremated remains as a living memorial of the loved one.
Send a wish: For a unique sympathy gift, Captured Wishes creates wishing vessels filled with the sympathy and healing wishes you desire to send to someone who is grieving. The tiny glass vessels are filled with layers of brilliantly colored holographic glitters that symbolize your wishes and are adorned with gold, silver, or bronze charms specific to a particular wish. The vessel is accompanied by a verse card and explanation of the sympathy gift, which include tears of remembrance, grief relief wishes, and more.
Keepsake jewelry: A variety of memorial and cremation jewelry provides a way to keep the memory of a loved one close, including necklaces, lockets, bracelets and rings. These items often include inspirational quotes on meaningful shapes such as hearts, flowers, crosses, wings and trees. Cremation jewelry holds a tiny bit of a loved one’s cremated remains.
Send flowers: Sending flowers is a traditional way to let someone know that you care when they have lost a loved one. Flowers can be used for the funeral service, such as sprays and floral arrangements, or sent directly to the home to bring cheer during the grieving period. At Keohane Funeral Home, friends and family can send flowers directly from our website with a link from the obituary.
Give the gift of yourself: Nothing shows that you care more than giving of yourself. The most important thing is to be present for someone who is in mourning. You can also offer to babysit; take care of an elderly relative; or simply ask, “What can I do?” You can bring food to the home, share memories and photos of the deceased, and simply lend a sympathetic ear. Check in at regular intervals as the mourner’s needs may change over time. It also lets them know that you still care even after the relatives go back home and the cards stop coming in the mail.