Ways People Remember Deceased Loved Ones

HOUSTON - The debate rages over what happens to us when we die. There is, however, one thing we know for sure. There are more unique ways than ever to be remembered by the people we leave behind.

The timeless saying goes “we live as long as we’re remembered.”

Perhaps with a simple ceremony, a symbol of service or pages full of pictures. But inside Jackie Griffith’s sewing room in Spring, Texas, a sewing machine is making memories come back to life one stitch at a time.

“You can do a lot of different things with cloth. God gave you a talent it’s nice to use it,” she said.

The 80-year-old amateur artist turns the ties and pants of lost loved ones into purses and pillowcases. Her new website www.keepsakesinart.com launched earlier this year.

“It makes me feel so good that I can help somebody keep that memory alive with something I’ve made,” she said. Call it a labor of love, but Griffith is no stranger to loss.

Her son Johnny died when he was just 58 years old. His cremated ashes, or cremains, are always nearby. “In some weird way it’s a comfort to me,” she said.

Cremation products are big business at the Miller Funeral Home and Cremation Society of Texas in southwest Houston. Cremation jewelry is the hottest seller.

“It definitely gives them a sense of peace, we do sell a ton of it,” said funeral director Maryjade Pochivalova.

Products range from lockets loaded with a loved one’s ashes to fine jewelry engraved with a family member’s finger print. There are even diamonds engineered with ashes.

“It’s specific and you’re not going to find it anywhere else. That is your loved one and that’s pretty special,” said Pochivalova.

Elsewhere online at www.memorials.com you’ll find an artistic creation of cremains. Ashes are mixed with paint for a perfect on-the-wall heirloom.

But if high-tech is more your speed, there’s an app for that. Apple’s Pocket Cemetery application for the I-Phone offers a virtual graveyard with customizable tombstones.

Speaking of custom, Eddie Alley spent more than $2,000 on Houston’s first Vidstone. It’s a solar powered video monitor packed with five minutes of memories mounted on his wife’s gravestone.

“She was worth every penny of it and more," he said. “It has some of all phases of her life. From when she was teaching, when she was vacationing, all that she did. There's a little of all she did, her parents and everybody."

But can the will to remember ever go too far? Psychologist Dr. Ed Reitman thinks remembering is generally healthy and expected, but anything in excess can become a problem.

“Too often I see people that are stuck on the past,” he said. “What they're doing is giving themselves something to anchor to and often times it's because they have nothing to look forward to."

So it seems we all remember the ones we’ve lost in our own special way. We remember not because we have to, but because we need to.

“Because we love them so much and because we miss them, it's our selfish way of trying to keep them with us," said Griffith.

-- Visit MillerFuneral.com
-- Visit Keepsakesinart.com