Cremation is a method of preparing a body and does not take the place of a funeral service or a proper monument.
Choosing cremation doesn’t mean choosing to go unremembered. Cremated remains can still be buried in a family plot, placed in a family or communal columbarium, or honored with a headstone, bench, or marker, so loved ones still have a place to return to.
A monument serves as an everlasting tribute to a life well lived and a life worth remembering.
It is a representation of that person and how they lived. It is a final gift from the people who loved them. Monuments can be custom-made and personalized to honor and depict that person the way he /she and family would have liked to be portrayed. Such timeless monuments as the Lincoln Memorial, the Taj Mahal, the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and the Great Pyramids were erected to memorialize great leaders and unforgotten heroes. They are how we remember the people who were important in our lives, from Parents to Presidents.
Monuments provide a peaceful focal point where family can visit and be with their loved one and family.
Cemeteries are tranquil places where you can feel comfortable visiting without judgment.
Monuments serve as a permanent record for future generations and genealogy.
People often walk cemetery grounds to appreciate these works of art and history.
Psychologists say that remembrance practices, from the funeral or memorial service to permanent memorialization, serve an important emotional function for survivors by helping to bring closure and allowing the healing process to begin.
Providing a permanent resting place for the deceased, whether it be traditional interment or cremation, is a dignified treatment of a loved one’s mortal remains, which fulfills the natural desire for memorialization.
Monuments and memorialization have in some way or another been a part of every society as far back as we have records.
From carved standing stones to grand mausoleums, every culture we have records of has marked and honored its dead. The impulse to memorialize is among the most human things we do: a way of saying that a life mattered.
Granite is symbolic in that it is everlasting, much like the love that was shared by and toward your loved one.
Granite is one of the hardest, most enduring stones on earth. A granite memorial stands for generations, weathering every season. It’s a permanent testament that endures long after we’re gone.
A permanent memorial gives you a place to return to.
Scattering ashes can feel right in the moment, but it leaves nowhere to come back to. Many families later wish they’d kept a permanent place to visit. A name to touch, a bench to sit on, on birthdays, holidays, and the quiet days when they simply miss someone.