Ways to Remember Loved Ones

With the holidays fast approaching, many of us will be thinking about our departed loved ones, or those friends who have lost family members. Memories are one of the best legacies that exist after the death of someone loved. Holidays always make you think about times past. Instead of ignoring these memories, share happy remembrances with your family and friends.

Here are some thoughtful ways to memorialize loved ones and friends:

• Holiday greetings can be sent to someone who has recently lost a loved one. Select a simple card with an appropriate thought, or a blank card that you can use to write your own good wishes. Even the simplest of words such as "Thinking of you" can mean a lot to someone who is still grieving their loss. Decorate the gravesite with special holiday greenery. Be sure to check with the cemetery to see if there are any special rules for placing and removing such decorations after the holiday season.
  
• Light a candle or place a single flower on the table in honor of the "presence" of your loved one.
  
• Create a memory book or photo album of your loved one and share it with friends and family.
  
• Make a donation to a charity or religious institution in honor of your loved one. Many communities have holiday trees that offer sponsorship of a light or decoration to memorialize the loved one.
  
• Planting a tree is a living memorial. You can do this on your own, or ask your family funeral director for the names of companies who plant trees on a regular basis to honor the deceased and renew the forest life of New York.  
  
• Donate a book to the local library's childrens' section. This is a lovely gesture to make sure that a beloved child is remembered in a special way.
  
• Inscribe a brick or pavement stone. Some cities and towns help to fund public projects such as walkways and park paths by inscribing a loved one's name on a brick or stone for a nominal fee.
  
• Plant a memory garden with favorite flowers and shrubs. Take photos of the garden as it grows and use them as special remembrances through the years on greeting cards or remembrance album covers.
  
• Remember wedding anniversaries. Most widowed people, especially those who were married for a long time before they lost their spouse, will welcome a note or card with gentle thoughts for their special day.  

These are just some special ways to remember family members and friends who we have lost over the years -- special ways to keep them alive in our minds and hearts. Helen Keller had a wonderful thought on this subject: "What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us".

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