You know, I’m in the biz and I think buying a permanent memorialization piece, like an urn, for my precious loves is hard! It literally took me 2 years to finally find a home for my beautiful Ellie and my oh-so-handsome and perfect Big Harry. Yep, two years.
But I finally found THE piece! What do you think? Don’t you think this piece is so exquisite? The beautiful wood? The turquoise blue jewel pieces? The engraved cross? We believe, it is so perfect.
I get asked all the time “how do you decide on these pieces?” I can’t say how others make this decision, but I can tell you how I make mine! First, I want the piece to be indicative to a part of our life, to include where we lived. So, this piece was fitting as it was hand-made by an incredibly talented and sweet man here in our neighborhood. We loved strolling over to his home, a walk we had done a thousand times with the dogs, and literally picking the piece that spoke to us. The one with the perfect wood grains. The one with the perfect look.
I also wanted a piece where both dogs could be in it together. They truly loved each other, and so it was fitting. Crisco on the other hand ALWAYS wanted to be an “only” and he had no use for other animals. I can assure you; he would haunt me forever if I even considered putting him with another animal! In fact, his final resting place is equally as creative! I’ll do my next blog on his urn! You’re going to love it, and I’m quite certain it will give YOU an idea of what you can do too!
But, back to Ellie and Harry, and their piece. Here’s my decision criteria:
• It must have meaning, from where it was made, to the material and the look. Heck I’ve guided countless people who have told me how food motivated their dog was to use the treat jar! Let them have their final resting place in THE piece that brought them such joy during their heaven-on-earth time!
• Do I want it to be big enough for more than one animal, or just one animal? And this is an area where you can pre-plan too. Possibly pre-purchase a piece, even with engraving, that can hold everyone you want it to hold.
• I do like to consider pieces that hold more than one animal. I firmly believe by the time my earthly existence is over if all of my animals had their own little piece, I just might have to build on a special room! And, since my Loves will be going with either Chris or I when we die, I always jokingly say I combine them so it doesn’t sound like I have beer cans in my casket going down the church aisleway! (Seriously, like I would even care about that! Ha!)
• Another consideration is where is the piece going to reside? Mine sits right here, in my office with me. It really does give me comfort in seeing their urn, knowing their spirit is still here with me, and guiding me.
I hope that helps you a bit! Come on back here next week! I can’t wait to share Crisco’s piece with you! You’re going to love the piece, and some of the back-story on the piece! See you next week!
Author’s bio
Ryan Graham is a successful and experienced writer who graduated from the University of Chicago with an economics degree. He originally worked as an economist, but the numbers are too boring for him. He decided to combine this work with something new, namely freelancing. He is currently the author of hundreds of term papers and dissertations at 1ws.com.