Taking a journey through time

Ethan Darby,
Director of Business
Development

For those of you who are loyal readers of this newsletter, you can probably remember us talking about the importance of a memorial a time or two. You might even recall us discussing how a memorial tells a story about a family’s loved one. And, there is a good reason for it.

I’m lucky enough to live fairly close to our family-owned cemetery, Sunset Memorial Park. My wife and I spend a lot of time walking our dogs, exercising, and giving our friends and family tours of the cemetery grounds. As many of you know, if you spend enough time in a cemetery, you start to notice certain things. And, one thing I have noticed are “the roamers.” These are the people that explore the cemetery. Their cemetery adventure began while they were visiting a loved one and then became curious. Or maybe they came to the cemetery for the sole purpose of exploring. I am guilty of being a roamer, and something I have noticed about “our breed” is we seem to be looking for something unique. We want to be told a story about our history, and the cemetery provides a very valuable tool for just that.

Walking into a cemetery is like opening up a history book about your community. It tells the tales of all the people who have come before us. Each page of this book represents a memorial, no matter if it is full of color or simple and delicate, their story had meaning. This is what is so interesting to the roamers of a cemetery. It is the journey through time as they walk through the sections of the cemetery that matters. So, I want to continue to encourage you to educate families on the importance of memorializing their loved ones. It not only gives me a great hobby, but it also provides a great historical resource for your community.

This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.