Are pictures really worth a thousand words?

Erin Brodbeck, LCSW, CT, 

Director of Grief Services,

Sunset Funeral Home

There is a saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words,” and I would most definitely agree. Whether you are posting a photo on Instagram, sharing photos of your kids on Facebook or even printing a photo to put in a frame, you are using photos to share your thoughts and stories.

My daughter is turning one-year-old at the end of this month. While I was digging through the hundreds of pictures we’ve taken throughout the last year, I began thinking about how important pictures are when memorializing a loved one.

Displaying family photos at a visitation, making a photo collage or creating a bronze memorial with your loved ones' pictures are all great ways to reflect on their life and keep their legacy alive. Those pictures are some of the only visual mementos that you have left of your loved one, so why not make them center stage while you celebrate their life? I would encourage the families that you serve to pull out those family photos and search their online albums for pictures that can tell their story. The story of a life that will never be forgotten.

Looking for some more ideas on how to use pictures in memorialization? Email me at erinb@sunsetfuneralhome.com.

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.