The Family Plot Blog
Remembrance Frame Urn/Memory Box
One way to keep the cremated remains of a loved one around, without an urn shouting, "These are cremated remains!" is with a Remembrance Frame Urn/Memory Box. These are custom picture frames with a hidden storage box in the back. The front area can be personalized to hold a photograph, memorabilia and an "In Memory" plaque. The storage area in the back of the frame can discreetly hold cremated remains or store other memorabilia. Remembrance...
Ash Scattering in Israel by Aley Shalechet
Israel is the Holy Land for Christians, Jews and Muslims. At the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention and expo, Aley Shalechet (which means Autumn Leaves in Hebrew) offered Americans the opportunity to have at least part of their mortal remains buried or scattered in the Holy Land. Aley Shalechet works with funeral homes to offer the service to families who perhaps wish to keep the majority of a loved one's cremated remains...
Roberts & Downey Chapel Equipment
Pulpits for churches, register stands and registration desks at funeral homes, processional urn carriers and funeral biers -- there is a company that makes such specialized furniture, and they are regulars at the NFDA convention. Rick Roberts and his wife started Roberts & Downey Chapel Equipment in Argenta, Illinois (near Decatur) in 1986. The family-owned business makes hand-crafted wooden furniture for funeral homes and houses of worship...
My Gene Jewel Puts DNA into Jewelry
It used to be making gemstones out of cremated remains was the new thing. Now the DNA of a loved one can be made into a highly personalized piece of jewelry. Australian Mike McKew started My Gene Jewel in 2013, shortly after he graduated from university. He attended the NFDA convention as a first-time exhibitor. My Gene Jewel first obtains a hair sample. A laboratory extracts the DNA from the hair follicles, purifies the DNA and tags it with...
News and Notes: NFDA and Create a Great Funeral Day
Today is the 15th annual Create a Great Funeral Day. This "holiday" was started by my esteemed colleague Stephanie West Allen to help get the funeral planning conversation started. You can read more about Stephanie and Create a Great Funeral Day in this blog post. The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention and expo in Nashville October 12-15 was a real eye-opener! You've probably rarely or never thought about the business end...
Life.VU Social Media Platform for Memorialization
One of the online services displayed at the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention and expo was Life.VU. You can see in the video below that Life.VU provides an attractive way to memorialize someone - or perhaps all the attractive photos of actor Paul Walker in the demo swayed my judgement. Life.VU offers funeral directors a social media technology platform that focuses on celebrating life. It provides an online way to give...
Event: Nov. 18 Jewish Funeral Traditions Presentation
Many Jews and their interfaith partners don’t know what to do when a death in the family occurs. That’s about to change with an upbeat free presentation called “Jewish Funeral Traditions on Film,” presented by Gail Rubin and held by the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada on November 18. Attendees will learn Jewish traditions related to death, funerals and mourning through humorous film clips from movies including The Cemetery Club, My...
T-Shirts to Treasures Memorial Quilts
As the name implies, T-Shirts to Treasures™ takes the old clothing of the deceased and turns it into a memorial comfort quilt. The company can use just about any fabric to make a keepsake quilt: jeans, ties, T-shirts, button-down shirts, hats, you name it. What a handy way to get a loved one’s old clothes out of the closet yet still keep the favorites around! The quilt can be used as a casket cover, in place of a funeral spray of...
Passare End-of-Life Management Platform Selected by Krause Funeral Home
Krause Funeral Homes Selects Passare End-of-Life Management Platform to Improve Family Online Experiences Innovative Funeral Leader Begins Platform use to Serve 1,300 Families Annually With Greater Convenience, Simplicity, and Service Quality SAN FRANCISCO, CA October 28, 2014 Passare, Inc., a trusted and relevant source for End-of-Life planning and management, today announced that Milwaukee-based Krause Funeral Homes has selected the...
Sorella Luna Ceramic Urns at NFDA
There are urns, and then there are Sorella Luna urns. These handcrafted ceramic creations from Deruta, Italy, are pieces of art that also happen to make great urns. Sorella Luna means Sister Moon. Deruta has the hardest clay in Italy, so these ceramic pieces are extremely durable. Each one is hand painted, and every style can be rendered in a desired color scheme. It takes 12 weeks to produce a custom urn, so if you want to have a memorial...
Charms for Memorial Services from Vilmain
Celebrants like to give memorial items to all attendees to take home as a remembrance of the deceased. With the growing number of life celebrations (as opposed to funerals), the Vilmain gift company came to the NFDA convention to offer funeral directors pocket charms and tokens that could make special remembrance items. Tokens include angels, crosses, Buddhas, Stars of David, peace signs, peace doves, supportive sayings, and New Age and Celtic...
DNA Memorial Saves Genetic Information
Funeral directors regularly make a point of telling families that cremation is an irreversible process. It also destroys all genetic history and medical markers contained in the person's DNA. If a loved one is buried, and the family decides they want to get DNA from that body later, disinterment is costly, both financially and emotionally. That's why it's important for those in the funeral business, who are usually the last people to be in...
Anointing Stone Memorials from Israel
The Stone of Anointment is located at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Each year, tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims visit the church and prostrate themselves on this stone. They regard the Stone of Anointment as sacred. Christian tradition holds that after Jesus was crucified, his body was laid out on this slab of marble. Joseph of Arimathea washed Jesus' body,...
Event: Oct. 27 Talk “Doctor How Long Do I Have?”
Having a serious healthcare conversation with your doctor takes effort to ensure clear communications. Learn how to ask questions, be involved in treatment decisions and prepare for end-of-life issues by watching dramatic and comedy films depicting doctor-patient-family conversations. The McLeod Branch YMCA welcomes the public to attend Gail Rubin's free one-hour presentation, "Doctor, How Long Do I Have?" Films include Patch Adams, The End,...
GiveForward.com Offers Families Online Fundraising
There's a rising trend of families who don't have enough cash to pay for a funeral or medical costs, especially in the case of unexpected deaths. I've seen far too many memorial car washes in Albuquerque. It's a sad situation, but with the help of GiveForward.com, friends and family can easily pitch in to help and not have to wash a car. GiveForward.com is an online fundraising website that helps families cover expenses after there’s been an...
All-in-One HONOR Bags Have Multiple Uses
Illinois funeral director Jason Newell and his wife Amy saw a need for something more respectful than a cardboard box for cremations and less scary than a black body bag for removals from homes. They designed and created HONOR bags, a patent pending all-in-one funeral product that can be used as a cot cover, removal bag, cremation container and soft casket/burial unit. In this video, they demonstrate how the HONOR bag can be utilized for home...
Telepresence Robot for Funeral Homes
The Big Bang Theory TV show and the Baldo comic strip both feature video robots that provide eyes, ears, voice, face and movement for someone controlling the unit from a distance. CARL from Orbis Robotics brings this science-fiction concept of a virtual presence to reality at funerals, arrangement conferences and visitations. President Steve Gray named his invention after his father, who didn’t live to see the fruition of his son’s vision for a...
Astral Caskets Living Statue at NFDA
You'll see a lot of caskets at a funeral convention. One of the booths I love to visit at every funeral industry convention expo is Astral Industries. They always have a living statue there in various outfits. Convention attendees get their picture taken with the living statue at the Astral booth, and get a framed keepsake to take home. It's one of the things Astral does that sets them apart from the other casket manufacturers at the expo. And...
3D Printer Produced Urns from Foreverence
Would you want to design an urn for a loved one's cremated remains? The folks at Foreverence think you do. Foreverence uses a 3D printer to produce tribute urns that truly reflect the life of the deceased. In this video recorded at the NFDA convention, Pete Saari shows the one-of-a-kind urns the company produces and talks about the production process. Each ceramic composite piece is designed to reflect the life of the deceased, with input from...
NFDA News: Cremation Rate to Exceed 50% by 2015
At the opening of the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention in Nashville earlier this week, association Chief Executive Officer Christine Pepper, CAE, broke the news: cremation is here to stay, and your NFDA is helping funeral directors make changes. Yes, change is inevitable, even in this industry traditionally resistant to changes. Consumer Preference for Cremation Expected to Surpass Burial in 2015 For Immediate Release:...
The Parlor Stool for Visitations
The Parlor Stool is a tall (44.25”) chair with a back and single left arm. It’s designed to help mourners, particularly the elderly, more easily receive the condolences of attendees at visitations. The stool is a new product for funeral directors to consider getting for their funeral homes. Mourners in receiving lines can get tired standing for long periods of time. Rather than sitting on an average-height chair, putting the mourner lower than...