There are two facets of the design process. First, we ask you to consider how you wish to honor and celebrate the life. When those important decisions are made, we’ll turn to the issue of how you wish to care for the physical remains.
How to Honor a Life
It’s about bringing those you love together, at a time of loss. It’s a natural thing to do, and over time, has become a socially-expected practice. More importantly, a funeral or memorial service, whether traditional, or contemporary, is the first step in healing.
You can have your service anywhere, and any way, you want. Your choices include the place of celebration, day of the week, and time of day; the musical selection, what prayers will be said or songs you’d like sung. We can arrange to have a bagpiper, a uniquely led procession to the cemetery or balloons released at the close of the service. Keepsake gifts of wildflower seeds or a tree seedling can be given. We’re here to help you create the most memorable and meaningful service to honor your loved one.
Burial or Cremation?
Your next consideration focuses on choosing between burial and cremation. Usually, people are clear on this point. In fact, your loved one may have told you, or someone else, exactly how they wish to be cared for. But it can be a hard decision for some families, especially when the wishes of the deceased were never clearly stated. If that's the case, please know we're able to help you come to the perfect decision for your loved one, and for you.
Once you decide, the finer details come into focus. If you've chosen burial, then selection of the casket, vault, and desired cemetery follows. Naturally, we’re here to help you.
If cremation is your choice, then you'll need to make the next decision: whether the cremated remains will be kept in an Cremation Urn (or other specialty keepsake), placed in a mausoleum niche or buried on the cemetery grounds.
What's Next?
Now that we've given you the basics, it's time to reflect more on exactly what is appropriate for you and your family. If possible, gather everyone together to speak of their feelings and desires.
A "Reflections of Life" DVD Memorial Tribute is a great family treasure.
A "Reflections of Life" DVD Tribute can help a family to start taking those first small steps into a new life without a special person in their life and can share with each other and friends the difference that special person made in their lives.
Wilson-McReynolds Funeral Home,with input from the family, will create a meaningful "Reflections of Life" DVD Tribute. Yes, at no charge! This is a special service we provide to those we serve.
Your "Reflections of Life" DVD Tribute will be made up of photographs from early photos to later in life photos, something like a time line of photos, of special people, places and events of your loved one's life with accompanying background music.
What Wilson-McReynolds Funeral Home needs from a family is 54 to 108 photographs or less with a brief description on the back of each photograph and we will do the rest.
The "Reflections of Life" DVD Tribute can be presented during the time of visitation to family and friends and also during the service if desired. We feel this quality "Reflections of Life" DVD Tribute will become a precious keepsake that a family will cherish in the future.
So start thinking about it now and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me by calling the funeral home at 618-993-2131.
Sincerely; Dave McReynolds, Director
Helpful information for preparing DVD Memorial Tributes:
Put in order starting with oldest photos first working forward to most recent.
Write brief description of photo on the back. (Although we recommend using small post-it notes.
If there is already a description on the back, no need for post-it.)
Our program can't fit names of more than 5 people, so on those with more than five, just give date, or occasion (birthday, anniversary, where photo was taken, City/State, etc.) (For long descriptions,
31 characters then wraps around to second line.)
Place post-it notes on the BACK of photo for scanning purposes
Things to be careful of:
Don't push too hard when writing description on the back, it sometimes leaves an impression on the front.
Be careful with pen that you use, on some glossy photos, ink sometimes will smear onto the next picture.
Still looking for inspiration? Speaking with a professional funeral planner will help to clarify your thinking. Reach us at (618) 932-2161.
