It’s not easy moving on with one’s life when a loved one passes. Unfortunately, though, we are all going to die someday. In your life, you will lose many of the people that you love. Learning to deal with the death of a loved one is essential if you want to survive into old age with your mental health intact.
However, moving on with one’s life and learning to deal with the death of your loved ones does not mean that you have to forget about them and can’t cherish their memories.
This post will tell you how you can cherish and keep the memory of a deceased relative close to your heart, for the rest of your life.
Memorial Plaques
At your loved one’s grave, why not invest in a custom memorial plaque? The use of custom memorial plaques is becoming very common nowadays. People prefer them to standard graves because they show more about their loved ones, i.e., a picture of them, their nickname, or even a brief paragraph explaining them as a person. Standard headstones just show a person’s name, age, and date of their death. Custom plaques are not that expensive and will help you and everybody else that visits your loved one’s grave to better remember them.
Charitable Donation
If there were any non-profits that your loved one supported, then why not make a charitable donation to them? Making charitable donations can be a fantastic way of keeping your loved one close to you because you will be supporting the same causes as them. If possible, make annual (or even monthly) donations to the cause. By doing so, you will remember your loved one every time a donation is taken.
Consider Cremation
Cremation is a popular choice for many people today. Standard burials are falling out of fashion. However, it is important that you honour your loved one’s wishes and bury them however they asked you to. Do not cremate them because it’s more convenient for you if they wanted to be buried. If they did choose cremation though, then it is a great way to keep them with you, since you can store their urn at home. Alternatively, you could put a little bit of the dust from inside their urn inside a necklace and carry it around with you.
Wearing Necklace
If they chose not to be cremated, you can instead wear a necklace that has a photo pendant attached to it. The photo should of course be a photo of them. Such necklaces can be expensive to make because they have to be custom-made. Even so, it is a worthwhile investment. Every single time you see or touch your necklace, it will remind you of them. The creation of such a necklace is also a great way of making a family heirloom, which can be passed on to future generations and can be used to teach them about their ancestors.
Their Belongings
If there was any jewellery that your loved one wore on a regular basis, then instead of having a necklace custom-made, why not just wear that? Keeping something of theirs close to you at all times will be a very effective way of remembering them and feeling like they are near to you. No doubt after your loved one dies various family members will inherit their personal belongings of theirs, so make sure that you are allowed to take jewellery or personal effects, and that you don’t take them without everybody else’s approval.
Support Causes
Keeping in line with the suggestion made about charitable donations, if there were any causes your loved one supported, then why not go out and do aid work, supporting the cause yourself? Doing aid work and supporting a cause that was close to the heart of your loved one is a highly effective way of staying close to your loved one. After all, every single thing you do will be in their honour. If you are a religious person, then this is a good way of doing good deeds on your loved one’s behalf and getting them blessings.
Start Tradition
Starting a new tradition can be a fantastic way of honouring your loved one’s memory. If there was something that they did on a regular basis, i.e., setting up Christmas decorations outside their house, then you should start doing it too, in their honour. Your family will then do it when you pass away, honouring your legacy, and your deceased loved ones. Starting traditions is not an easy thing to do, but it is worthwhile, and it is a great way of honouring the memory of a deceased loved one.
Share Stories
Make sure that you share as many stories about your deceased loved one as you can. The good thing about sharing stories with your loved ones is that if they are funny or interesting, then they will go on and share them themselves. Sharing stories keeps the memories of your deceased loved one alive. Unfortunately, as you get older, your memories of your loved one will fade. It is a normal part of life. However, if you have kept them alive by sharing stories about them and telling people about them, then you will be more likely to remember them as a person, and what they did as a person.
Enjoy Life
Make sure that you enjoy life. After a loved one’s death, a lot of people sink into depression and find it hard to move forwards. Moving forwards is essential. If you stagnate and fall into depression, then you will never enjoy yourself. It is important to live, for yourself and for your loved one. Your loved one would not have wanted you to spend the rest of your life worrying and missing them. They would have wanted you to be happy and to live. After the mourning period is over, try to move forwards and be positive.
When a loved one dies, it can be hard. If you have recently had to deal with the death of a close relative, then you can follow the guidelines outlined here, and keep your loved one close to you. You can implement two or more of these tips at the same time if you wish to.
