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OCTOBER 2013
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
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By Kristan Dean
In 2000 Kristan Dean began working with her family to bring
Merry Christmas From Heaven
®
to all who need the gifts’ mes-
sage of Comfort, Love, and Faith. Today she is the Vice President
of Marketing and one of the primary members of her family’s
Bereavement Ministry.
Thanks, in great part, to the thousands of funeral directors and
retailers nationwide who make Merry Christmas From Heaven
®
a
part of their communities, countless numbers of families reach out
to their family every year. Their bereavement ministry helps families
realize that those in Heaven live forever in our hearts. Their love is
with us always.
Prior to Mooney TunCo, Inc. Kristan worked with companies nation-
wide helping them build revenues by creating greater sales opportuni-
ties through the use of sales intelligence and marketing alignment.
With the Holiday season fast approaching I wonder
if you will set aside time for you. I know it isn’t easy to
step back when there is always something to do. There
is a joy that comes from getting things done, giving of
ourselves, being there for other people, and connect-
ing with others. It is one of the reasons that I write
about how important it is for us to reach beyond our
walls, what the people in our industry are doing to
bring their communities together, and how much the
people you serve need you.
I seem to forget to write about how important it is for
us to take time for ourselves. Now I am wondering: how
much time do you and will you set aside for yourself to
recharge, be quiet, and enjoy your own company? Like
so many, I too can leave taking time with myself on
the back burner as I get caught up in the whirlwind of
things I need to do and things I want to do. I realize that
the world we live in can pull us away from ourselves.
Living our lives can make it difficult to take time to
connect with ourselves and easy to forget that we need
that time. After a summer of birthday celebrations,
finding joy with friends and family, experiencing a few
worries that do not have answers, striving to be there
for those I love, building new relationships, and trying
to gear up for the busiest and most important time of
year for Merry Christmas From Heaven™ and A Gift
From Heaven
©
, my internal energy was spent. I could
not leave taking time with myself on the back burner
any longer.
Fortunately I have this column that requires me to set
aside time to be alone with my thoughts every month.
Even better just as my energy left this column’s deadline
came up on my calendar giving me the perfect reason to
Let’s
Chat
schedule a time out from the world and a time in with
me. This makes me wonder, what do you have in your
world that helps you take yourself off the back burner?
What helps you unplug from the world, spend time
with yourself, explore your thoughts, and recharge? Are
you like my mom who gets up before everyone to enjoy
the quiet of the morning? Is there a hobby you love that
lets you unplug from the world? Do you find peace in
meditation, yoga, prayer, or music? Can you lose your-
self in a good book that expands your mind and grows
your heart? Are you like my godchild, who loves to
spend hours creating art? Do you refuel when you take
a hike, walk the beach, get on your bike, or go to the
gym? Are you like my sister who journals her thoughts
and feelings into poetry? Is there a place that you go to
just be and enjoy your own company?
Whatever it is I hope that you will find a way to give
yourself the gift of spending time with you. I look for-
ward to hearing about how you connect with yourself
and learning new ways that we can take ourselves of
the back burner so that we will have even more to give
this holiday season. Please join in the conversation on
the Let’s Chat blog at www.nomispublications.com/
blog.aspx, give me a ring at (781)331-5308, or if you
prefer email me at kristan@mooneytunco.com. If
you are at the NFDA Convention in Austin, stop by
Booth #1638 to say hi!
Montgomery is Full-time Memorial Designer
Personalized Memorials Portray Stories of the
Deceased for Future Generations
David Montgomery designs a personalized memorial for
Christopher Salove that portrays the memories and hobbies re-
membered by the Salove family.
David Montgomery
LAKEWOOD,WA—
Does a name, date of birth and death,
summarize a life? Memorials get personal.
David Mont-
gomery
, believed to be the funeral industry’s first full-
time memorial designer, creates memorials for
NorthStar
Memorial Group
. NorthStar is a family of cemeteries,
funeral homes and crematories. Locations throughout the
United States include
Mountain View Funeral Home
and Cemetery
,
Chapel of the Chimes Hayward
,
Cha-
pel of the Chimes Oakland
,
Sunset Lawn Chapel of
the Chimes Sacramento
and
Skylawn Funeral Home
.
“Personalized memorials are a vehicle to tell a story about
a loved one,” said Montgomery. “I’ve managed the creation
of hundreds of memorials over the past 16 years that range
in complexity and size; however, all the memorials share a
common thread – a window into the life of a loved one.”
Personalized memorials are created through a collabor-
ative process between Montgomery and families to help
him better understand the personality and values of their
loved ones. The outcome is a one-of-a-kind memorial trib-
ute to an individual or an
entire family. Personalized
memorials are available in
many different styles, from
a flat memorial with a pho-
to to an elaborate memorial
depicting the person or a fa-
vorite hobby.
In September of 2012,
Dave Salove
, who lat-
er joined Mountain View
Memorial Park & Crema-
tory as the general man-
ager, started the process of
memorializing his deceased
brother,
Christopher Salove
.
“There is no comfort look-
ing at images or videos of a loved one if there isn’t a physi-
cal place to go,” said Dave. “Having that physical place
brings importance and remembrance to my brother’s life.
The memorial wasn’t for my brother; it was for the entire
family and future generations to remember the traits that
made him who he was.”
Dave Salove, with input from family members, collab-
orated with Montgomery to create a 36 x 36 inch black
granite memorial illustrating his brother’s life. The de-
sign portrays a scene that juxtaposes Christopher Salove’s
favorite horse as a child and his favorite dog as a young
adult within the same setting. The memorial also includes
a carving of Christopher’s cowboy boots that had a distinct
curled up toe and a collage of 16 photos cast on a 12 x 12
inch piece of bronze.
“It’s an afterlife image of my brother,” said Dave. “The pro-
cess of creating my brother’s memorial continues to be one
of the most personal experiences I have ever had in my life.”
“It is so rewarding to create personalized memorials,”
said Montgomery. “It makes me feel like I have achieved
something special for that family and also helps the fami-
lies and individuals heal through the process.”
NorthStar Memorial Group is an independent funeral,
cremation and memorialization service company found-
ed in 2004 operating more than 50 funeral or cemetery
locations in the United States.
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