When Inspiration Strikes

If there is one thing I love about my "job", it is listening to each familys' inspiration and making it become a reality in honor of their loved one. In fact, the more I help folks, the more I realize that we are all truly individuals: with individual likes, dislikes, interests, loves, opinions - the list could go on.
It also seems that each family, as a whole or as individuals, always holds tight to something that reminds them of their loved one: a favorite song or saying or verse...a photo or piece of artwork...a memory or single moment in time. The inspirations are countless.

A few weeks ago I had a sweet customer bring in this photo. She had found it online and immediately fell in love with it; and I can see why- it is absolutely beautiful!

Although I have admired their beauty for years, I never really knew much about the cherry blossoms and their significance in several Asian cultures. And as the daughter explained it to me, the more interested I became in researching the meaning behind this beautiful flower.

In the Japanese culture, these sweet little blossoms are most commonly held as symbols of purity, good fortune, love, life and mortality. So why do they act as a symbol of mortality? My research shows that it is due to the blossom's short life cycle.

In the Chinese culture it appears that the cherry blossoms take on a whole different meaning. In China it appears that the cherry blossom is associated with feminine beauty, love and passion.

With that symbolism being known, it is easy to understand why this sweet daughter would want to incorporate the cherry blossom into her mother's memorial. On  occasion a customer will come in with a specific design idea that is completely unlike anything I have in my design library. When this happens, as it did in this situation, we search our system to see if there is anything relatively close to what the customer wanted. And when it appears there is not, we are left to draw our own the design by hand.

You will notice the design on the left (the closest match from our system) does not have the same clarity as the one on the right (the one we drew by hand). You will also notice the symbols- all of which we drew by hand as well.

After completing the drawing we let the family review both proofs and select the one they felt was most like their initial inspiration. The family selected the hand drawn proof (the one on the right) and then we began the manufacturing process.

I was very pleased with the way this monument turned out; it is such a beautiful memorial for a special mother and her daughter.  

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Indian Grave Houses

As a member of the Choctaw Nation I am interested in Native American culture and, as a monument person, have always been interested in Indian Grave Houses such as the ones seen below.


I had always wondered what the purpose of these little grave houses was and had simply assumed they were originally used for memorialization purposes. However, by doing a little research, I learned that the grave houses were not built for memorialization purposes at all; hence the headstones seen erected in front of the grave houses (the headstones are used for memorialization!).

Being a member of the Choctaw Nation I consulted with a member of their historical department regarding the purpose of these houses and was surprised at what I learned. Throughout time much of the Native American history has been passed down orally leaving younger tribal members to rely upon the oral history that has been passed down to their elders. That being said, it is reasonable to believe that there are two common "myths" about the grave houses and I would like to share those with you.

1) In the mid- 1800's there was a tradition known as bone picking. According to my source at the Choctaw Nation, when a member of the tribe passed, his or her body was placed above ground and allowed to deteriorate. Once the deterioration process had progressed, an individual known as a "bone picker" would cleanse the bones and then present the bones to the family of the deceased in what was called a "bone house". These bones were placed above ground with the bone house walls and roofs sheltering them. It was not until many years later that missionaries who had come to the area told the tribe that the practices were not sanitary or proper; the tribe began burrying their loved ones at that time.

2) The second myth is that tribe members were burried in the grave houses and that the purpose of the houses was to enclose spirits with the deceased in order to represent an eternal existance harmonic existance with the spirits they believed in.

Whatever the case may be, the tradition of grave houses, although not widely known, is fascinating. If you have not seen a grave house in person you may be interested in taking a short drive over in to Oklahoma to visit some and view an often ignored slice of history.