BDN MAINE SPECIAL SECTION • BANGORDAILYNEWS.COM • March 14, 2013
5
FUNERAL AND ESTATE PLANNING Continued from previous page
time to create it is important, Regan said. “What we tell families is don’t just immediately design a monument, because that becomes the focal point,” he said. “Every time you go back to the cemetery, this is what you see. You really want that to be as unique as the person, so take some time to think about it.” Options abound. If you’d like to add color, laser etching can produce color scenery. For long-lasting color, you can print and seal photos on ceramic plates that are mounted flush with the stone. Basically, these days, you can imagine it, monument designers can do it. New things are on the horizon. Already catching on are ceramic QR codes mounted on the granite. Just like any QR code, scanning it with a cell phone takes you to a designated Web site — such as to a life-tribute Web page. “The artistry… allows a family to create that really unique monument that’s as unique as the person they’re trying to idolize,” said Regan. “It allows us to really create something unique — so you go into the cemetery and not every stone looks alike. It also becomes therapeutic for families that really want to design something meaningful.” Chuck Downes, owner of Bucksport Monuments & Sandblasting, says that with all the customizability and uniqueness in the
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICK
Left: Intricate carvings on a stone at CustomMemorial Designs in Old Town. Center: Chuck Downes, owner of Bucksport Monuments & Sandblasting, with a stone featuring such carvings on the angled edge. Right: The stone depicts a white angel and a black heart, but it’s all black granite. The polished finish makes “black” granite black; etch, sandblast, or carve out of it, and the resulting much lighter stone offers stark contrast so as to appear black and white.
industry, the one thing that monument companies need customers to do is to come in early and plan their monuments — instead of waiting for the family to deal with it when they’re gone. “There are so many options, and people who are grieving — they don’t want [to face] a million options,” he said. “That’s why we really try to promote pre-planning for headstones. It’s just a smart decision. It saves the family a lot of grief.”
Downes does the same sort of on-screen design, and he says the best time to do it is long before your family has to worry about it. “If people can come in here, order the stone they want, design it the way they want to, make payments on it if they want to — that saves the family one less decision they have to make in a time of grieving,” he said. But there’s something beyond the cost and the difficulty of mourning families having to make those choices: a bit of immortality.
“I just can’t emphasize enough how important it is to pre-plan,” Downes said. “Without that memorial, you will be forgotten. It’s that simple. I want my great-great-great grandchildren, if they want to find me, to [be able to] come put a hand on my stone.” For the immediate generation following a loved one’s death, he says there’s something powerful about having that tangible thing, too — which really touches the heart. See MONUMENTS, PAGE 6