“In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin wrote more than two centuries ago. With the income tax deadline approaching, it doesn’t look like much as changed. Fallout from the recession may have injected some uncertainty into life, but you can still count on death and taxes.

Just like you plan for taxes, it’s wise to plan for your death while you’re still hale and hearty to ensure that your wishes are followed. Families appreciate a road map when making final decisions for their loved ones. Pre-planning for your final days well before you die also removes the emotional and financial burden of decision-making from your loved ones when they are distraught and grieving.

Experts recommend having the following documents or arrangements in place well before you die. They also recommend reviewing your decisions at least once a decade and making adjustments to plans and documents to reflect changes in your life and family.

• A will provides for care of underage children and distribution of possessions and financial assets.
• A Living Will specifies your wishes about medical measures to be taken if you are seriously ill.
• A Medical Power of Attorney names the person empowered to make medical decisions for you if you are incapacitated.
• Long-term care insurance provides for living assistance as you age.
• The Cemetery Registry allows you to pre-purchase burial plots.
• The Gravesite Masters can arrange for the long-term care and beautification of your gravesite.

Most people have trouble talking about death, particularly their own; but it’s a conversation we need to have with our loved ones. Even in our younger years your family should know whether you prefer to be buried or cremated. If there is a particular cemetery or town where you wish to be buried. And any other matters about which you feel very strongly. When a loved one dies, families want to honor their last wishes. Leaving behind clear instructions about your wishes can be very comforting to your family when you die.

As you approach the end of life, many people choose to plan their funeral services, selecting hymns and Bible verses or poems to be shared. Many people also make prior arrangements for their burial well before death. They select their casket and headstone and purchase a cemetery plot or make arrangements for cremation and interment of their ashes. Many select gravesite flowers or special gravesite markers to beautify their graves. Many even write their own obituary or arrange for online memorials and life legacies. These people see their funeral as a way to share a final message with their loved ones.

The Gravesite Masters can work with you to put in place many of your final arrangements to provide your family with peace of mind after you are gone.

Easter Cross Gravesite Decoration

After the winter snows have melted away, spring brings rebirth and renewal. Trees begin to bud, the grass starts to green and spring bulbs begin to poke their tender shoots through the ground. Soon daffodils and tulips will bloom, carpeting the landscape with color. Many cemeteries were created as beautifully landscaped parks and arboretums and blossom with the rich colors and heady scents of flowering trees and bulbs each spring. The beauty of nature can be a balm to the soul whether grief at the passing of a loved one is fresh or a still dull ache.

Spring calls families to revisit the graves of their loved ones. Particularly during the Easter season, families come to honor their loved ones, decorating their gravesites with spring flowers and Easter crosses. The Gravesite Masters has a beautiful selection of Easter gravesite decorations that include beautifully decorated crosses, charming bunnies and lovely flower and ribbon Easter eggs. Our selection of spring floral bouquets in cemetery cones includes a wide variety of flower varieties and colors for you to choose from.

The Gravesite Masters can deliver and install your choice of spring or Easter gravesite decoration on your loved one’s grave at cemeteries anywhere across the United States.

Solar Cross

Softly glowing lighted sentinels that light the way to your loved one’s grave, illuminated grave markers provide gentle comfort to families. An increasingly popular way to pay tribute to our loved ones, solar light grave markers come in a variety of comforting choices including the lovely ethereal Solar Light Angel, the bright white Solar Light Cross, the Inspirational Solar Bible, the beautifully colored Memorial Flag, the popular Solar Light Yellow Ribbon and the very personal Solar Light Photograph Display that allows families to display a lighted picture of their loved one on top of the headstone. All illuminated grave markers are powered by discrete energy-efficient solar light panels that in no way distract from their beauty.

Light has been an important element of funeral rites and burial customs for centuries. Primitive tribes feared death and believed it was brought about by evil spirits. In many cultures, bodies were burned in funeral pyres to excise evil spirits from the dead and protect the living.

In other cultures, fire was believed to light the way to the next world. The spirits of their dead were believed to ascend to the next world on the smoke of funeral pyres. A vestige of those ancient customs can be found in the candle lighting practiced by many modern religions and cultures to honor the dead.

Grave Stone Cleaning Before & After

When families place a stone on the grave of a loved one, they want it to last for all time. The names and dates chiseled into stone serve as memorials to family members who have passed on and as markers for future generations to connect to their ancestral roots. It is by their grave stones that many people discover their ancestors and trace their family’s journey across America. The stone markers provide a certain solace and tangible connection to those who have gone before us.

Today, most grave stone markers are made of granite or marble, two particularly hard and long-lasting stones. In the past, pieces of wood or field stones were used to mark graves. Sometimes referred to as wolf stones, field stones were placed on graves to deter scavenging animals. Slate was a popular early grave marker, eventually giving way to the superior durability of granite and marble.

Over time rain, snow, pollution, hot summers and cold winters take a toll on even the hardest stone, including grave stones and monuments. Surfaces become black and dirty looking. Carved inscriptions become dulled by erosion and begin to fade. Without periodic cleaning and restoration, these lasting monuments will not last forever. The Gravesite Masters offers professional stone and monument cleaning and restoration services. We can return your loved one’s grave stone or your family’s monument marker to its original sharp, clear and beautiful condition.

18" Gold Fancy Heart

Love doesn’t end when someone close to us dies. Love stays in our hearts where it is nurtured by our memories.

On Valentine’s Day it is as natural to remember and honor those who have enriched our lives but are no longer with us as it is to bring flowers and chocolates to the living.

After the death of a spouse, parent, child or close friend, remembering our departed loved ones on special holidays and on birthdays and anniversaries with a gravesite wreath or floral arrangement helps us to grieve and gradually assimilate their loss into our lives.

The Gravesite Masters offers a large selection of lovely Valentine’s Day wreaths to decorate the graves of loved ones who have passed away. Heart-shaped wreaths in a wide variety of colors and designs ensure that you’ll be able to find a fitting tribute for your departed loved one. Gravesite Masters also offers a large variety of popular gravesite stick hearts that can be easily stuck into the ground at the individual’s gravesite. Bouquet and vase combos are another popular Valentine’s Day gravesite decoration. Our velvety artificial rose bouquets are so real looking you’ll want to reach out and touch them.

Not only can you purchase gravesite memorial flowers from The Gravesite Masters, but we can arrange to deliver them to the cemetery and place them on the grave of your loved one, allowing you to remember loved ones across the country.

We all find it disturbing to visit a cemetery and see unattended graves. No one likes to imagine their final resting place will be lonely and abandoned. That’s why families will visit and place fresh flowers on graves. They also will make efforts to ensure that the grave and the surrounding area is well maintained.

However, with increasingly busy schedules we might find it difficult to regularly visit our loved one’s gravesite. This is especially true when the cemetery is located somewhere that is difficult to get to (this situation is exacerbated for senior citizens who have lost a spouse and find it hard to travel to the cemetery).

Fortunately, Grave Concerns makes tending the gravesite much easier to do. Even if you live across the country, you can use their services and products to beautify the deceased’s grave. For example, if you discover that your loved one’s tombstone is weather-worn or covered with moss, Grave Concerns can send an expert Gravesite Master Professional to restore and clean the tombstone.

Of course, simply placing fresh flowers or other beautifying ornaments by the grave is something that can easily be arranged with just a few clicks. With a vast array of unique and tasteful memorial products, you can rest assured that your loved one will be memorialized in the most respectful manner.

Christmas Stocking Gravesite Tribute

There is nothing more tragic than the loss of a child. A child’s death during the Christmas holidays is even more difficult for parents and families. The presents already wrapped and waiting under the tree will never be opened by your child. The stocking hung over the fireplace will remain unfilled. The absence of someone you love feels particularly poignant during the Christmas holidays. Every holiday activity is tinged with the grief of your child’s absence. While parents and families need time to grieve for their loss, as time passes many find great comfort in establishing a holiday tradition that commemorates their child.

Think of your child’s life, his particular talents, the things he enjoyed doing most and activities he participated in regularly. The memorial activities that bring families the most comfort have two key elements:

1. The activity is built around something strongly associated with the child when he was alive.
2. The activity allows families and friends to work together to help others in the name of the child. Activities that require direct participation - DOing something - seem to bring the greatest comfort and satisfaction.

Some families begin that first year by donating their child’s Christmas gifts to a local hospital. Each year thereafter they gather and wrap gifts with friends, neighbors and school mates and deliver them to hospitalized children. Canned food drives, sports and arts scholarships, and pet supply drives are other common memorials. There is comfort in carrying on your child’s legacy.

The first real storm of winter swept out of the Rockies, across the plains and is moving toward the East Coast. With temperatures plummeting into the single digits for the first time this winter, ice, snow and sleeting rain are making highway conditions slick and dangerous. Unpredictable winter weather can make your planned trip to the cemetery to honor your loved ones a dangerous journey. Yet knowing that their loved ones’ graves are decorated with wreaths or flowers over the holidays gives families a sense of peace and comfort. Decorating the graves of those who have passed is an honored part of the grieving ritual, a tangible symbol of a family’s love and respect. Many families feel that decorating the graves of their loved ones is an important way to keep memories alive during the holidays.

Forgoing this important tradition when the weather turns nasty may be practical but it leaves an emotional void. With the help of The Gravesite Masters, families can rest assured that their loved ones’ graves will be decorated this holiday. The Gravesite Masters provides gravesite beautification and nationwide delivery of both fresh-cut and artificial cemetery flowers and wreaths to cemeteries across America. Whether you want to pay tribute to a loved one in a cemetery across town or across the country, the caring staff at The Gravesite Masters is ready to help you. Call us today and let us help you decorate your loved ones’ graves for the holidays.

The Gravesite Masters

The holidays can be an especially difficult time for those who have lost a loved one during the past year. As the family gathers for Thanksgiving, the absence of a beloved spouse or parent or child is more keenly felt with the realization that, this year, he or she will not be joining you at the table and sharing in the festivities. As other family members step into the shoes of those who have passed on, the pain of their passing is felt anew.

Grieving is a strange beast. It comes and goes and preys upon our emotions at unwary moments. Even when we believe we have put grief behind us, it catches us unawares during the holidays. Memories of dad wielding the carving knife or mom pulling pies out of the oven can overwhelm us as we see others performing holiday chores that for years were theirs alone. Time does heal and with time memories grow and pain fades. But for the first few years after a loved one’s funeral, the holidays can be bittersweet.

Actively acknowledging these moments of grief can help families adjust to their loss. In sharing memories of holidays past, we pay tribute to those who have passed on. Many families make it a point to visit the cemetery during the holidays to commemorate their loved ones with flowers or a wreath. Sharing a quiet prayer of thanks and remembering how a parent or sibling touched your life brings peace during the holidays.