When choosing a headstone for yourself or for a loved one, it’s important to choose something meaningful and close to your heart. A headstone is a lasting physical monument, a marker of the existence of someone no longer here, or a farewell to a beloved member of the family or community. The choice of headstone should reflect those qualities the person possessed that made them special and loved among all others, those things that made up their one-of-a-kind personality.
The many headstone options available allow you to personalize your marker into something beautiful and meaningful for visitors and loved ones for years to come.
Choose the Type of Headstone
To start, consider the type of headstone. The most common types include flat, upright, slant, and bevel markers. Similarly, the material that the headstone is composed of should be taken into consideration. Popular options include granite, marble, slate, and bronze. Other less common possibilities include limestone and stainless steel. While each material has pros and cons, and considerations about longevity and cost will need to be factored in, this is also an opportunity to customize a headstone to fit your or a loved one’s personality.
Some people wish to be remembered in an unassuming manner, as a quiet or nature-loving individual. They may desire for their headstone to blend into the environment in a harmonious way. Using a flat headstone is a good way to achieve this. Another good choice is an upright marker using a material like granite that can have a rough-hewn exterior to blend in with other natural outcroppings of stone and can be surrounded by bushes or flowering trees.
Of course, for people with bigger personalities, there are also headstones to match which can memorialize the impact they made on those around them. The size of a headstone is one simple way to make an impression on the surrounding landscape. Headstones can range quite a bit in size. Massive, towering structures can be monuments to someone’s achievements in this life, whether in the industry, in ideas, or in the human spirit.
Shapes of headstones don’t need to be limited to the traditional tablet shape. The forms and designs for a headstone are limited only by imagination. Butterflies, castles, hearts, and elephants are just some of the more whimsical options.
Have an Engraving
Whether you’re a more traditional person or more modern, a headstone’s size, shape, and material can be customized to fit your tastes. Aspects of your personality, interests, and hobbies can be included in the headstone to reflect special things about you. Headstones can be engraved, whether with hobbies like fishing, cars poetry, or a cherished picture of a beloved family pet.
Religious imagery, symbols, or passages from scripture can also be engraved to reflect one’s faith. For immigrants, their native language or imagery from their homelands can be a sentimental addition to a grave marker.
Think About the Inscription
Finally, you may want to consider adding a meaningful and personalized inscription to your headstone. No matter your personality type, your light can shine through in an inscription.
For the more humorous, follow the example of Rodney Dangerfield’s, “There goes the neighborhood.”
Or for the pessimist at heart, Charles Bukowski’s, “Don’t try.”
If you have a more poetic bent, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s reads, “Nothing of him that doth fade/ But doth suffer a sea-change/ Into something rich and strange.”
Rounding things out on a high note, we’ll leave you with the inspiring words from legend Frank Sinatra whose epitaph reads, “The best is yet to come.”