Journey of Life: how it all happened . . .
On May 6, 2007 my mother passed away at the age of 91 years leaving
behind 8 children, 23 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Her
children and some of the grandchildren arrived in Los Angeles to pay
their final respects and to honor their beloved mother. Norma, my sister
who lived in Los Angeles had the initial burden of funeral arrangement
and final resting place at the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA.
The funeral home taking care of the service arrangements offered pre-
printed religious cards and folders. As my family was looking for a more
personalized way to honor my mother’s life, my brothers and sisters
decided to create their own tribute.The goal was to create a personalized
tribute with a eulogy, photos and a DVD to better remember the
journey of her life. After two days of work, several trips to the local copy
shop and repeated printing to better match the colors in the photos,
scanning and rescanning using my sister’s computer equipment, we
quickly realized that time was running out and that we needed to make
some compromises. My brother started to work on a collage of pictures
pressed on an easel, my sisters kept writing and rewriting her life story
and my brother in-law kept trying the match the color of her dress on
his low resolution scanner. There was stress, there was anxiety, and there
was agony. I stood there, looked at the scene and said to myself:“ . . . there
must be a better way.”
The final chapter of this saga was – on the way to the service located 25
miles away, somebody in the car screamed: “Oh my! . . . we forgot the
framed portrait!” On the way home to Philadelphia, I kept thinking that
there must be a better way. The Journey of Life
TM
tribute products and
services is the better way.
We do the work so that you have the time to provide
more attention to the family.
