A special monument was recently unveiled at a ceremony in Hinton, which is located in Alberta, Canada. The statue is meant to honor those who have died while fighting forest fires in Alberta.

Appropriately located in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the monument will permanently memorialize those that gave up their lives in the line of duty. The event was attended by 150 family members and friends of those that were lost as well as by staff from Alberta’s Sustainable Resources Departement.

“It seemed like a fitting place for our memorial,” Rob Harris, who is a fire information officer with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, told the Edmonton Journal. “It’s where all of them came through and trained, here in Hinton. It was a beautiful day, but also very emotional for relatives, friends and staff.”

In addition to the monument, a walking trail has also been established on the site. The trail, which leads to the monument, is lined with 21 special market stones. These stones identify each of the wildland firefighters who have lost their lives while on the job since 1944, but only includes those that have been lost in Alberta and not the rest of the country.

The world lost a true talent on April 1, 1984 when Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father after a heated argument. Despite his premature death at the age of 44, Gaye has still remained an icon in the music industry. It is no wonder, then that organizers of the Detroit International Jazz Festival decided to open this year’s event with a tribute to the R&B sensation.

The tribute at the festival is a shining example that the best way to remember someone that was lost is to celebrate all the person gave to the world. Rather than discussing the cause of his death or the troubles that Gaye faced while alive, a lively melody of some of Gaye’s biggest hits, including “I Heart It Through the Grapevine” and “What’s Going On” were performed by a group of jazz musicians who managed to show respect to Gaye through the execution of his music.

Sometimes, the best way to remember someone and to honor that memory is simply to share those memories with others and to let those memories wash over you – and that is just what they did at the Detroit International Jazz Festival this year.

If you are planning a wedding, you may wish to pay tribute to a loved one that has passed away. One popular method for paying tribute to loved ones during a wedding ceremony is to incorporate a memorial candle ceremony in the plans.

There are many ways you can work a memorial candle ceremony into your wedding ceremony, but the most popular is to simply place a memorial candle near the altar or at the front of the church. At some point during the ceremony, you can then have the officiant say a few words about your loved one and you and your future spouse can then light the candle together.

Or, if you choose, you can simply mention the lighting ceremony in your wedding program and it can be done as part of the ceremony without any special words being spoken. This way, your loved one can still be a part of one of the most special days in your life.

Everyone deals with his or her grief in a different way, some may find solace in erecting a memorial, others by creating an online tribute site – but talking about how you feel is also an important part of the grieving process.

If you are someone that needs someone to talk to, but you don’t feel comfortable with a face-to-face meeting or you simply prefer using technology to help you through the grieving process, you may be interested in the services of Acumen Bereavement Counseling.

Acumen is an interesting program that offers bereavement counseling via email. It may seem strange, but many people have found these services to be helpful when it comes to getting past their loss and moving forward with their lives.

Email counseling is different from online bereavement groups because the counseling is offered on a one-on-one basis. In addition, the counseling is provided by a certified counselor that has worked with clients around the world for over ten years.

Although email counseling certainly isn’t for everyone, it is one more option that is available to you and may be a good choice if you are uncomfortable with meeting with a counselor in person.

In addition, you can get the help you need without needing to leave your home and you don’t have to make an appointment in order to get in touch with a counselor if you are having a particularly bad day.

If you are interested in helping others cope with grief, you might be interested in checking into the Grief Recovery certification program. Through this program, you receive training in a system that was developed by John W. James and Russell Friedman after 25 years of experience helping others cope with their grief.

In addition to developing their Grief Recovery certification program, James and Friedman are also the founders of The Grief Recovery Institute and co-authored two different books: The Grief Recovery Handbook and When Children Grieve.

The certification program is designed to help people who are interested in helping others cope with their grief and resume a normal life. The underlying premise of the program is that grief is a natural reaction to experiencing loss. Therefore, helping others cope with their grief must focus on helping them deal with the emotions they are still experiencing after the loss. At the same time, the program does not believe in the premise that “time heals all wounds.” Rather, it requires taking specific action in order to address the grief and to recover.

Those interested in getting certified in the program have to complete an intensive 4 day training program. The program incorporates a mixture of personal completion actions as well as a study of the fundamental principles of the program. To learn more about these courses, visit the Grief Recovery website.

“I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

If you have lost a loved one, you might want to consider participating in The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting celebration. The celebration, which takes place on the second Sunday of every December, will be occurring on December 14 this year.

The purpose of the Candle Lighting celebration is to give people around the world the opportunity to honor and remember the children they lost, regardless of the age of the child at the time of the loss. The celebration is also meant to transcend all cultural, ethnic, political, and religious boundaries, making it truly a moment to simply honor those that were lost.

To participate in the ceremony, you don’t necessarily have to do anything special. Rather, you may simply light a candle for one hour, starting at 7:00 at your local time, and honor your child. At the same time, with the event still several months away, you might want to consider organizing a larger group of parents to provide support to one another during the Candle Lighting ceremony.

The event started in 1997 in the United States. But, ceremonies are now held throughout the world. In addition, with all participants lighting their candles at 7:00 local time, candles are actually lit for a period of 24 hours as the ceremony moves from one time zone to the next.

Just a quick one, saw this and had to post it, here goes:

Only seven years ago, four-year-old Lulu Pyne was tragically lost in what could be considered a freak accident. While stopping off for ice cream on their way back from a vacation in Cape Cod, Lulu danced around in the parking lot and grabbed a bicycle rack in order to strike a cute pose. Suddenly, the rack fell over onto the little girl, which severed her heart and killed her almost instantly.

Years later, the Pyne family is finding ways to celebrate her life and the joy she brought to them. Lulu was a special little girl that lived life to its fullest and felt that every moment was one filled with joy and happiness. In order to share this spirit of joy with others, Lulu’s mom Gretchen self-published a book entitled “Lulu’s Rose Colored Glasses” in 2003. The book tells the story of Lulu lifting her mother’s spirits by alloing her to look behind her rose-colored glasses.

This year, Gretchen has released a new self-published book entitled “Lulu Decorates Daddy,” which tells the real life story about how Lulu covered her dad with wildflowers while on vacation in Cape Cod in order to lift his cranky spirits.

Writing and publishing the books has helped the family work its way through the tragic loss of little Lulu while getting back in touch with the happiness the Lulu loved to spread.

“It’s not about grief,” says Gretche. “It’s about transcendence and finding that joy. Happiness is a choice.”

See them here >>.

If you are someone that has lost a child, you undoubtedly are looking for answers and for help with getting through your grief. Often, parents who have lost a child can find solace in talking to others that have experienced the same devastating situation or by listening to their stories. To that end, Suzanne Redfern and Susan Gilbert have released a new book called The Grieving Garden.

The Grieving Garden is a unique compilation of stories that were written by grieving parents that have lost their children. The book, which was written by parents for parents, is meant to help parents cope with the grieving process.

After losing her adult daughter to cancer over 8 years ago, Suzanne Redfern gained a true appreciation for books on the subject of grief. During the night, she says, she would awake in terror over her loss and would read the books in order to settle herself down. Yet, she yearned to read stories from other parents that would help her through her grief. That’s where the idea for the book came to mind. In addition, Redfern hopes to use the book as a way to honor the children that were lost.

See it here >>

Wow! Time flies!

I heard a theory once that time seems to speed up the older you get, because each year becomes a smaller percentage of your life’s span (thus the memories of summers lasting forever when a youngster). Anyhow, it has been too long since I posted something.

We have been busy though, we have been updating the site tools with a nice new image gallery feature, and making some video tutorials to make using the online book of remembrance tools even easier to use. More of that to follow…

For now, a quick post regarding thinking back. It’s been a few months now since I lost my dad, it’s still a bit of a mind job. I miss him every day and sometimes remembering saddens me and sometimes makes me chuckle. But whatever the memory, I’m still fixed to celebrating his life by making the most of my own life, I can’t think of a better way to honor him than that.

Later.