Taylored Memorial Creations

  When someone passes, friends and family struggle to know what to do to show they care and how to reach out. I wanted to mention a few things that helped me when I lost my husband, Ed, in the hope that it might help someone, anyone, be there when they know someone struggling with a loss. The first thing I want to mention is the meals. Especially the food that was brought over the week of his passing leading into the funeral. I had so many people in and out, and family staying, it was a big relief to not worry about food. And one person brought sandwich fixings--bread, deli meats, condiments, it was great for allowing people at my apartment to fix a sandwich if they were hungry. Priceless. Someone arranged a meal sign up platform, like TakeThemaMeal.com or Meal Train. I don’t remember which, but it was wonderful to have the meals arranged after the funeral. It helped with a physical need that I did not have the ability to verbalize, but definitely had the need. People deliverin

            As I showered and washed off the dust from the 8 ½ hours of driving, I reflected on the days spent at the family reunion in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. It was AMAZING! There is something about being around people who knew my mom and my sister, which fosters a deep bond in a way few people can. People who knew my grandparents and my other aunts and uncles. Those who knew my sister that passed away decades ago in a motorcycle accident. And those who knew my husband, who I lost only five years ago. When we are all together, we laugh, we cry, we tease each other. We talk about things that happened when we were young—different cousinly perspectives on things that happened while we were growing up. We talk about each of our paths after those reminiscent days, and funny things like all of us and our **ahem** mixed appreciation of Grandpa Finazzi’s iconic black chest hair sticking out in great tufts from within his white t-shirt. Our family often hung out at our grandparents and w