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April 2004 YB News
By Michael T. Baklarz
Are you ready for the future?
Let me illustrate a major trend that is already taking place among forward-looking cemeteries.
Cemeteries will look like beautiful gardens or parks, not wholly unlike memorial parks that were started back in the 19th century during the rural cemetery movement. Cemeteries then moved to rural areas because cities were overcrowded. The spaciousness and new wealth being generated allowed rural cemeteries to feature beautiful, landscaped parks with artistic memorials, statuary and mausoleums. Families from cities went to memorial parks not only to honor loved ones but to spend Sundays in a park-like setting where they could also view memorials as though they were in an outdoor museum. Park cemeteries served a recreational purpose.
A second memorial park movement is developing now not due to population pressures but to satisfy the accelerated levels of personalization that Americans in their 40s, 50s and 60s are demanding. This really should be called the new personalization movement because it signifies a departure from the past when cemeteries and funeral homes had stronger links with communities and families based on religious beliefs and traditional burials that dominated memorialization.
Today, most Americans attach less importance to formal ceremonies, traditional rituals, funeral "viewings" and disposal by burial. There is less appreciation for cemeteries as the final resting place for all members of the family. Most working Americans do not live in the communities that they were born in. They tend to be transient. Family members are geographically dispersed. They are often memorialized in different cemeteries through different forms of memorialization. Cremation, for example, is expected to overtake traditional burials as the most preferred form of memorialization in 20-25 years.
Despite caring less for formality, each person seeks a personalized form of memorialization today. Cemeteries will respond by developing memorial parks for people seeking to be memorialized in beautiful, natural garden-like settings. The most forward-looking cemeteries are already creating sanctuaries or sections within cemeteries developed according to different personalized themes to fulfill the wishes of the memorialized.
Within a cemetery, there may be a cremation garden featuring particular flowers associated with the memorialized. Monument or memorial sections may be devoted to veterans by war (World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the first and second Gulf Wars) - each featuring a central memorial commemorating veterans from a designated war. Another section may be developed for alumni of a university or people with a shared life-defining experience, such as 9/11. Sections with monuments or memorials may be devoted to spiritual themes of different religious faiths. Another sanctuary may be a scattering garden for cremation with waterfalls and boulders. It may be a rock garden designed for a particular ethnic group. Another section with memorials or cremation memorials may feature a small lake that may appeal to people having fond associations with water through recreational hobbies they pursued, or for the peace of mind that such a setting brought to them. A serenity section can be designed with a meditative pool for reflection or just for children. You get the point.
The possibilities of developing sanctuaries, sections or gardens within cemeteries reflecting the lifestyles, hobbies, pursuits and legacies that people will want to be remembered for are limitless. Cemeteries will develop dozens or scores of such sanctuaries or little cemeteries within cemeteries to celebrate the lives of the memorialized.
These sections will also be featured with columbariums with walled cremation niches and boulders with cremation cores. Garden mausoleums with crypts and niches, statuary and works of art can also be landscaped according to a suitable theme. Community mausoleums will be viewed as architectural additions further beautifying cemeteries.
Cemeteries will become visionary memorialization parks that family members and friends will visit to see beautiful landscaped features, themed memorials and works of art. Cemeteries will be transformed to provide special experiences for visitors through such highly personalized features. These features will not only inspire but educate family members who will appreciate a lifestyle or shared experience of a loved one by witnessing a memorial depicting graphic etchings, dimensional engravings and statuary - while also providing spiritual peace of mind to the bereaved.
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Michael T. Baklarz is vice president of business development for the Cold Spring Granite Memorial Group. Cold Spring Granite Co. is a leading manufacturer, designer and distributor of granite and bronze products. The Cold Spring Granite Memorial Group offers the broadest line of memorial products, including upright monuments, flat markers, cast bronze memorials with granite bases, urns, columbariums, community and family mausoleums, benches, and specialty cemetery features. For more information, visit www.coldspringgranite.com http://www.coldspringgranite.com.
Michael T. Baklarz has 25 years of diverse experience in sales, marketing, finance, and strategic planning and is an active member of the Monument Builders of North America and International Cemetery and Funeral Association. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy for two years and completed his undergraduate degree at Duquesne University. He also holds a master's degree in business administration from Ashland College.
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