Keepsake of a Cremation Urn

Asia Dickey

Prof. McManus

GSW 1100-140

17 October 2017

Keepsake of a Cremation Urn

Keepsakes are items that usually hold deep meaning for the person who cherishes it.

The concept of a keepsake is the implication that an object carries the memory of the person who owned it or died. A keepsake can be stories, or anything that a person values. There are a few meanings of having a keepsake. A keepsake is a physical connection towards an object that helps you remember something or someone. A keepsake is kept because of remembrance. Often times people cherish a keepsake because it's a sentimental value. A keepsake is often passed on to children,grandchildren or great grandchildren. An example of an common object that’s a keepsake is “Jewelry” such as rings, bracelets and watches that came from the person who owned it over the years. However, there are requirements that have to be followed in order to keep the value as a keepsake status. The person who’s in charge has a big responsibility accepting the keepsake and controlling the keepsake’s value. Older people worry about whether their personal possessions will go to the right person and will become their keepsake.

In my family we have a keepsake that represents someone who died. For example my Aunt passed away in December 2007 and she asked to be cremated. The object that we have to symbolize her death is a urn that has her ashes inside of a steel box with her favorite inspirational quote on the back by Dr.Seuss “Don’t cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” I never really understood why she liked that quote so much but once I got older and looked at her urn inside of a glass shelf I read the quote and started to understand the meaning of it.

My aunt’s favorite quote means to not cry over something that can’t be changed, just be happy and smile that they spent as much time as they could during the family functions and think about all the good things that went on while they were here. The cremation urn is a keepsake value in my family, but it also involves a tradition because every year on New Years we celebrate the holiday altogether as a family at my other aunt’s house. The last person who had my aunt that passed has to bring her to the celebration. We put her in the middle of the table with her favorite wine surrounded around her which is Pinot grigio, all the adults have a glass of the wine and for the kids they have sparking grape juice and we all stand around the table to have a toast and prayer. After the toast someone passes around the raffle tickets and everybody puts their tickets in a jar. An adult pulls a name out the jar and whoever's name gets called gets to keep my aunt for the next year. This has been a valued keepsake since 2010. One day our family will find closure and let the ashes go or simply bury them.

In most cases a keepsake would go to a certain individual just by the way the relationship in the family is set up or however the family assigned for who to keep the urn. Some people might think passing along my aunt’s cremation urn is disrespectful because we're not letting her rest peacefully. In my eyes as a family we are doing the right thing by passing my aunt around in the family and giving everyone a chance to have their self peace and their own inner connections with her. This shows that we still have my aunt