New Technologies Provide Innovative Ways to Remember Fathers on Father's Day

PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to new and innovative technology, deceased fathers can now be celebrated, shared, and remembered in new and emotionally personal ways on Father's Day.  The newly launched program The Remembrance Process(SM) at http://www.remembranceprocess.com, features a wealth of information on new ways of remembering our loved ones who have passed on.

"During the creation of the Remembrance Process(SM) our research clearly showed a strong desire to remember and honor our fathers on their special day, and new technologies are making this possible," said Steve Gackenbach, Chief Commercial Officer at Matthews International, who added "Technology is letting families remember their fathers in ways that are more personalized than ever before."

Websites like Facebook, and Ancestry.com, allow families opportunities to remember their father with their social circles.  Jan Plummer, in Houston, Texas, changes her Facebook profile picture on Father's Day to one that shows a picture of her with her father when she was a young girl. "That photo encapsulates one of my best memories of my father, and I want to honor him even though he passed away two years ago.  The notes I write about these kinds of pictures generate unbelievable comments from my friends and families, and then they start sharing stories about my dad as well.  All of sudden what can be a sad day becomes a great day of fond remembrances."

Ancestry.com and geni.com are websites that allow people to trace their relatives and are also being used to help remember a father and his family.  Greg Panjian, of Suffield, Connecticut, started researching his family roots recently.  He posted new information about his father and his grandfather on Ancestry.com and circulated this information to his family as a way of honoring and remembering his own father and his family's heritage.  

Of course, for many families, a very important and powerful way to remember fathers on Father's Day is to visit their graves at a cemetery.  But even here, new technologies mean new ways to remember.  According to Steve Gackenbach, families are taking advantage of new imaging and design technologies to create a whole new approach to personalized monuments.  "Our Lasting Memories™ bronze memorials use a technology that captures pictures in bronze to make very personalized, permanent memorials."  

Other families are using new design technologies to create cemetery monuments that capture a loved one's passions. For example, monuments can now be made in the shape of a chess set, a golf bag, a piano, or anything a family wishes to symbolize their father's interests.  Gackenbach suggests that whether it is Facebook or new technology monuments, what we see in all of these approaches is a desire to remember loved ones.  And now all kinds of technologies make that easier than ever.

About The Remembrance Process(SM)

The Remembrance Process(SM) is a free resource dedicated to helping families move from "grieving to remembrance" of loved ones who have passed on.  It is an innovative program that provides on-line information about end of life choices to families, and links hospice, clergy, funeral homes and cemetery professionals as caregivers all working to help families with end of life issues.   The website contains regularly updated videos and articles, and can be found at http://www.remembranceprocess.com.

About Matthews International

Matthews International is a leading provider of products to funeral homes and cemeteries.  Matthew International is the sponsor of the Remembrance Process(SM) and is dedicated to helping families move from "grieving to remembrance".  

SOURCE The Remembrance Process