Everybody treats gravesite visitations differently. We all experience different emotions, thoughts and feelings when dealing with grief and thinking about the loss of a loved one. You may even be wondering whether you should visit a relative’s gravesite.
Sometimes, a visit to a cemetery can be cathartic, a time of healing, reflection, sharing memories, saying prayers or goodbye, or simply as an act of remembrance. Whatever the reason, it is a worthwhile visit.
Are you wondering what to do when visiting a gravesite? Here are 10 ideas for your next cemetery visitation.
10 Ideas for a Gravesite Visitation
- Bring flowers and lie the bouquet on the headstone
- Decorate the grave with pictures of the deceased, flowers, memorabilia and art
- Kneel down next to the headstone and pray
- Practice meditation and begin to let the healing process happen
- Speak to your deceased loved one, tell them about your life, what you’ve been up to, how much miss them or recount lovingly and nostalgically about the memories you shared together
- If you visited the tombstone with family members or friends, remember the good times you shared with your deceased loved one – the laughs, the love and the challenges you faced together
- If you’re visiting with family or friends, share meaningful quotes, song lyrics, recite from the bible
- If you’re visiting with family or friends, have fun and joke around. You can also use this time to plan for the future as well as reflect on the past
- If you’re visiting with family or friends, together you can discuss each other’s health and reflect on your own mortality
- If you brought lunch with you, or a snack, you can sit at a nearby bench and take in the beauty of nature that surrounds you. Take the time to be present, listen to the birdsongs, wind ruffling through the trees, and looking around at the landscape of headstones in all their different shapes, sizes and colours
If you’ve travelled far for the gravesite visitation, you can make it truly commemorative by having a stroll around the cemetery grounds. This gives you the opportunity to reflect on your loved one’s memorial, while also observing how others are memorialised and remembering their loved ones.
Alongside taking a walk around the grounds, you can also take the time to clean the monument before you leave. It is always best to check the condition of your loved one’s headstone. While it takes thousands of years for a granite headstone to show deterioration, it can become soiled and stained. Often due to moss or mildew, leaves and twigs or the build up of animal and bird droppings.
During your gravesite visit you can clean the monument and beautify the plot by easily brushing off dirt, sticks and grass. For a better clean, you can bring soap, water and a cloth for a more efficient and thorough clean. Cemeteries cut the grass and trim the area around the gravestone and plot, but if you’d like the monument to look beautiful, this is your responsibility.
When do people typically visit a gravesite?
You can carry out a gravesite visitation anytime you feel compelled to do so. But, there are special times of year when people typically visit a cemetery, such as on Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, a wedding anniversary, a birthday, the anniversary of their death, Easter Sunday, a day of a special event you shared together, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Valentine’s Day.
There are a number of different reasons why you might visit the gravesite of a loved one, and equally, so many things you can do while there to help you reconnect with the one you lost, remember them, and feel close again. It is a heartfelt moment visiting a grave and one that is very personal. We hope that some of the ideas shared here will help you next time you visit your loved ones gravesite, and help keep the beautiful memories of them alive.
Contact Cope Memorials
Here at Cope Memorials, we’re an expert team of stonemasons, offering an exceptional service in the local areas of Chesterfield, Burton-on-Trent, Ripley, Wilford, Belper, Derby, Alfreton, Buwell, Chaddesden, Nottingham, and Arnold; specifically, to those in need of beautifully crafted headstones and memorials. To speak with our caring and considerate team, please give us a call on 01773 602 187 or complete our simple online enquiry form, and we’ll be in touch.
