Memorial Gift Ideas: Keepsakes for Someone You Have Lost

For a mother or a father, the photograph that matters is usually the one where they look most like themselves — on the porch, in the kitchen, at the grill, holding a grandchild, doing the thing they did every week for years.

Their full name and their dates can be set into the stone beside the picture, or you can leave it as just the photograph. Either works, and you decide. You see the layout and approve it before anything is printed.

Two kinds of pieces work here, and both are common. The first is the anniversary photograph — the wedding day, a trip, a golden-hour picture the two of them took years ago, sometimes decades ago. Those are often the pieces that produce the strongest reaction, and old or faded prints are welcome; we clean them up before they are printed.

The second is simply something to see every day: a favorite picture of the two of them on a shelf, a desk, or a nightstand. An anniversary that still comes around each year is easier when there is something to look at on the day itself.

For someone who served, the piece can carry the whole of it: a portrait in dress uniform or turnout gear, with branch, rank, and years of service set into the design, or the badge number and the department beside the photograph.

For police, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and dispatchers, the tributes also work for retirements, promotions, and academy graduations — and at the hardest end, for end-of-watch pieces, which are made slowly and with particular care.

For a child, a family photograph often says more than a portrait of the child alone — the whole household together, or a grandparent holding them on the porch. Multi-generational pieces are a favorite here: four generations in one frame when everyone was finally in the same place at the same time.

For a grandparent, the same idea in reverse. The grandchildren in one photograph, with the family name and a year underneath, is one of the most-given pieces we make.

The companions who gave us their whole heart often have four legs, and a pet memorial belongs on this page as much as any portrait — the dog at the lake with their tongue out, the cat asleep in a strip of sunlight, with their name and years beside the photograph.

Pet memorials have their own guide if you want to read more about them.

If you are looking for a gift for someone else, the practical answer is this: flowers last a week, and a card gets read once. A memorial keepsake is something they can hold on the nights that are harder, and it does not ask them to do anything with it except keep it.

Ordering one as a surprise is common, and it works well — send a photograph you already have, choose the size, and have it shipped straight to their address. At checkout, choose “Ship it as a gift”: the address you enter becomes theirs, and a short message of yours can be written by hand on a note card that ships with the piece.

It is also completely fine to wait. If the person is not ready to look at a photograph yet, hold the idea and come back to it in a few weeks. There is no deadline on this.

A real piece of natural slate, split from stone, with the rough chiseled edge left exactly as it broke — so no two pieces are ever alike. Your photograph is printed permanently into the surface: no glass over it, no glare, and nothing to frame. A display stand is included.

Sizes run from 3 × 5 at $15, 4 × 6 at $25, 5 × 5 at $30, 5 × 7 at $40 (the size most people choose), 6 × 8 at $45, and 8 × 10 at $55. A name, dates, or a short line can be added to any of them, and several photographs can be combined into one design if you would rather bring more than one picture together.

Shipping is $10 flat nationwide standard, or $25 expedited (about 2 to 3 business days). $25 expedited shipping is always charged. Free standard shipping is available on your first order over $150 through October 31. After that, $10 flat. Sales tax is calculated automatically at checkout for your location.

Send the photograph you want on the stone. Wiley personally helps with the selection, cleanup, cropping, and layout — including old, faded, or imperfect photographs, which are often the ones that matter most, and he will tell you honestly which picture will look best.

You approve the design before anything is made, and you can cancel for a full refund any time before you approve it. Once it is approved, the piece is handcrafted in 3 to 5 business days and shipped to your door.