Memorial Board: Text Blocks and Scanned Text
These are text blocks and scanned text from the memorial board for my mother, who passed away on December 26, 2021. See the earlier mockups and the finished pictures.
Most of the text on the memorial board is content that I wrote for this project or earlier in my grief work repurposed for use here, with a few bits copied from elsewhere like the notation of who sponsored memorial trees through Sunset Funeral Home.
There are also two pieces of hand-written text that I scanned from my mother's albums. When I found those, I felt that it was important and valuable to include them, and I'm glad to have those pieces of her handwriting. If you are making a memorial board and you can find examples of the departed person's handwriting, or papercrafts they have made, those things are well worth including.
Left Panel
The top header is Family and Friends. The bottom header is Grand Adventures. The header font is Banner 60 point.
The bottom left corner has this excerpt of a scrapbook page from one of Mom's photo albums, with a couple of photos and a hand-written note about the National Education Association event in New Orleans that she and Dad attended in 1998. She was a major part of the teacher's union.
The bottom right corner has a printout of my poem "Gone to Seed." The capital letters in the poem title are FlowerPower 24 point, the lowercase letters are Groovy 24 point, and the body of the poem is Arial 14 point font. That poem has also been reprinted in the memorial booklet for the Celebration of Life service.
Center Panel
The left header says Shirley Rochat Barrette. The right header says 1/18/1944 - 12/26/2021. The header font is Banner 60 point.
The left text block beside the garden pictures is in Arial 14 point. Read about chrysanthemums, coleus, poinsettias, wildflowers, and zinnias.
Favorite Flowers
Chrysanthemums:
life, death, and rebirth; sympathy
Coleus:
beauty, health, growth, tolerance, diversity
Poinsettias:
purity, joy, celebration, positivity, success
Zinnias:
affection, remembrance, until we meet again
Wildflowers:
happiness, love, wilderness, freedom
The right text block near the forest picture is in Arial 14 point. Sunset Funeral Home stocks a memorial grove where folks can buy trees in memory of a loved one; I also ordered some oak trees from Prairie Moon to plant in my yard. Check out this reference page for the number of species supported by an oak tree, which also lists other tree species and their numbers for comparison.
Sunset Memorial Grove
1 tree from Sunset Funeral Home
1 tree from Sue and Wayne Chambliss
3 trees from Shirl Henke
Plant another memorial tree:
https://www.sunsetfuneralhome.com/obituary/
Shirley-RochatBarrette/1071623/memorial-tree
Fieldhaven Memorial Grove
from Elizabeth Barrette and Doug Edwards
1 bur oak
1 chinquapin oak
1 red oak
1 swamp white oak
One oak tree can host 532 caterpillar species,
280 other insects, 147 birds, 120 mammals,
and 60 species of reptiles and amphibians.
Between them is a sticker from the Tolkien set that I bought for the memorial scrapbook, from the Woodland Elf kit. The sticker reads, "I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all of the ages of this world alone." (Arwen, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Bottom center is this hand-written quote from Mom, "Thoughts on Aging," scanned from her scrapbook album.
Right Panel
The header is Carry on the Work. The header font is Banner 60 point.
All the text blocks are in Arial 14 point.
Right under the header is a short introduction:
Mom was an activist. You could throw darts at a list of 1960s-70s causes and hit something she did. She didn't add many things after that because she already had her hands full. She left tall boots to fill.
Below are the text blocks for Mom's individual areas of interest. Much of the text comes from my earlier post "In Lieu of Flowers" so look there for longer entries with links on these topics.
We did a lot of cooking over the years. When I was little we also did canning and freezing to stock up for winter.
* Donate time or money to your local cooking club, community kitchen, or culinary school. Teach a cooking class there.
* Send a favorite cookbook to a library or literacy project.
* Cook something with your family, while you can.
Mom enjoyed a wide variety of crafts
and could usually find a way to make
whatever was needed. Crochet, knitting,
sewing, carpentry, all that boho stuff.
* Donate money, time, equipment, or
supplies to your local makerspace.
* Support your local yarn, quilting,
scrapbooking, or other craft store.
* If you are a fibercrafter, dig into your
stash and make a box-bottom afghan
or a crazy quilt like the hippies did.
* Make a basic kit for crochet or knitting
with a few tools, a yarn, and printouts of
easy stitches and a few beginner projects.
* Build, repair, or upcycle something.
Mom taught Special Education,
Science, Math, and Computers.
She and Dad also taught adult
remedial education for years. They
were a major part of the teacher's union.
* The Illinois Education Association has
a regular donation page and a crisis fund.
* The National Education Association
has a donation page on its website too.
* Donations to your local school,
computer literacy program, or other
knowledge providers are also appropriate.
* Teach something. Pretty much anything.
* Take a class and learn something new.
Hippies had a big part in launching the
environmental movement. There are
trees in my yard that we planted together.
In Florida, Mom got to see a wild dolphin
tour guide who human-watched the boats.
* Make plans for Earth Day on April 22.
* Join the Arbor Day Foundation. They
also offer a Trees in Memory program.
* Protect dolphins and other sea life.
* Go birdwatching. Feed the birds.
* Calculate your carbon footprint.
* Reduce or eliminate eating beef.
Check out Diet for a Small Planet,
The Vegetarian Epicure, The
Moosewood Cookbook, and
more recently Hippie Food.
When I was little, we had a huge vegetable garden and an orchard.
* Grow heirloom fruits and vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.
* Try permaculture, organic, or other sustainable gardening ideas.
* Plant a wildflower or wildlife garden for all our relations.
* Make seed bombs and do some guerrilla gardening.
* Support farmer's markets, CSAs, U-pick, and food co-ops.
Mom never really quit being a hippie. She loved loud dresses and fantastic hats. She played folk music and drank dandelion wine. She tried her level best to save the world. Now it's your turn to do that.
* Study hippie history and famous hippies. Read hippie books.
* Tie-dye something. Dharma Trading and Tulip sell supplies.
* Explore enlightenment. Useful writers include Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, and Carlos Castenada. Find the Others.
* Try yoga. It's good for many things, including grief and death.
Mom was a space nerd. She threw NASA parties, networked with astronauts, and supervised the Young Astronauts program in school.
* Support the space program including planetary exploration.
* Go skywatching or visit a planetarium. Defend the darkness.
The last item in the lower left corner is her Best Patron badge from the 2022 Rose & Bay Awards with a description of her support for crowdfunded poetry.
Most of the text on the memorial board is content that I wrote for this project or earlier in my grief work repurposed for use here, with a few bits copied from elsewhere like the notation of who sponsored memorial trees through Sunset Funeral Home.
There are also two pieces of hand-written text that I scanned from my mother's albums. When I found those, I felt that it was important and valuable to include them, and I'm glad to have those pieces of her handwriting. If you are making a memorial board and you can find examples of the departed person's handwriting, or papercrafts they have made, those things are well worth including.
Left Panel
The top header is Family and Friends. The bottom header is Grand Adventures. The header font is Banner 60 point.
The bottom left corner has this excerpt of a scrapbook page from one of Mom's photo albums, with a couple of photos and a hand-written note about the National Education Association event in New Orleans that she and Dad attended in 1998. She was a major part of the teacher's union.
The bottom right corner has a printout of my poem "Gone to Seed." The capital letters in the poem title are FlowerPower 24 point, the lowercase letters are Groovy 24 point, and the body of the poem is Arial 14 point font. That poem has also been reprinted in the memorial booklet for the Celebration of Life service.
Center Panel
The left header says Shirley Rochat Barrette. The right header says 1/18/1944 - 12/26/2021. The header font is Banner 60 point.
The left text block beside the garden pictures is in Arial 14 point. Read about chrysanthemums, coleus, poinsettias, wildflowers, and zinnias.
Favorite Flowers
Chrysanthemums:
life, death, and rebirth; sympathy
Coleus:
beauty, health, growth, tolerance, diversity
Poinsettias:
purity, joy, celebration, positivity, success
Zinnias:
affection, remembrance, until we meet again
Wildflowers:
happiness, love, wilderness, freedom
The right text block near the forest picture is in Arial 14 point. Sunset Funeral Home stocks a memorial grove where folks can buy trees in memory of a loved one; I also ordered some oak trees from Prairie Moon to plant in my yard. Check out this reference page for the number of species supported by an oak tree, which also lists other tree species and their numbers for comparison.
Sunset Memorial Grove
1 tree from Sunset Funeral Home
1 tree from Sue and Wayne Chambliss
3 trees from Shirl Henke
Plant another memorial tree:
https://www.sunsetfuneralhome.com/obituary/
Shirley-RochatBarrette/1071623/memorial-tree
Fieldhaven Memorial Grove
from Elizabeth Barrette and Doug Edwards
1 bur oak
1 chinquapin oak
1 red oak
1 swamp white oak
One oak tree can host 532 caterpillar species,
280 other insects, 147 birds, 120 mammals,
and 60 species of reptiles and amphibians.
Between them is a sticker from the Tolkien set that I bought for the memorial scrapbook, from the Woodland Elf kit. The sticker reads, "I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all of the ages of this world alone." (Arwen, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Bottom center is this hand-written quote from Mom, "Thoughts on Aging," scanned from her scrapbook album.
Right Panel
The header is Carry on the Work. The header font is Banner 60 point.
All the text blocks are in Arial 14 point.
Right under the header is a short introduction:
Mom was an activist. You could throw darts at a list of 1960s-70s causes and hit something she did. She didn't add many things after that because she already had her hands full. She left tall boots to fill.
Below are the text blocks for Mom's individual areas of interest. Much of the text comes from my earlier post "In Lieu of Flowers" so look there for longer entries with links on these topics.
We did a lot of cooking over the years. When I was little we also did canning and freezing to stock up for winter.
* Donate time or money to your local cooking club, community kitchen, or culinary school. Teach a cooking class there.
* Send a favorite cookbook to a library or literacy project.
* Cook something with your family, while you can.
Mom enjoyed a wide variety of crafts
and could usually find a way to make
whatever was needed. Crochet, knitting,
sewing, carpentry, all that boho stuff.
* Donate money, time, equipment, or
supplies to your local makerspace.
* Support your local yarn, quilting,
scrapbooking, or other craft store.
* If you are a fibercrafter, dig into your
stash and make a box-bottom afghan
or a crazy quilt like the hippies did.
* Make a basic kit for crochet or knitting
with a few tools, a yarn, and printouts of
easy stitches and a few beginner projects.
* Build, repair, or upcycle something.
Mom taught Special Education,
Science, Math, and Computers.
She and Dad also taught adult
remedial education for years. They
were a major part of the teacher's union.
* The Illinois Education Association has
a regular donation page and a crisis fund.
* The National Education Association
has a donation page on its website too.
* Donations to your local school,
computer literacy program, or other
knowledge providers are also appropriate.
* Teach something. Pretty much anything.
* Take a class and learn something new.
Hippies had a big part in launching the
environmental movement. There are
trees in my yard that we planted together.
In Florida, Mom got to see a wild dolphin
tour guide who human-watched the boats.
* Make plans for Earth Day on April 22.
* Join the Arbor Day Foundation. They
also offer a Trees in Memory program.
* Protect dolphins and other sea life.
* Go birdwatching. Feed the birds.
* Calculate your carbon footprint.
* Reduce or eliminate eating beef.
Check out Diet for a Small Planet,
The Vegetarian Epicure, The
Moosewood Cookbook, and
more recently Hippie Food.
When I was little, we had a huge vegetable garden and an orchard.
* Grow heirloom fruits and vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.
* Try permaculture, organic, or other sustainable gardening ideas.
* Plant a wildflower or wildlife garden for all our relations.
* Make seed bombs and do some guerrilla gardening.
* Support farmer's markets, CSAs, U-pick, and food co-ops.
Mom never really quit being a hippie. She loved loud dresses and fantastic hats. She played folk music and drank dandelion wine. She tried her level best to save the world. Now it's your turn to do that.
* Study hippie history and famous hippies. Read hippie books.
* Tie-dye something. Dharma Trading and Tulip sell supplies.
* Explore enlightenment. Useful writers include Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, and Carlos Castenada. Find the Others.
* Try yoga. It's good for many things, including grief and death.
Mom was a space nerd. She threw NASA parties, networked with astronauts, and supervised the Young Astronauts program in school.
* Support the space program including planetary exploration.
* Go skywatching or visit a planetarium. Defend the darkness.
The last item in the lower left corner is her Best Patron badge from the 2022 Rose & Bay Awards with a description of her support for crowdfunded poetry.