When writing an obituary, it’s common practice to include an organization that people can donate to in memory of the deceased. La-Na Fragomeni has helped many families through the process of setting up memorial donations, in her role as advanced planner at Arthur Funeral Home.
An advanced planner assists individuals who are 21+ years old with pre-planning their own funerals. La-Na says this is a huge gift to their family members, who are able to come in after their immense loss and have everything already organized.
Sometimes when individuals pre-plan their funerals, they also pre-arrange their memorial donation wishes. Whether memorial donations are pre-planned or arranged after the death occurs, La-Na has seen these donations go to a wide range of meaningful causes.
Recently, La-Na has noticed more organizations being chosen that celebrate the deceased’s life, rather than focusing on how they died. These donations can be a meaningful way to highlight what your loved one’s passions were.
“It could be for anything; if their passion was animals, or if their passion was children’s sports. We had a teacher who was passionate about reading, so they set up donations to the Piper Project, which collects books for children,” says La-Na.
Arthur Funeral Home can also help facilitate funds being collected for the memorial donations. People can bring their charitable donations to the funeral home, and charities can pick up the cheques directly from the home as well.
The funeral home recently served a family whose loved one lived at F.J. Davey Home, a local long-term care facility, until he passed away last year.
Robert Edgar Burns, whose wife Fran Burns describes lovingly as "a bit of a rascal who could cause a lot of problems,” became passionate about replacing the gazebo at F.J. Davey Home.
Robert and Fran enjoyed the gazebo. They had picnics in it, and Robert would read there. There’s another covered outdoor shelter at the back of the building, but they preferred sitting out front, near the nursing home entrance.
Unfortunately, the outdoor shelter was no longer in good condition, generally worn down, with a collapsed roof. Robert began strongly advocating for the replacement or repair of the gazebo, visiting the administrative office every day to speak with staff. The response was honest: the home simply couldn’t afford it.
Fran has deep appreciation and love for the staff who helped look after her husband, and wanted to help the facility with addressing this issue that Robert cared so much about. She knew that the home needed financial help to do so.
“With donations in memory, I like them to go to something that really needs to be addressed,” says Fran.
When Robert passed, Fran asked that donations in his memory go to a fund to build a brand-new outdoor enclosure, so that F.J. Davey Home residents would have outdoor space to enjoy.
Because of Robert’s obituary, which his and Fran’s daughter wrote, strangers began donating money to the gazebo fund. This began a year ago, and the funds collected have helped pay for the costly pre-planning steps, including architectural drawings.
When the new outdoor shelter is built, F.J. Davey Home has told Fran that they’d like to put a plaque on it with her late husband’s name.
For more information about F.J. Davey Home, visit www.fjdaveyhome.org.
If you would like to donate specifically to the gazebo project, please mention it in your note when you donate to F.J. Davey Home.
For more information about Arthur Funeral Home, visit www.facebook.com/ArthurFuneral.