Help for a Friend Who Lost His Wife and the Mother of Their 3 Kids

If you can afford it, here's a nice idea. Using photos and pieces of her clothing, you or someone crafty can sew a quilt that can be hung on the wall with a rod. Some of the quilt pieces would have photo transfers on them, and others could be fabric from her. I've seen quilting books that teach you how. Very cool. When my dad died, I had teddy bears made for each of my kids. They were made 100% from my dad's clothes. The bear was made from his thin jeans, and button eyes, and they picked one of his shirts to have an outfit made for the bear. They love it!

http://mycustomstory.com

I saw this on a blog I frequent- a friend made it for the daughter who lost her mother the day after she was born- the pages were so sweet- pics of mom- things like "i loved you every minute you were in my belly" ...a wonderful reminder for the kids--

G.,

There are several online services that allow you to produce hard bound books. I used iLife to create a book to give to my mother for Mother's Day. The photos were our favorite pics of my daughter taken over the first four years of her life. I included captions and funny stories. I think Snapfish offers a similar product. A memory book about their mother is a gift they can enjoy for years to come. Merry Christmas.

J. N.

I know you have received a lot of suggestions on the memory book and that is mine too, but with a little twist. Recently my uncle passed away from a long battle with cancer. Before he passed away I asked everyone in our extended family and any of his family friend's who wanted to to create two scrapbook pages - one with a message of hope, inspiration, love etc. to my uncle and wife and one with the picture and salutation of sorts from the family that created it. The pages could take any kind of form people wanted to use, pictures, artwork, collage, cds whatever someone wanted to use to convey how much they loved my uncle, the joys of times they had together and anything they found inspiring in hopes my uncle and his family would find it inspiring too. Then everyone mailed their two pages to me and I assembled them into a scrapbook with slip-in sleeves (we did the 12x12 size and they have a lot of nice books to choose from at Michael's). Anyway it turned out BEATIFULLY because every page was unique and filled with so much love from so many people (we ended up with almost 50 pages!). My uncle and everyone who saw it absolutely loved it and were really touched by it. I'm so glad my aunt has it to look back through whenever she wants to remind her how much she is loved and how special my uncle was to so many people. I'm not a scrapbooker, but I knew I could make my own two pages and then I just put everyone else's in the book.

I got the idea from this beautiful book on craftster.org at http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=250499.0 Here is the photo series on flickr of the book we created (I hope you can see it by just using this link, if not please email me if you would like to see it and I'll get you logged on): http://www.flickr.com/photos/____@____.com/sets/721576070...

Hi G.,
I make family trees out of real tree branches that are then mounted in a nice frame. My small size would be perfect for your friend, his wife and their 3 children. They normally sell for $50, but because your intentions are so sincere, I would be honored to help and would be happy to do it for half price to cover my cost of the frame. If you are interested you can see examples at www.sugarbeandesigns.com Let me know if you would like my help. I could certainly get it done before Christmas.

This may not be what you are looking for, but my cousin made a really pretty lampshade with photographs of her father on it after he died years ago. When the lamp is on, the pictures are very visible. I'm not sure how she did it, but I bet you can google it and find out easily. This is very nice of you to do.

I don't know if you quilt, but my daughters and I made a very simple quilt after their grandpa died by printing pics on printable fabric (available at craft stores, then adding sashing and doing simple channel quilting to hold it all together.

I also made a quilt for my mom that contained several of my brother's t-shirts and gave it to her on what would have been his birthday.

The snapfish.com memory books mentioned are also quick and easy. You can add text and photos and they look wonderful. We create books for our family vacations each year.

Blessings to you.

A really good place to make a memory book is at a place called Heratagemakers, its a party type thing that has top quality memory books that you design yourself with their online website- http://www.yourownbooks.com
The lady who conducted the party that I attended has the email address of: ____@____.com
These books are library bound and will last a lifetime, I haven't made one yet, but my daughter wishes she would have made her wedding album here and is making another because these are so much better.

In case you're not wanting to scrap book, and from my understanding, you want a display...how about one of those digital photo frames? It works as kind of a slide show inside what looks to be a regular photo frame.
It will be easy to load, since you have the pictures already in a digital format.
I think it's wonderful you're helping them keep the memory alive...this time of year is especially hard.
What a good friend!

Good Morning G., What a wonderful friend you are!!
Right now I am making a memory quilt for two sisters to give their mother and aunt. They lost their Grand mother a few months ago. They cut some of her blouses, sweat shirts, house coats etc, even some sheets she used. I am making two memory quilts for them to give.

If your not into quilting which is fun, then maybe a scrapbook would be nice or a collage of pictures for the wall. Or for each child's room as something extra. If they have pictures of each child with Mom those could be grouped together for each child.

God Bless you G. for your loving thoughtfulness

Always K. Nana of 5

A scrapbook with little mementos and pictures is always something special that anyone can open up and look at. Hope this helps!

I like the memory book idea but instead of crafting one why not get one that is permanently and professionally bound? I've seen a sight on the internet where you can put your pictures on their storyboard and basically design the whole thing yourself, even adding verbage. Then you tell them when to print, how many and what size. They even come with dustjackets! It looked so awesome! I'm thinking of sitting down and doing one for my family...but anyway, if you did this for them, then each kid and dad could have THEIR OWN book as a lifetime memory instead of having to share one.

If you don't want to go that far, why not just get a digital picture frame? There are ones with music too so it would be something that could continuously flip through the pictures for them.

You might try doing something in a picture frame. One that you can put pics in and also write on, like a matte frame. If you get ideas of her life and her likes, joys, etc. you could type something up and put that in a frame with pictures since you are wanting it to be something they can look at daily. It may have to be a fairly large frame which you could find at a craft store. Good Luck and that is very thoughtful of you.

Wow, G., what strength of character you have to do this for your friends. It would hard for me to put something together w/out breaking down. Good for you!

Ok, ideas:

1. Snapfish.com has blankets/throws that you can put pictures on. They also have photo books, big and small. A calendar with pics in it. T-shirts and sweatshirts.

2. What about a digital photo frame that rotates out pictures. That way they would always have pictures to look at everyday. I think some even are programable to talk. Try RadioShack.

3. Name a star after her. The kids might like that, being able to look up and say "Hi" to Mom.

4. If he has some of her old clothes maybe you or someone else can make blankets or throws for the kids or maybe just a small pillow. Perhaps they can pick out the pieces they liked they most. Kids remember things we don't.

5. What about planting something and then having an encased waterproof box with pictures/momentos (one from each kid and one from Dad) This can be displayed in the yard for all to see. I'm sure a funeral home or Nursery could help with the box idea.

I hope these ideas help.

Melanie, Swansea, IL

The memory books are very nice, I've done mine on shutterfly.com and they have a lot of great options. But, if you want something a little more unique you could do a memory box, I've seen a lot of those at Hobby Lobby lately, and you can put in your own objects, items and maybe write a poem or small story that you could print or have printed at Kinko's with some info about her.

Since scrapbooking is the in thing right know. Why not make a scrapbook for them. Exsample: Her favorite hobbies,flowers etc...

I would do the memory book, that would be very nice. I also like the DVD idea also. My neighbor's husband just passed away a few days ago, and they had 4 kids. It is so sad when something like this happens esp. when there are children involved. Good Luck !

What a thoughtful thing to do :) I have a few ideas: Shutterfly.com makes some very affordable photo books-you just upload the photos online and it arrives in a few days---or you could make a scrapbook (don't know if you'd like something for each individual) if you're not particularly crafty, you can commission someone to make it for you. Its a little more pricey unless you know someone but at some privately-owned scrapbook stores they do it. My sister made her husband a shadow box to hang with items and photos of his late father. She included an old German poem (they're from Germany) a fishing lure (fishing was a favorite shared pastime) and photos-it includes a little of everything. Maybe a Christmas ornament, something engraved from that Things Remembered store (Independence Center has one) Hope this helps!

I like the memory book idea. I did one on Wal-mart site before and it turned out nice. You could also make a dvd with all the picutes and have her favorite songs playing.

Creative Memories has a great way to showcase a scrapbook page. They have this picture frame type thing that is really neat. You can make a scrapbook page and it can be displayed like a picture hanging up. Or you could do a small scrapbook that they can keep on the shelf and look at when they want. What a sweet thought for you to want to do this. I'm sure they will appreciate it, whatever you decide to do. Oh and creative memories has a web site, just add .com to the end. Good luck and God Bless.
P.S. CM does the memory books too and can print the scrapbook page for you.