Memorialization

Creating an Online Memorial

MemoryBox is the nation's premier memorialization website and app. With a MemoryBox memorial, you, your family and friends can post and share photos and memories of your lost loved one, simply, from any device, and from anywhere in the world.

Every Cremstar cremation comes with a complimentary online memorial at MemoryBox.com. (For an example, click here.)

• Whether you're curating your digital identity before you pass on — ensuring you're remembered the way you want to be remembered — or you're creating an online memorial for someone who's already transitioned, this powerful application makes it easy.

Cost: Free

Creating an "Event" Memory

With MemoryBox, you can create several types of Memories: People (e.g. online memorials); Places; Things; Ideas; and Events.

Event Memories are unique because they have a specific date and time associated with them; e.g. 01/26/2023 - 2:00-4:00 PM EST. When folks join an Event Memory, as long as their phone is equipped with the MemoryBox app, all the photographs they take with their phone during the event are copied from their photo roll and posted to the Event Memory online automatically — even if they're not actively using the MemoryBox app but just their regular photo function!

• No more: "I'll send you those photos later." Or, "I'll get you a thumb drive once I transfer them." You know this hardly ever comes true!

With MemoryBox, all the photos are assembled automatically into one place where everyone can share the event, and those fond memories are never more than a smartphone away.
Cost: Free

Producing a Virtual Life Celebration Event in the Metaverse

Why spend a fortune on a physical venue, caterers, decorations, and printed materials to honor the passing of your loved one, especially in these pandemic times?

For families that are distributed far and wide, for those who find traveling difficult, for folks who are sick and tired of videoconferencing, there is an alternative.

Hold your Celebration of Life event ...
in the metaverse!
For those who'd like to arrange a virtual Celebration of Life, we've pioneered MemoryBox in the Metaverse, an online location to memorialize lost loved ones and host virtual events in real-time, with live eulogies, and guests from anywhere in the world. Take a tour inside a sample MemoryBox in the Metaverse. No need to join. The system will assign an avatar to you automatically. These unique environments are populated with images from existing MemoryBox Memories.
Cost: $250 and up. ($50-$100 discounts if you already have an online memorial at MemoryBox.com!)

Once we've built your customized MemoryBox in the Metaverse, you can host a Virtual Life Celebration Event there, and invite friends and family to join you.

• Create an avatar in seconds and roam the memory palace of your lost loved one, viewing the photos and videos that most define their digital legacy
• Up to 50 guests from anywhere in the world; all they need is internet access
• Listen to eulogies and stories live from key presenters
• Talk in real time with other virtual attendees
• Write "Post-It" messages on the Message Wall
• Password-protected and moderated!

For more information, contact us at MetaMemoryBox.com.

If you are planning a Life Celebration Event, here's a checklist to arrange the "Ultimate Party" - the only one the guest of honor is guaranteed to miss.

If you're looking to shape a digital legacy, here is a series of questions that will help you create a 360° profile ... before it's too late. How do you want to be remembered? Make sure it's the right way by preparing your online memorial at MemoryBox today.

Benefits of Memorialization

Until well into the 20th century, more than nine in 10 Americans said they believed in God and belonged to an organized religion, with the great majority of them calling themselves Christian. That number held steady - through the sexual-revolution '60s, through the rootless and turbulent '70s, and through the "greed is good" '80s.

But in the early 1990s, religious non-affiliation in the U.S. started to rise - and rise, and rise. By the early 2000s, the share of Americans who said they didn't associate with any established religion (also known as "nones") had doubled. By the 2010s, this assortment of atheists and agnostics had tripled in size.



According to Michael Norton, Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a member of Harvard's Behavioral Insights Group:

• "Rituals in the face of loss can help us feel less grief ... And by rituals we don't mean 'elaborate religious ceremonies' - in our research, we often find that the majority of people's rituals are private and idiosyncratic to them. No other family does Thanksgiving (and meals in general) quite the way that your family does, and no other couple has the same secret nicknames and phrases. We feel out of control when we experience loss - we didn't want it to happen, but we couldn't control it. That is, in and of itself, a very unpleasant feeling, that sense that you're not in charge of your life. Rituals restore some of that control."

In other words, the feelings of closure and relief that come from memorialization don’t need to be religious in origin.

• "Thinking that rituals are irrational ('This is crazy, why would I do this?') is actually a barrier that it can be helpful to overcome. Our research suggests that embracing them, no matter how silly, can improve our well-being. I've seen so many new rituals, and adaptations of rituals. People are using technology to recreate their rituals as best they can. But they're also inventing new ones."

While we may be less religious today, we can still leverage technologies like MemoryBox to memorialize our lost loved ones, and to perform rituals around them. According to Dr. Clay Routledge, world-renowned expert in the psychology of nostalgia, memory and death:

• "Study after study has shown that nostalgia acts as a psychological resource that helps people cope with life's stressors and uncertainties, resulting in increased positive mood, self-esteem, feelings of belongingness, and perceptions of meaning in life. If you're a family member or friend of someone who's dying, or of someone who has recently passed, MemoryBox can help you cope with your loss more effectively, delivering real clinical benefits."