Preserving memories and celebrating life:  obituary writing, design and printing

• We offer a new, creative and innovative bereavement service. We produce obituaries from start to finish working directly with the family members. Our goal is to produce a most satisfying product as fast as possible to your total satisfaction, giving you and you family the individualized attention you sincerely need as you place your loved one into your most precious memories.

• We provide a state of the art, hands-on outlet for families during their most trying and difficult times. We offer a personalized service that will help the bereaved with expressing the thoughts and feelings they want conveyed in the obituary.

• We provide personalized memory keepsake items of your loved one that will be cherished by you and your family as well as being passed on to your future generations for many years to come -- including your direct input in the writing, layout, special tributes.  Most importantly, we require that you proofread and authorize the obituary before we go to print.

• The obituary: it may be the first thing we read in the news each day... and, for most of us, it likely will be the last word written about our lives. The focus of The Dash is the lure of the obituary both as history and as literary art form.

To utilize The Dash services, please contact us. 

On-line ordering form and other information available soon.

The Dash

By Linda Ellis

© 1996

I read of a reverend who stood to speak

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears.

But he said what mattered most of all

was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her

know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;

the cars...the house...the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.

Are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left.

You could be at dash mid-range.

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what's true and real

and always try to understand

the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives

like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

and more often wear a smile...

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read

with your life's actions to rehash,

would you be proud of the things they say

about how you spent your dash?