in this issue

A Change of Season

It’s harvest time, clean up time, gathering time. It’s time to put away the beach balls and the lawn mower. It’s time to shake the sand from the shoes and store away the croquet set and find the storm windows. It’s time to “put up” the garden’s bounty and find someone who doesn’t have enough zucchini. It’s time to find the mittens and try on the sweaters and coats. It’s time to gather nuts and firewood and to get out the soup pot and make stew. It’s FALL and it’s a time of preparing and finishing and putting away and getting out.

Fall in our family always meant another cleaning spree as Mom swept the summer sand from the porch and got us organized for the winter. We had to sort through our comic books and sea shells and colored stones, putting them away to make room for the school books and fall leaves we would soon be bringing home. It was hard to let go of the shells that we found while racing across the beach. It was hard to put away the stones we found while wading in the mountain streams. It was hard to put away summer, even if the coming fall meant new adventures and new friends and homework.

It was hard to change from summer to fall back then and it still is. I find myself not wanting to let go of the long, lazy, days of summer. I am not ready for the shorter days and longer nights, for the cooler winds and the fall rains. I am not ready for sweaters and soup. I am not ready for another year to pass so quickly into memory.

Visit our blog to read the rest of "A Change of Season".

Your Endowment Care Dollars At Work

Evergreen Washelli has completed the removal and  improvement of the roof of Washelli Columbarium. The process began on August 9^, 2010.

The columbarium is located on the east side of Aurora Avenue. Built in 1920, it was owned by the American Necropolis Corporation and known as the Washelli Columbarium.  Washelli Crematory has been doing cremations since the early 1920s and the Indoor Columbarium was the largest in all of the Pacific Northwest. Washelli Columbarium is one of the oldest on the West Coast, second only to the one in San Francisco.

In the 1920s, cremation was the choice of many Seattle families. Families would sometimes have the cremated remains placed in a grave; however, more often than not they would take them home since there was nowhere else to put them. It became evident to cemeterians of that time that what people wanted was an indoor facility to inurn their loved ones. As our first brochure said, “heretofore this had not been possible in Seattle, there being no permanent building erected for this purpose.”

Read more about the history and view a slideshow of the Washelli Columbarium here.

Family Estates: A Lasting Remembrance

An individual or family can design the perfect private “garden” estate to accommodate as many or as few people as desired. This can be burial space, cremation space, a private mausoleum — or a combination of any or all of these forms of memorialization.

Our newly developed Snoqualmie Estates, with its running creek and bubbling fountain, provides beautifully secluded and peaceful resting places that harbor quiet reflection and remembrance for generations to come. 

Sesame Street: When Families Grieve

 “As a family, you face challenges every day—some big, some small.  Somehow you rise to overcome them, working together.  Now you are facing an enormous challenge: the death of your loved one.  Grief, the intense set of feelings associated with death, is a family experience.  Grief is complex; it encompasses a wide range of emotions that can come and go in waves.  Be assured that there is no one way or length of time to grieve.

As you support your children, remember that every child is unique and will grieve at his own pace.  While the sadness may not completely go away, you and your family can find strength in one another.  Trust that the bond you and your children create will go a long way toward building a sense of emotional resilience that can last a lifetime. 

Use the tips, videos, children’s story, and guide to help your family communicate with one another, express emotions, and begin the process of moving forward. You are not alone. And with time, you and your family will experience new happy moments together.”

The Sesame Workshop When Families Grieve series features six videos helping children learn about grief and how to express their emotions.  This is a great resource for families with children who have experienced a loss.  The interactive websites, videos, printable story coloring book, and When Families Grieve kits are available in English and Spanish.

Visit the Sesame Street website for videos, activities, a coloring book, and more.

     Thank you for your readership,