Stand by Me™

About Us.

MemorialStand.com, LLC was recently established as a family project and is located in Central Illinois. The Stand by Me concept is designed to assist communities and organizations who wish to further the ways in which they might help support local families that grieve over a recent family loss. To assist families that may find some level of comfort by placing an interim platform that displays a loving tribute to their loved one as they wait for the permanent headstone placement.

A bit more about us. We are not a large company. And, our stands are not mass produced. This is a family endeavor born out of our own appreciation for the emotions other families may experience following a funeral service - for when they return to the cemetery and continue to mourn at the gravesite for the one they’ve lost. We understand. We do. For that reason, we will try to keep a few stands on hand and ready for shipment. However, orders, material delays, and production times can alter our intent. Our stands do require 3 different small area businesses to assist us with the stand fabrication for its unique parts and final finishing. That coordination can sometimes cause delivery delays for us once we place our next production order. That is why we feel the best method for us in providing fast and affordable access to a memorial stand to those families who wish to have one relies heavily upon various entities willingness to early-order the reusable memorial stand(s) and to have them already delivered. Thereafter, to make the memorial stands available for temporary use to their congregation or community when a local family has that special need.

Our Story.

In 2019 my wife and I received the call no parent ever wants to receive. Our son, Luke, had unexpectedly passed away from complications following a tragic fall. We were absolutely devastated. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. And yet, it was.

Once the service was over, came the emotional sorrow each time we visited our son’s grave. It seemed so bare. We placed a wreath. A baseball flag. Even a ceramic picture tile. It all seemed so menial and insufficient to represent our son. Then we met yet another problem. We live in the Midwest and our son’s graveside service was during the winter. When talking to an agent for the monument company we were told it would be a minimum of three months before any stone could be set due to cold weather. Even longer based upon which memorial monument we might choose.

As his father, I found that unacceptable. To leave our son’s gravesite so void of description for that length of time.  So, I set out to create something more meaningful. Something to stand with him for that interim time-period following the graveside service to when his headstone was finally to be placed. A temporary memorial marker designed to better honor our son and his life.

When creating this marker, I wanted it to be substantial. Not a trinket or simple identifier. Those we had already tried. It should have an attractive appearance. Be capable of displaying a loving tribute. It needed a method to securely display some colorful artificial flowers which we could easily replace as the months passed by. Lastly, it needed to be acceptable to the cemetery itself. A marker that would not be a nuisance and inhibit their mowing and maintenance responsibilities. It took a while to finalize the design and features that eventually became an upright memorial stand. Once it was done, the stand was placed and remained in place for eight more months, the additional time it took before the headstone was finally installed. His temporary memorial stand which now displayed a meaningful photo and our personal sentiments gave us and his friends a more solace platform to come view, honor, remember and reflect.

After his initial stand was in place, I decided to try and do something more. Something I could focus my attention on and maybe even create some sort of lasting legacy for our son. To use that intent to find some kind of meaning to his tragedy. We are certainly not the first family to endure this kind of loss. The sorrow of losing your child, or a loved-one at any age is deep and personal. This stand had allowed us to provide a meaningful tribute while offering back a bit of modest comfort. I began to wonder if this type of interim-use stand might help others having just lost someone they too have loved, whether a husband, wife, parent, sibling, or child. However, the cost to fabricate such a durable metal stand made each rather pricey for an individual family, especially when its expected use is for a limited period of time. Adding to the cost I moved from painting the stand (which scratched easily) to the more durable powder-coating process. The cost just kept rising. Then came a thought. An idea inspired from a conversation my son and I had together several years before.

The memorial stand might be well suited for town villages and faith-based congregations to have at-the-ready whenever there is a family need within their own community. To offer the stands temporary use as a charitable public service. To help remove one more distressing emotion.

With that concept in mind, we were preparing to offer our Luke’s Legacy ‘Stand by Me’ memorial stand program in early 2020.

Then came Covid.