Here’s the “Recipe” for more monument sales
While we cannot guarantee success with every idea, one of the reasons for reading Funeral Director Daily is that we endeavor to give ideas to Death Care professionals that can have a positive impact on the financial results of your funeral home, crematory, or cemetery.
And, with the continuing choice of cremation as a disposition option we all know that many families choose to permanently memorialize their loved one, if they do it at all, in a way other than a monument in a cemetery. . . . which has lead to less monument sales and less profits for funeral homes and cemeteries via those sales channels.
So, seemingly any way in which one can get someone’s remains, whole casketed body or cremated, to be buried in a cemetery would provide an opportunity for ancillary income through the sale of a monument.
That’s where our story comes in today where in this article from the Minnesota Tribune Two Rivers Monuments owner Julia Gusafson states, ““I tell people, ‘This is your story. We’re not all going to be written about in history books, but we can write your story in stone.’”
Gustafson goes on to tell potential customers that inscribing words like “Beloved”, “Devoted”, and the like are “only a small part of a person’s contributions to society, their interests, or the way they held a family together.” Today, with improved engraving technology, much more can be put on a memorial marker. . . . . and Gustafson, and others inquire about potential clients life interests. That’s led, believe it or not, to a small but growing movement that “a life story will inevitably reveal a favorite food.”
“Recipes” happen to be one of the growing individual choices that are being engraved on the monuments. Candi L. Cann, a professor of Religion at Texas’ Baylor University has actually published a book on the subject titled “Dying to Eat“. Cann states in the article, “It’s the best recipes, the signature dish that everyone brings to the community potluck or always to the family’s feasting. The ones everyone’s been waiting their whole lifetime to make.”
The article also says this of Cann and what she has witnessed, “Cann has noticed gravestone recipes at cemeteries near her in Texas — and she’s not surprised. The tradition of honoring the deceased through food is ancient, from Roman times to Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico to the Protestant communal repast.”
The article also points out that another book is in the works. . . by Rosie Grant and titled, “To Die For“. According to the article Grant has “found 45 of them (Recipe monuments) worldwide, mostly in North America. Grant is writing a cookbook featuring headstone recipes which will be released in the fall of 2025.”
Here is the website for Two Rivers Monuments
And, here is the website for a national provider of monuments, Memorial Monuments

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily
Funeral Director Daily take: This is seemingly unusual and certainly a small niche market for monuments. However, I think that there is more to this story than meets the eye.
I think this type of story points out that most people do want to be remembered. . . . and funeral homes have not always spent the time to figure out what the deceased person wants to be remembered for. That remembrance thought can probably be drawn out most easily during a pre-arrangement conference. However, if there is no pre-arrangement conference it may be something that can be drawn out and made sense of by the family at the time of arrangements.
And, in the world of online pre-arrangements and arrangements, the growing technology of artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to help. As a matter of fact, I saw a demonstration of a currently in use product from Prelude that is starting to use AI in pre-arrangements to allow for suggested ideas to the consumer. . . . and, I was impressed.
In a world that continues to move to simpler (and less revenue producing) human dispositions of the body such as direct cremation, I think the ability to be able to offer more products through a memorialization thought process can only be good for traditional funeral homes.
It may be a recipe for some while for others it may be college logo or Rotary Club membership logo. Whatever it is, if you can get one to believe in permanent memorialization, the chance is there for a bevy of products to be sold.
Finally, I think that this illustration of what could happen points out that the “skill set” of your pre-arrangement counselors may make an incredible difference on sales going forward. Visionary thinking and creativity may be much more important in the future than “sales closing” skills in raising revenue in this service that is of growing importance for death care providers.
That “skill set” of vision and creativity may make the difference between pre-arranged cremations with no services and pre-arranged cremation dispositions followed by an ever increasing spend on celebrations and memorializations.
And I think that is one area where Artificial Intelligence in pre-arrangement conferences, especially online, may make a big difference in the revenues and profits of funeral homes as we move into the next generation of death care sales culture.
More news from the world of Death Care:
- Prudential collaborates with Empathy to enhance workplace benefits with holistic bereavement support for families coping with loss. Prudential Newsroom
- From Conflict to Closure: The role of AI in identifying and honoring the deceased. Liber Institute – West Point (NY)
- Avalon offers new online purchase option for funeral plans. Open PR (Great Britain)
- VA responds to veterans demands for green interment. Federal News Network
- RIP.ie to charge € 100 (US $ 103) per death notice from January BBC News (Great Britain)
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