How HeldFast Works
What We Do
HeldFast supports remembrance alongside existing traditional arrangements. It can also plan an entire informal memorial for families not working with a funeral home or church.
The work centers on gathering stories and supporting those who speak, then saving and preserving what is said.
Where We Begin
When you contact HeldFast, the first step is understanding your capacity for planning. Your HeldFast Guide will also help you set the tone that feels right for the gathering you have in mind.
When time is short
Families can choose from a simple menu of planned activities that add meaning without asking much of the people who are grieving.
When there is more time
Families with more time and energy can personalize the offerings they choose. A later gathering, such as one held weeks after a cremation, often allows for this. So does an anticipatory event, which includes the person being honored.
Ways to Gather
Visitations
A HeldFast Guide can be added to a traditional visitation event that is already planned. The Guide comes as a guest but works as part host and part quiet emcee, helping the family make connections and making sure no one is missed. With a variety of options including connection activities, writing prompts and letter writing, or guided remembrance circles, children’s activities, toasts, or roasts, everyone leaves having said what they came to say.
Anytime Memorials
A memorial can happen weeks or months later, once people have had some time and nobody is rushing. HeldFast’s memorial events work well after a cremation, or for families who want to skip the expense and heaviness of a traditional funeral.
Destination Events
Some of the most memorable memorials are held at a place the person loved. It might be the lake where the family rented the same cabin every summer, the golf course where he lost a lot of balls and a fair amount of money, or in the garden at the homestead where she spent every morning weeding, whether it needed it or not. The HeldFast Journeys Collection offers a series of guided story sessions that can take place wherever the person being honored spent their favorite moments.
Anticipatory Gatherings
HeldFast gatherings can include the person being honored, giving them an opportunity to hear for themselves how they will be remembered by friends and loved ones. The person gets to laugh, correct a detail or two, and maybe tell stories no one else knew.
Wherever You Gather
HeldFast gatherings require very little setup, whether in a funeral home, private home, restaurant, park, or another location. We bring all of the materials needed and take them with us when we go.
