Coming Soon: Self-Guided HeldFast Navigator's Materials
Materials for Memorable, Self-Guided Memorial Events
A gathering does not always need a professional guide. A thoughtful plan and someone willing to lead the conversation can be enough.
HeldFast’s Services are limited at the moment to the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan and further upon special request and availability.
HeldFast Companion Collections are designed for families who want to hold a memorial gathering on their own, using the structure HeldFast has already built.
Each Collection works best with a designated Guide, someone who knows the family but is not among those closest to the loss. A longtime friend, neighbor, colleague, or trusted member of your community can often guide the gathering with steadiness, so that immediate family members can take part.
Having someone outside the center of the loss also helps create balance. They can introduce prompts, encourage hesitant voices, and make sure stories are shared by many people rather than only a few.
Each Companion Collection includes clear guidance for a Facilitator, conversation prompts, memory cards, and everything else needed for a gathering that feels organized without feeling scripted.
Collections
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Visitation Connections
These materials are designed to accompany a funeral home visitation, and an optional Children's Circle add-on is available for younger guests.
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Quiet Remembrance Circle
These materials guide a time of quiet reflection, and guests may write privately or sit with their thoughts.
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Cremation Day Gathering
These materials help a family gather on the day of the cremation or soon after, at home, in a yard, or by the water.
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Letters from Loved Ones
These sets of 12, 24, or 48 invitation letters include envelopes and writing prompts, and you add the postage and addresses.
In more detail
Visitation Connections
This Collection is designed for a family gathering that already has some structure, such as a visitation at a funeral home. It includes the HeldFast name tags, which guests fill in with how they knew the person and an “Ask me about…” line, and each tag carries a symbol that invites guests to find the person wearing its match. The Collection also includes prompt cards, space for short notes, and simple instructions that help your chosen Guide set everything up and keep it going. All notes are collected at the end and kept for the family. A Children's Circle add-on provides materials for a quiet corner where children can take part without being asked to sit still or find the right words.
Quiet Remembrance Circle
This Collection is designed for moments when words feel unnecessary or too difficult. Your chosen Guide reads a short series of prompts, leaving long, unhurried pauses between them. Guests may write privately in a journal or hold their thoughts, and nothing is spoken aloud unless the family asks the Guide to open or close the circle with a few words. Soft music can help create a settled atmosphere. The materials explain how to pace the circle so that no one feels rushed and the pauses do not grow uncomfortably long. The circle can be held on its own or as a pause within a larger gathering.
Cremation Day Gathering
This Collection helps a family spend the day of the cremation, or a day soon after, together when no formal service is planned. The gathering can take place in a home, a yard, a garden, along the shore, or anywhere else the family chooses. The guide walks your chosen leader through a short opening, a time for sharing stories, and a set of prompt cards to introduce once a few stories have been told. It also suggests a simple pause, such as lighting a candle or holding a stone, along with a few closing words the group can say together. A final page offers ideas for writing up the stories and sharing them with people who could not attend.
Letters from Loved Ones
This Collection is available in sets of 12, 24, or 48. Each set includes invitation letters, envelopes, and optional writing prompts for the people you choose to invite. You provide the postage and addresses, and recipients mail their notes back to the family in the days or weeks after the death. This approach removes the pressure to respond right away and gives people time and ideas for writing. Recipients may write as much or as little as they wish.