In Memoriam

As with many things in business and in life, we began making bells for people to use as a means of honoring the memory of someone who had passed. And sadly, we believe, if our memories serve us correctly, that the first bell we know was purchased for this purpose was bought by a father in memory of his teenage son who was killed in a car crash. It was to hang in a tree at the cementary where his child was buried. We were very surprised and honored by this purchase.
Now, many years later, we have lost track of how many customers have purchased bells for this purpose. We are still honored and still touched by all of the stories shared with us about the loss of someone important and a wish to have one of our bells honor their memory.
While these memories are very private I will mention two that were particulary touching to me. One bell was purchased by the friend of a person with a vision impairment. This person's friend had had a seeing eye dog for many years and the dog had recently died and that friend had purchased a bell and asked that words of honor be punched into the attached sail.
 The second very memorable incident came only this year at the Kerrville show. A woman stopped by the booth when I was there alone and said that she hears our bell ring often and that it brings her comfort. She went on to state that it was a "memorial bell" honoring her son who died in line of duty as a law enforcement office several years ago. And ironically, as we conversed, I realized that her son was the person for whom a stretch of the interstate right at our exit has been named for. We had read the sign about this part of the highway being named for someone, but did not know the reason for his death. But now, we had a connection. This was a very sweet woman and a very touching moment for me.

We have punched a name, a date, a significant word or phrase that is meaningful to the customer or to the person being honored. Philip has often worked through a phone conversation helping the buyer to decide what will work best on a bell's sail to meet their needs. So, while this is not an area we will "market" for sales of bell, it will be a task we will continue to do, as needed by our customers and we will be honored to do so.