Keeping Them in Your Heart & Daily Life

Dawn Grates gave our master glass artist, Chris Nordin, a brilliant idea! Dawn was looking for a way to honor her dad, Don Schick, with whom she was very close. Don enjoyed being out in the garden so much, he even liked mowing the lawn. Before he died, Dawn and her dad had spoken about creating a suitable memorial; they talked about planting a tree in her yard, but when her grandson heard about that way of remembering his PawPaw he said, “What happens if you move?!?” She realized he had a good point.

Dawn had an idea based on a memory from a Chihuly exhibit she had seen at Meijer Gardens a number of years prior (pictured right). She knew Chris from the Glass Academy and she approached him to see if he could bring her idea to life. The memory was of beautiful gazing orbs situated within a tiered waterfall that had really captivated her attention. She asked Chris if he could make something similar to honor her dad.

Chris knew right away how to create those orbs to honor her Dad’s life and how to personalize the memorials by encasing some of Don’s cremation remains into the surface of the glass. Don was a big University of Michigan fan, so a Maize and Blue orb was a must; Dawn also wanted Chris to replicate one of her favorites of those Chihuly orbs. Thinking of the garden, and the rule of three, she decided a “purrppsss” orb was in order (it’s a Glass Academy thing and a Dawn thing). Chris made all three; when he presented them to her she was thrilled to learn that, even in a Michigan winter, they can be outside all year long! Chris’ only instruction about displaying them in the garden is they need to be raised off the ground. Dawn placed them on durable stands of varying heights, added some solar fairy lights inside, and they have been in her backyard garden year-round for the past four years!

When her husband, Tim’s, sister passed away last summer, they both knew right away that they wanted to memorialize her life by adding to the collection of Memorial Gazing Orbs in their backyard garden. Kathy had been an avid gardener who also loved travel, beaches, and plenty of sunshine. She was a nurse and, at one point, combined her loves by becoming a nurse on cruise ships to Alaska and the Caribbean. She was known as someone who would do anything for her friends and family. Dawn and Tim honored her life with two Memorial Gazing Orbs, one for her love of sunshine and another for her love of the water and waves.

“These gazing orbs never make me feel sad,” said Dawn, “They bring me joy every time I see them, day or night, and my heart swells with remembrance and my thoughts of our loved ones. People stay alive if you keep them in your heart.”

Dawn and Tim have each Memorial Gazing Orb connected to a solar battery that collects energy during the day and turns on solar lights within the orbs at dusk. When they see the lights come on, they quietly say, “Hi Dad! Hi Kathy!” These Memorial Gazing Orbs light up the night just as these two people they honor lit up the lives of those who knew and loved them. They even light up under the snow in winter!

Dawn remembers both her consultations with Chris to be enjoyable experiences. She says he is an amazingly talented glass artist who listened carefully to what she wanted and the story of who she was memorializing, and turned her idea into something even more beautiful than she had imagined.

“The easy-going collaboration with Chris to come up with a design to match what was in my mind and make it real… it was a very easy conversation and an extremely peaceful and respectful process.”

Dawn’s special request and her story of making these special orbs part of her everyday life has inspired a whole new set of options from Sculptural Reflections for honoring your loved one: our Memorial Gazing Orbs! You can find more about them here.

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