Near and dear: Sycamore woman turns cremation ash into memorial keepsakes

SYCAMORE – Meagen Lee describes death as a transformation.

“I think of it like going to a new home, like how a creature leaves a seashell and the shell becomes sand,” Lee said. “Sand is something we can admire and gaze at its beauty, it’s just the shell transformed.”

Lee is the owner of Meagen Lee Floral and Memorial Keepsakes, and she transforms items into one-of-a-kind keepsakes people can treasure forever.

Her most popular memorial keepsakes are made from human or pet remains, in the form of cremation ash, or cremains, preserved in resin. Paint and glitter are added to make artistic items. Lee creates jewelry, such as bracelets, necklaces and rings, and other items, such as orbs, keychains, pocket stones, sun catchers, paintings and more.

She also can use other items, such as flower petals, hair, fur, fingerprints and dehydrated breast milk, to make memorial keepsakes.

Lee first had the idea of making memorial keepsakes from ashes about seven years ago after talking to her best friend, whose husband had recently died.

“My first attempts were items made with her husband’s cremains,” Lee said. “I gifted her and her children the items I made that year for Christmas.”

Lee said having experienced grief and death of a loved one made her want to help others with their loss. Josh Thompson, the father of her three children, died in a car crash 14 years ago.

“At that time, with children ages 4, 5 and 6, I didn’t want anything to remember him by, because I was so full of grief,” Lee said. “But after making the items for my friend, I thought more about how I wish I had something, that our children had something, to remember him by.”

Lee and Thompson’s family had his remains exhumed last year, and Lee has since made a number of pieces with his cremains.

“My daughter was going off to college on a full-ride scholarship, and I didn’t want her to go alone,” Lee said. “As a mother, knowing that her dad will be with her, in a physical form, that helps me not be scared or worried so much.”

Jonathan Thompson, Josh’s brother, describes the keepsakes Lee has made for his family as “a connection like no other to a passed loved one.”

“The pieces that she creates is giving somebody like myself, and those in my family and other families, a piece of their loved ones that passed,” Jonathon Thompson said. “We have the memories and love within us from the time we got to spend with them, but now we also have a physical piece with the cremains in them, and we’re able to carry that around.”

Thompson wears a bracelet made with his brother’s ashes every day.

“I never take it off,” he said. “If I’m missing him, if I’m going through a bad day, I look down at the bracelet and it gives me strength. It helps me get through whatever I’m going through because I’m remembering him, cherishing him. It’s not something from him, it is him, physically him. So that bracelet is something very special.”

Thompson said Lee’s keepsakes are “creative artwork designs that are priceless.”

“How can you put a price, a value, on the meaning behind the items that she makes?” he said. “My brother’s passing is sad, but seeing her start this business, seeing how she helps people, it lets me know that my brother is watching over and playing a part in this.

“It’s a true blessing that she can do this for others after having experienced loss herself,” he said.

Christina Jacobs of Freeport commissioned Lee to make pieces for her using the cremains of her 16-year-old son Britten Clankie, who was killed in a shooting in May 2021.

“I wear the necklace all the time, it’s become a part of me,” Jacobs said. “It makes you feel like he’s with you still. My son liked red and black, so I told her the colors I wanted, and she came up with the design herself. It turned out really amazing, and you can see the ashes in it.

“It’s comforting just knowing that I can have him close,” she said.

Lee, who also does wedding and funeral floral designs, said making memorial keepsakes is her passion in life.

“For me, this isn’t work or a job or a hobby,” Lee said. “I know I’m helping people heal. I understand the kind of grief that’s paralyzing, and the emotions you feel when you’re missing your loved one’s physical presence. People can smile at the items I make, knowing it’s them, physically, with them again.”

For more information about Meagen Lee Floral and Memorial Keepsakes, visit the Facebook page or call 815-593-0393.