Beautiful, comfortable and durable powder coated steel memorial benches from Memory Garden Benches, with bronze plaques, can be custom designed in memory or recognition of a loved one or pet.

The creation of custom designed memorial benches is a new concept originated by Memory Garden Benches. It is a process of our staff painstakingly working with you, the purchaser, to understand the life of the person whose memory is being permanently remembered and then developing a unique artistic impression of this person which is given to you for your review and approval.

The end result of this process is a beautiful, comfortable and durable place to remember your loved one — a powder coated steel memorial bench in the colors of your choice, and accompanied by a personalized bronze plaque naming the person or persons you are honoring.

An example of our memorial benches are two identical custom designed benches prepared in memory of Steve Irwin, Discovery Channel’s “Crocodile Man” from Australia. The custom artwork on these benches featured an outline of him kneeling at a pond, with a crocodile and foliage, and a text message including his name — all cut out of steel in the backs of the memorial benches. The benches were purchased by Wildlife Images, an animal and bird rehabilitation sanctuary near Grants Pass, Oregon. One bench was placed on Wildlife’s campus and the other bench was air freighted to Steve’s wife in Queensland, Australia, for placement at the nature preserve Steve and his family created and operated there.

Another of our custom designed memorial benches is the one we prepared in the memory of Jack Fried, a nine year old boy from Beaverton, Oregon, who passed away in 2008 due to cancer. Jack’s third grade classroom wanted to remember him in a special way with a bench expressing his interest in Legos and fighter planes, and in recognition of his special courage in fighting cancer – courage that resulted in him being chosen Oregon’s champion child by the Children’s Miracle Network, winning a trip to Washington D.C., to meet the president. The memorial bench for Jack featured his silhouette above his name in letters taken from Legos, a fighter jet, and a group of 10 boys and girls holding hands above the words “Fighting Cancer Together.” Jack’s bench is on the Cedar Mill Elementary School playground and has a bronze plaque giving his name and when he lived.
In summary, we feel our custom designed memorial benches give people, who are in a situation they can do little or nothing about, the power to do something — to create, in love, honor and remembrance, a unique and lasting memorial to someone now lost to them. We at Memory Garden Benches are both proud and humbled to be allowed — with steel, colors and bronze — to help people through the grieving process by creating a beautiful, permanent memorial for their loved ones.

Phil
Artist & Designer

We think this is because while the bench kindles the memory of the person who is no longer here, it does something more.  It is, in effect, a gift to the deceased person.

But it is also a gift to us, the survivors – the gift of a tangible object which helps us bring our emotions into consciousness so we can experience some sense of catharsis.  And maybe, beyond even this, it gives us the feeling that in the face of something we can do nothing about, we have been able to do something – to create, in love, honor and remembrance, a unique and lasting memorial to a person now lost to us.

Philip Lee Nelson
Artist & Designer

My career background began at the age of 13 years volunteering and working with senior citizens.  Taking care of and protecting them in their fragile years when they could no longer speak their voice effectively has been my passion for over 30 years.

After working in the banking industry for nine years, I became self-employed in 1985 in a bookkeeping/financial management business that continually evolved toward serious legal issues with seniors’ estates and elder financial abuse.  I desperately needed a really good, honest lawyer who had a compassionate heart for seniors.  Finding one was another matter!

After years of searching, I met Phil, a lawyer at that time who was specializing in elder and estate law.  Being very detailed people, we hit it off right away and began working together.  Our cases consisted of guardianships, conservatorships, estates, fraud investigation, trusts, estate liquidation — the list goes on.

This continued for many years until one day Phil dropped a bombshell announcing he was retiring from law and moving with his wife to the northern most end of the state (opposite from me).  Well that changed everything!

Now what to do!?  Phil had an idea.

A multi-talented person, who besides law has worked in journalism and as the assistant to the publisher of  Sunset Magazine, Phil also had a lifelong love of art.  So, one day he sat me down in his office with a stack of photographs of benches and sculpture he had designed and sold periodically throughout the years.  I was shocked to say the least.  I didn’t know anything about powder coated steel, let alone modern sculpture!    And yet as an avid gardener and art lover, I was interested in and have always loved art, which set me to thinking.

After several days of persistent discussion and deliberation, Phil asked me to work with him to see if we couldn’t take his part time endeavor and turn it into a real business.  Well, I agreed.  The memorial bench idea just really hit home.  We’d been working with folks on death and dying for so many years, it just seemed like a wonderful idea to be on the healing side, making people feel better in a time of sorrow — allowing them a permanent place to remember a loved one who may be gone, but not forgotten.

So, that was then and this is now.  We love working with people and businesses on a personal level. Giving folks their choice of colors and designs.  Providing artistically designed custom benches that are not only comfortable and durable, but meaningful works of art.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about our memory benches.  We’re only a phone call away.

Leeana Van Valkenburg

President

1-888-812-3624

Our ”Donor Bench Program” has been very successful in producing free benches for tax exempt nonprofit entities.  The way it works is, donors who want to memorialize or otherwise recognize someone donate the funds to the nonprofit, which then buys a custom designed bench from us.

The bench comes with a customized bronze plaque giving the name of the donor and the person being memorialized or recognized.  Often times the donor can also receive a tax deduction with a receipt from the nonprofit entity.  Some nonprofit It’s a win-win situation!

Incidentally, some nonprofit entities charge more for the bench than they pay us, and in this way not only get a free bench but also a cash donation.

Please contact us for further information.

Thank You!