A simple QR code sandblasted into granite is paying tribute to a beloved Alberta family member.
“You can go there and you can remember them, but you can also see the pictures and the stories behind their loved ones,” said Jim Mulock, owner of Lethbridge Monumental.
The business worked closely with Cornerstone Funeral Home to engrave a QR code into the gravestone of Bethany Vander Beek.
“We use an impact etcher, which uses the little, tiny diamond-tipped bit and it’ll tap the rock and it basically just taps dots and those dots end up creating the picture that you see,” Mulock explained.
The young woman passed away in a vehicle collision in 2022 and now her family is continuing to honour her by having the QR code link directly to her obituary for anyone to scan.
According to Pat Siedlecki, monument counsellor with Cornerstone Funeral Home, the QR code is the first of its kind in Lethbridge.
“There are different websites that provide stickers of sorts that can be applied to headstones, but nothing that I’ve seen locally or anywhere in the area for that matter that shows a QR code actually sandblasted into granite.”
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Glenn Miller, the president of the Alberta branch of the Last Post Fund, says in an ever-growing digital world Lethbridge could see QR codes on headstones becoming popular for families of veterans who have died.
“Certainly, as a grandparent myself, and I just have a one-year-old grandson, he doesn’t know grandpa. So, if I was to die in the near future, what could I do to maybe bring me to life?”
Cornerstone Funeral Home has even received a few more inquiries about implementing similar QR codes into gravestones.
“It’s about closure,” Siedlecki said. “It’s about having an opportunity to find a way to really celebrate, recognize and memorialize your loved one.”
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