My dad died quite young from an unexpected kidney cancer. When his cancer metastasized and he knew he would die soon, he told us he wanted to donate his body to a medical school so future doctors could learn from it. This was difficult for us. This tragedy was hard enough, and donating his body meant we would have no way to put him to rest after his death, and no place we could visit to feel his presence after he was gone. Then I remembered hearing about memorial diamonds and got an idea. In what turned out to be one of the last conversations I had with my dad, I told him I wanted to make a diamond from all of our family's hair and drop it in the lake where we went on vacations every summer. This way part of each of us would always be together in a place we shared so many happy memories. He loved that idea.

About a year after he passed, we received the diamonds in the mail (we decided to make a second diamond with just his hair for my mom to keep - see the ring in the picture). We were blown away by the beauty of the diamonds and the box in which they came. EverDear truly went above and beyond in helping us make this as special as my dad deserved. Their customer service was excellent; prompt to respond to emails and always very kind and compassionate. And along the way I never felt like a customer, but rather a partner in a project in which they also felt invested.

Thanks to EverDear, my dad got his wish of gifting his body to science, and we got ours - a way to have a meaningful memorial for him. They've given us something that makes us so happy amidst immense grief. I am truly thankful for that.