Celebrating Jesse Valadez’s Passion, A Fitting Send Off

Armando Valadez kisses the casket of his brother Jesse Valadez at the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Calif.

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” Hebbel

I read today that Jesse Valadez passed away.  Though I never had the chance to meet him, my guess is if I had, I would quickly have known what his passion was…  lowriding cars.

Open Casket: How to Memorialize your Loved One by Personalizing an Open Casket

When I attended my aunt’s Catholic funeral as a child, I remember looking at a very sterile body in the open casket with a rosary wrapped around her hands. There were flowers on top of the casket but that was about it. That was almost 40 years ago and times have changed. Families are requesting more of a personal touch at funerals and the emphasis seems to have shifted to more of a celebration of life, and with that what goes in an open casket with the departed is changing also.