Personalized to the end

Surely, you didn't think that the tombstone industry was immune from high technology and the push for personalized everything? As reporter M.L. Lyke writes:

Diamonds and lasers, computers and sandblasters.

The ancient business of honoring the dead in stone has transformed. And so have its customers. Increasingly, in the face of the Great Equalizer, they're looking for personalization, even the smallest detail, something to help them celebrate a life when death lies six feet under.

How personal do grave markers get? David Quiring, president of Seattle's Quiring Monuments, gives one example of a deceased teen whose family wanted his tombstone to duplicate a snapshot in which the boy gave a three-fingered salute, displaying his youthful defiance to onlookers for all eternity.

An amusing sidebar cites further examples of, if you'll pardon the expression, grave humor.