A Woman Makes Memorable Jewelry With Ashes and Breast Milk to Help People Go Through Grief

Megan Stevens is the owner of a small business named Tree of Hope Creations. Meg and her team are known for creating memorial jewelry and keepsakes from ashes, hair, breastmilk, umbilical cord, and much more. The woman not only finds joy in crafting these meaningful mementos but also finds healing from her own grief by supporting others on their journey of remembrance.

How Meg came up with the idea to start a business.

Meg’s husband created a wooden plaque to commemorate her breastfeeding journey, “He wanted to make me something that would mean the world, that would say, ’Thank you for taking care of our kids.’”

When she shared the photos online, everyone wanted to order it. They made breast milk pieces as a hobby for about a year. Everything changed when they created a TikTok account. The response was phenomenal, and they quickly gained the trust of their customers and audience.

It was at this time that they received their first order for creating memorial jewelry. It was a mom asking if they could incorporate her son’s ashes into a piece. A woman had a terminal pregnancy, so she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to bring her baby home. Meg recalls, “She wanted to get a piece of him to be able to hold him, to have a tangible piece of him.”

Megan was scared to do it, she remembers the moment she got the milk and the ashes that the woman sent her, “I was petrified that I was gonna screw something up because ashes are different than milk. The milk you can recreate, but not ashes.” It took her 24 hours to make this wooden plaque and plenty of time to recover, “I sat there, and I cried for a while.”

When the mother saw the finished piece, Meg received a powerful reaction that continues to motivate her even during the darkest days, “That mom said something that will always stick with me, ’You gave me my child back.’” She continues, “That’s why we do what we do to be able to give you your loved one back, to be able to have something to hold, hug and kiss.”

There are not only breast milk or ashes.

There are so many things that Megan and her team do. They are open to the use of any material to create memorial pieces if it’s important to someone within reason, “So breast milk and ashes are two most popular things. We have burial dirt, hair, placenta, belt, belt cord, clothing, blankets, and any sort of cloth. I’ve done embryos.”

They also have a pet section. She continues, “We work a lot with pets, create all of our jewelry and frames with pet ashes and fur as well. I lost one of my, my first baby is what I call him. And I remember I couldn’t make his frame. My husband had to make it because it was so terribly emotional, he really was like my child, and he suddenly passed.”

Meg also finds healing from her own grief by supporting others.

She puts her whole heart and soul into every single piece as they’re going home to be loved and mourned forever. Megan believes that such memorable pieces are a great conversation starter for those who have suffered loss, because a lot of the times it’s silenced both internally and externally.

She explains, “It’s hard to communicate with people afterward because you want to talk about this, but half of you are afraid. And that’s how I felt after our loss. We miscarried two babies, and I was always so terrified to talk about it because I didn’t want people to ask questions that I didn’t know how to answer.”

Megan continues, “I mean, we’re all keen to share our positive news, but we need, and we want quite to share our sadness and our painful news with people. It’s so hard and I read that in so many stories of their family broke apart because they didn’t know how to communicate that.”

Cristiano Ronaldo lost his son at birth, but he and his wife found a heartwarming way to honor his memory.