In lieu of flowers for wake?

I am not sure what to do. A close family member past away yesterday and he was a prisoner of war in WWII. I want to get something to show how much he meant to me but I wasnt sure if I should do flowers or maybe make a donation to some sort of veterans organization.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Personally, I think a donation is always a better idea than flowers. YOu can send them a card and let them know that a donation has been made in his memory to "xyz" organization.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

I think that a donation is a fantastic idea. We recently did a donation when Dh's Uncle passed.

We had so many flowers for my grandfather's wake and I felt awful letting them go to waste. We donated them to a local rehabilitation center.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

I think its a very thoughtful and kind of you to send a donation. Maybe you can make a donation to the Disabled American Veterans or the Wounded Warrior project?

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

I love the idea of a donation! Wonderfully thoughtful of you.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

I sent a donation to St. Judes.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Did the family request donations to a specific place? If not a Veterans Agency is still good. I know with my greanddaughter we also had donations made to a fund at our church used to help charitable funds

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

You can definitely do a donation or if you want you can also send a meal to the house or something.

Thats what we do, when there is a death out of state (from where we live), we usually send over an entire meal for the family

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Or what about a huge basket of food. They have so many different ones.....some with just fruit........some have crackers, cheeses, wines, chocolates, etc.

Families always appreciate that as well.

Sorry for your loss........

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

When my FIL passed 2 years ago, people sent flowers and food/fruit baskets.

Honestly, DH and I were not in the mood to eat. We really appreciated the baskets. We ate out of them instead of cooking.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Often the family will say "in lieu of flowers please make a donation to..."

Did he die from an illness? If so you can make a donation to an organization that's dedicated to finding a cure for it.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Thank you ladies for all of your suggestions. They were a very private couple so we are not sure what he passed from. They always felt like they never wanted to bother anyone. He was 89 years old and lead an amazing life and donated many hours to the war vets and the vets hospital in Northport. When my sister passed there was so many flowers and its was such a shame for them to be thrown out thats why I felt something in his name would be nice.

Re: In lieu of flowers for wake?

Was he a member of the VFW or American Legion? or a senior club?