Tribute in Stone Leaves Lasting Memories

Tribute in Stone’s Shila and Todd Duffy have been making stone monuments for more than six years in Wrentham.

The couple said they try to reflect the person they memorialize in the best way possible.

“I hear what the they have to say and then try to teach them how the process works and what the steps are in creating a memorial,” Shila said.  “We encourage people to be unique to put on what speaks to them.”

The couple agreed that helping someone or a family choose a way to remember a loved one is very satisfying.

“I feel proud of what I've helped people create,” Shila said. “There’s a story in every one. It’s someone’s life.”

The husband and wife make headstones of every shape and size, but they also make other statues as well. They made September 11 memorials for Wrentham and Plainville, the Massachusetts State police, the Kelly Monument and pedestals for various other places, like the Fischer House in Boston.

The couple said it was always interesting when someone came to see them before they needed a stone.

“We had a family come and see us and wanted a memorial for themselves,” Shila said. "They had a rock in front of their business and it was a really cool rock. We worked with their sons, delivered the rock to the cemetery in Norfolk. We went there and engraved on the rock. It was really special, something that they had owned and it wasn’t a memorial from a manufacturing company.”

The pair said that sometimes people do ask for unique, if strange lines on their headstones.

“I got a phone call once from someone who wanted to put on ‘Florists don’t die, they make other arrangements,’” Shila said.

They said they taken stones already in the driveway of a customer and carve their house number and also do carvings and engravings for anyone who asks. They said they once did a carving of a map where one family had their summer home. Another was of a swan pendant a husband gave to his wife.

“I want people to go back and have a story to tell,” Shila said.

Tribute in Stone is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday and evenings by appointment. For more information visit www.​tributeinstone.​com/