Hear their voice again, right there beside the urn.

Yes. You can add other family members as managers so everyone can contribute photos, stories and tributes together.

We do. That’s what your payment funds. Everything is hosted on professional infrastructure, backed up daily and kept ad-free, and your photos, videos and stories are never deleted for non-payment, because there is no payment to miss. If we ever had to stop operating, you’d get plenty of notice and a full export of everything you uploaded.

No. The plaque carries only the code and a small Lumestone mark. The urn’s nameplate already carries their name, and the plaque is designed to sit quietly on the base or the back without competing with it.

Yes. The plaque and page work the same way for a pet, on their urn, a keepsake box or a frame at home.

No. The code is a fixed web address engraved into metal, so it cannot expire, be re-registered or be sold on to somebody else. What it points at is your memorial page, and keeping that page online is our job, not another bill: it is covered by the single payment you make when you order. There is nothing to renew and nothing that can lapse, so the plaque on the urn never needs replacing. And if the plaque itself ever stops scanning, we replace it free for life.

It almost always still scans. Every QR code stores its data more than once, so dust, fingerprints and light scratching rarely stop a read. Because the code is engraved rather than printed, a scratch changes how the light falls but leaves the cut pattern underneath intact. The one real limit is the three large squares in the corners: a scanner uses those to find the code before it reads anything at all. If polish or grime covers them, wipe the face with a soft dry cloth and it reads again.

Yes. The code holds a web address, so the phone needs Wi-Fi or a data connection to open the memorial, which is rarely a problem at home. If the urn sits in a columbarium niche, check the signal where a visitor would stand before you decide where the plaque goes. It is also worth emailing the memorial link to the family, because most relatives will not be in the room in a given year but will open a link on a birthday.

Yes, for as long as you want to. The plaque holds a link, not the content, so nothing you change on the page needs a new plaque. You can add photos years later, rewrite the life story, swap the song, switch the page between public and private, and add family as managers long after the plaque is on the urn. That is the practical difference between a memorial page and an inscription: a grandchild born in 2040 can be added to one and never to the other.

Usually, with patience, but plan the position rather than rely on it. Many families receive the ashes in a temporary container and choose the permanent urn weeks later: if that is you, keep the plaque in its packaging until the final urn is home, and build the page in the meantime. The adhesive is industrial and meant to be permanent. Removing it means warming the plaque gently with a hair dryer, working behind it with fishing line or dental floss, then lifting the residue with a citrus-based adhesive remover. On metal, glass and sealed wood that leaves no trace; on raw wood or unglazed ceramic a faint outline can remain. If you want the memorial in two places, a second plaque linked to the same page is the easier answer.

A soft dry cloth, the same one you dust the urn with. If it needs more, a cloth dampened with plain water, then dry it. Avoid furniture polish, scouring pads and abrasive creams, which scratch the finish and dull the contrast the code depends on. Whatever you use on the urn ends up on the plaque, so keep to what the urn maker recommends for the wood, metal or glaze.

Very likely, for two reasons. The code is an ordinary web address in a published international standard that phone cameras have read natively for years, so nothing proprietary sits between the plaque and the page. And the address is ours to keep serving. Nobody can honestly promise what a phone will do in 2046, so we cover the half we control: if the plaque ever fails to scan we replace it free, and the page behind it stays hosted and backed up without a further charge to you.

It is 5 × 5 cm, about two inches square, about the size of a large postage stamp. On a full-size urn it sits quietly on the base, the back or the lid without competing with the nameplate; on a keepsake urn it covers most of one small face, so the back is usually the better spot. It carries no name and no dates, only the code and a small Lumestone mark, because the urn already carries their name. Nothing is drilled: the industrial 3M adhesive is already applied to the back, so there are no holes, no bracket and no work for an engraver.

Yes, with something to watch on each. Brass, bronze and stainless steel are fine once wiped clean of wax or polish. Lacquered or sealed wood holds very well; raw, oiled wood less so, so use a sealed face. Glass and glazed ceramic are excellent, though a curved body gives the adhesive much less contact, so use the flattest area you can find, usually the back or the base. Marble and other polished stone urns are ideal. Biodegradable urns and cloth-covered urns are the one exception: put the plaque on the keepsake box or frame instead.

Yes. It is engraved anodized metal, so there is no ink to wash off and no laminate to lift, and anodized finishes are specified for exterior use, even in coastal conditions. For a niche, attach the plaque to the urn before it is placed, on the face that will be visible through the glass or on the niche front plate, and check that a phone can read it from where a visitor would stand. In a freezing climate the weak point is the bond rather than the plaque, so apply it on a mild, dry day to a clean, non-porous face.

Yes, and many families do. Your access link arrives by email when you order, so the memorial page can be built and shared with relatives while the cremation and the choice of urn are still ahead of you. The plaque waits in its packaging until the permanent urn is home, then it takes a minute to fit. Order now and the page is ready for the service, even if the urn is not.

Yes. The same plaque works on a headstone, a columbarium niche, a memorial bench, a tree marker or a keepsake box, and families who scattered the ashes often make the object at home the fixed point instead. Two practical notes. A plaque for a headstone goes on clean, dry, polished stone on a mild day, and a bench or a tree in a park usually belongs to the city or a land trust, so ask them first. If you want the memorial in two places, a second plaque linked to the same page is the easy answer.

You do. Uploading something to a memorial page does not hand it to us. We store it and display it so the page works, and that is all it is used for. There is no advertising anywhere on a Lumestone memorial and we do not sell data. You can delete anything you have added at any time, and you decide who else may add to the page by choosing who becomes a manager. If the memorial is private, only the people you invite by email can see any of it.

Yes, though not yet as a single click. A one-button export of an entire memorial is on our list rather than in the product today, so here is how it works in the meantime: you can save individual photos and videos straight back out of the page, and if you want a copy of everything at once, write to us and we will put the whole archive together for you. The advice we give every family, and it applies to every provider including us, is to keep your own originals somewhere safe rather than treat any website as your only copy.

Nothing stops. There is no yearly payment to fail, no card to expire and nobody who has to remember a renewal on your behalf, which is the part families worry about most. The page stays exactly as you left it. Add at least one family member as a manager early, ideally somebody a generation younger, so there is always someone who can add to it and look after it. Adding them is included and it takes a minute.

Only if you choose to make it public. A public memorial can be found by search engines, which is how old colleagues and distant relatives sometimes find their way to it. A private memorial is visible only to the people you invite by email, so there is nothing there for a search engine to open. You can switch between the two at any time and the plaque never changes. Note: if a page has been public for a while, search engines can hold a cached copy for a short time after you make it private.

Yes. A new plaque can be pointed at an existing memorial page while you set it up, so one on the urn and one on a keepsake box or frame in another home open exactly the same photos, stories and tributes. There is no hosting fee either way, so a later plaque never adds a running cost. If you already know you want more than one, the two-pack at $79.99 and the three-pack at $111.99 cost less than ordering singly.

Yes, and we recommend it. Hold the plaque against the urn with the backing still on and scan it from where someone in the room would stand. Then wipe the surface, peel and press hard for a full minute, and leave the urn alone for a day while the adhesive sets.

You remove it. Tributes are yours to manage: as the owner, or as a manager you have added, you can delete anything left on the page, and nothing a visitor writes is permanent. If it keeps happening, switching the memorial to private stops it entirely, since then only the people you invite by email can see or add anything at all. And if someone is being persistent, write to us and we will help. It is rare, but it is a fair thing to ask before you put an open page behind a code.