From the very first conversation, it was clear that Marika’s children wanted a memorial that reflected the bond they shared with their mother. They requested a depiction of a mama elephant and her two babies—an image that resonated deeply with their experience of Marika’s love and protection. Linda located a photo that captured exactly that spirit and began to conceptualize the layout.

Rather than placing the elephants within a conventional panel, Linda had an idea that would elevate the entire design. “The idea of leaves came to me as a natural border,” she explains. “When I tried it within a plain 1-inch frame, it didn’t feel right. Once I removed the border, it all came together—it was an AH-HA moment.”

The memorial is a flat marker measuring 24” x 12” x 4”, made from Georgia Gray granite and designed to rest on concrete. The production process required two stencils. The first included the fern leaves and polished elephants, which were double-cut to simplify the frosting process. After frosting, the fern stencil was removed. The second stencil then defined the names and further detailed the elephants, making them ready for final engraving.

Linda’s biggest hurdle was the complexity of the fern leaves. “I really didn’t want to spend several hours cutting around each leaf for frosting,” she recalls. Through thoughtful stencil planning and close collaboration with the plant team, she found a way to achieve the desired aesthetic without overcomplicating the process. The lesson? “Always design with the people in the plant in mind.”