Processing Grief During a Pandemic, When Nothing Is Normal
It’s been seven months since I held my mother’s hand as she died in hospice from leukemia. For the first six of those months I traveled nonstop, working remotely and visiting friends and family, partly to catch up on what I had missed in the year and a half that I was...
Mother’s Day Looks Different When Your Mom is in Heaven
Mother’s Day looks like dodging the card aisle because you just can’t bring yourself to read them and the truth is you don’t feel like you belong in that aisle anymore, it’s for those with a mom who lives here and not in Heaven. It looks like changing the channel when...
Offering Sympathy From a Distance in the Time of Coronavirus
When my good friend, Nikki, told me a few days ago that her father had just passed away from natural causes, my first reaction was to offer sympathy. Then I asked, “What are the funeral arrangements?” Her answer: “I’m not sure. We will have a memorial service, but we...
Tips for Working From Home
The global spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, is keeping people at home. Major conferences, including Mobile World Congress and Google I/O have been canceled to decrease the risk of infection. Some employers are encouraging or requiring people to work from...
Funeral Etiquette: What to Say When Someone Dies
It’s the news no one wants to hear: Someone you care about has lost a loved one. When you know the person who is grieving, but don’t know their loved one well (if at all), it can be especially difficult to decide what to say. Later, when supporting the person during...
Coping With Grief During the Holidays
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” the song tells us. But if you’re dealing with grief — namely the death of a loved one — the holiday season can become a barrage of painful reminders that your life isn’t what you had hoped. Surrounded by holiday joy and...
FUNERAL PROCESSIONS: WHO HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY?
The modern funeral procession includes a lead car, funeral coach, and then family and friends in their vehicles, which travel from the funeral home or place of worship to the cemetery. “The procession or cortege literally means ‘to pay honor.’ Often the last thing we...
New Guidelines for Shipping Cremated Remains
The predicted 2019 cremation rate is almost 55% and about 70% of cremated remains go home with families. This means your funeral home is likely to see more people choosing cremation. And with many families being spread out across the country or even the world, they...
Rituals can bring love, connection, sacredness to those who are dying
A ritual is a symbolic action intended to connect us to the deeper meaning of important events in our lives. It can acknowledge change, connect us to mystery, celebrate a life, honor a special moment, and more. Joseph Campbell, famed anthropologist and mythologist,...
Top Ten Items to Place in a Casket
For as long as people have held burials, they have been placing items into the grave to accompany the deceased on their final journey. Coins over the eyes to gain passage across the River Styx, the elaborate tombs of the kings and queens of Egypt,...
Grief can be fatal, take care to keep it in check
Grief is a natural human response to any kind of loss. You are inundated with overwhelming feelings. Though people often think of it as an emotional response, it can affect you physically too. It can cause physical, cognitive, social as well as behavioural...
Funeral and cremation misconceptions
Misconception 1: If I decide to cremate a loved one there won’t be a funeral.Today, the two most popular methods of disposition are burial and cremation. However, most families, regardless of whether they choose burial or cremation find value in holding a...
Funeral Planning Guide
Our family will assist you with pre-arrangement pre-payment options, at-need funeral services, transferring your pre-arrangements from another funeral home, memorial services, merchandise and flower selections, cemetery headstones/markers selections, catering,...
Its not moving on, its moving forward
In her Ted Talk, writer and podcaster Nora McInerny shares her personal story with grief. In 2014 she went through multiple tragedies. She had her second miscarriage, her dad died of cancer, and as if her year couldn’t get any worse, her beloved husband passed away...
WHERE TO BE BURIED? A LOOK AT DIFFERENT CEMETERY TYPES
Most people would assume a cemetery is simply a place to bury the body. There are, however, several distinct types of cemeteries, each with a different purpose and that the most important part of the process is to notify your funeral home BEFORE making your selections...
The Five Stages of Grief
If you've ever read or talked to someone about grieving and loss, you likely have heard of the Five Stages of Grief. This is an idea that people refer to when they talk about the way people often progress through the experience the grief cycle, from the first news of...
How to Write an Obituary
Writing an obituary for someone you love is an important way to honor and celebrate their life. The obituary acknowledges your loss, informs the community of the death, and invites those who knew your loved one (as well as people who care about you) to attend the...
Five Important Reasons to Have a Funeral Service
Please consider the following benefits before making any final decisions regarding funeral and memorial services: 1). Experiencing the Ritual Taking part in a formal funeral ceremony often serves as an important rite of passage with both cultural and religious...
The Grieving Need You Most After the Funeral
My father died suddenly while on vacation three years ago. The event rattled the bedrock of my life in ways that are difficult to describe, and taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned any other way.One of the truths I discovered, is that when you lose...
Social Security Survivor’s Benefits
When a loved one dies, there are certain things you need to know about survivor’s benefits. You should immediately contact the local Social Security Office and apply for survivor’s benefits because in some cases, benefits may not be retroactive.How much...