The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

Suicide Loss Etiquette: Privacy, Language, and Supporting the Family Without Rumors - Funeral.com, Inc.

Suicide Loss Etiquette: Privacy, Language, and Supporting the Family Without Rumors

After a death, most families are already carrying enough: shock, paperwork, phone calls, a flood of emotions that don’t arrive in neat order. After suicide, grief often shows up with...

Estranged Family at Funerals: Seating, Boundaries, and Keeping the Focus on the Deceased - Funeral.com, Inc.

Estranged Family at Funerals: Seating, Boundaries, and Keeping the Focus on the Deceased

If you are walking into a funeral with an estranged relative on the guest list, you are not imagining the tension. A service that is supposed to be about honoring...

Kids at Funerals: Age-Appropriate Behavior Expectations and How to Prepare Them - Funeral.com, Inc.

Kids at Funerals: Age-Appropriate Behavior Expectations and How to Prepare Them

When you are grieving, it can feel like there is no margin for error. Adding children to the day can bring up a new layer of worry: kids at funerals...

Should Children Be Present for Pet Euthanasia? Age-Appropriate Options and How to Prepare - Funeral.com, Inc.

Should Children Be Present for Pet Euthanasia? Age-Appropriate Options and How to Prepare

Most families don’t imagine they’ll ever have to weigh this question: should a child be present when a beloved pet is euthanized? And yet, it arrives in real life the...

Should You Stay in the Room During Pet Euthanasia? A Compassionate Guide to the Emotional Choice - Funeral.com, Inc.

Should You Stay in the Room During Pet Euthanasia? A Compassionate Guide to the Emotional Choice

There are decisions in life that feel like they belong to someone else—choices you never expected to make, in a room you never wanted to sit in. If you’re facing...

Planning When Family Is Long-Distance: Coordination Shortcuts - Funeral.com, Inc.

Planning When Family Is Long-Distance: Coordination Shortcuts

When a death happens and the people who love someone most live in different places, grief can start to feel like project management. One person is calling a funeral home...

When to Hold a Pet Memorial: Timing That Supports Kids and Adults - Funeral.com, Inc.

When to Hold a Pet Memorial: Timing That Supports Kids and Adults

The days after a pet dies can feel strangely quiet. The routines that anchored your home—morning walks, the sound of paws on the floor, the small “I’m here” moments—suddenly stop....

Talking to a Child About Euthanasia and Cremation: Age-Appropriate Wording - Funeral.com, Inc.

Talking to a Child About Euthanasia and Cremation: Age-Appropriate Wording

When a family is facing a pet’s decline, adults often carry two kinds of grief at once. There’s the heartbreak of watching a beloved companion suffer, and there’s the quieter...

Storing Passwords and Digital Legacy Details: What Families Actually Do - Funeral.com, Inc.

Storing Passwords and Digital Legacy Details: What Families Actually Do

It rarely starts with a grand “planning day.” More often, it starts with a small, urgent moment: someone is gone, the house is quiet, and the person who always handled...

Social Security After a Death: What Families Do First - Funeral.com, Inc.

Social Security After a Death: What Families Do First

The first hours after a death rarely unfold the way anyone imagines. Even in a peaceful passing, grief has a disorienting quality: time slows down, simple decisions feel strangely heavy,...

How to Handle Family Requests You Can’t Meet: Boundary Scripts - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Handle Family Requests You Can’t Meet: Boundary Scripts

In the middle of loss, it can feel like grief turns every conversation up to full volume. The requests come quickly. Someone wants the service moved to a different day....

How to Explain an Urn to Children: Simple Language That Reassures - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Explain an Urn to Children: Simple Language That Reassures

When an urn enters a home, it changes the emotional weather in a room. Adults may see a symbol, a responsibility, a decision they are not ready to finalize. Children...

How to Talk to Kids About Cremation: A Parent Script by Age - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Talk to Kids About Cremation: A Parent Script by Age

When adults are grieving, our brains look for something solid to hold onto. Kids do the same thing, except they don’t always have the words for it. They notice the...

Helping Children Grieve a Pet: What to Say in Simple Language - Funeral.com, Inc.

Helping Children Grieve a Pet: What to Say in Simple Language

If you’re searching helping children grieve a pet, you’re probably not looking for a perfect speech. You’re looking for a few steady words that won’t make things worse. You want...

Teen Grief: Why Risk-Taking, Anger, and Withdrawal Can Be Normal (and When to Get Help) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Teen Grief: Why Risk-Taking, Anger, and Withdrawal Can Be Normal (and When to Get Help)

The day your family loses a pet, the house changes shape. The routines that quietly held everyone together—morning feedings, the sound of paws on the floor, the automatic reach for...

Children’s Grief and Regression: Why Bedwetting, Clinginess, or Tantrums Can Appear After a Death - Funeral.com, Inc.

Children’s Grief and Regression: Why Bedwetting, Clinginess, or Tantrums Can Appear After a Death

Adults often expect grief to look like sadness. Children often don’t have that luxury. They may not have the language yet, or they may not feel safe enough to use...