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.

Helping Kids When a Pet Is Dying: Honest Language That Isn’t Traumatizing

Helping Kids When a Pet Is Dying: Honest Language That Isn’t Traumatizing

When a pet is dying, adults often carry two kinds of grief at once. There’s the heartbreak of watching a beloved companion decline, and there’s a quieter ache underneath it:...

Pet Loss and Sibling Dynamics: When One Child Was “Closer”

Pet Loss and Sibling Dynamics: When One Child Was “Closer”

When a family pet dies, it can feel like the whole household shifts—quiet bowls, unused leashes, a favorite sunny spot that suddenly looks empty. For children, that shift can be...

Pregnancy After Loss: Navigating Hope, Anxiety, and Grief When You’re Expecting Again

Pregnancy After Loss: Navigating Hope, Anxiety, and Grief When You’re Expecting Again

If you’re living a pregnancy after miscarriage or you’re pregnant after stillbirth, you may recognize the emotional whiplash that can arrive without warning, sometimes within the same hour, sometimes in...

Grief and Holidays for Blended and Multi-Household Families: Scheduling, Traditions, and Fairness

Grief and Holidays for Blended and Multi-Household Families: Scheduling, Traditions, and Fairness

Holidays have a way of making grief louder. Even in uncomplicated families, a first Thanksgiving chair that stays empty, a stocking that doesn’t get filled, or a familiar voice missing...

Wanting to Rest with Your Pet Someday: How to Talk with Family and Plan Ahead

Wanting to Rest with Your Pet Someday: How to Talk with Family and Plan Ahead

There are some wishes that sit quietly in the background for years, until a birthday, a holiday, or a sudden loss brings them into focus. Wanting to be laid to...

Pet Urns for Two Pets: Companion Urns, Divided Urns, and Family Sharing Options

Pet Urns for Two Pets: Companion Urns, Divided Urns, and Family Sharing Options

There’s a particular kind of tenderness in this decision. When you’re looking for pet urns for two pets, it often reflects a home that held more than one cherished heartbeat,...

How to Divide Cremation Ashes Safely and Respectfully: A Practical Guide

How to Divide Cremation Ashes Safely and Respectfully: A Practical Guide

The first time most families realize they might need to split cremation ashes is not during planning—it’s later, when the temporary container is on the table and everyone is finally...

Grieving Someone You Were Estranged From: Mixed Emotions, Regrets, and Finding a Way to Say Goodbye

Grieving Someone You Were Estranged From: Mixed Emotions, Regrets, and Finding a Way to Say Goodbye

When someone dies after a long season of distance—an estranged parent, sibling, ex-partner, or once-close friend—grief doesn’t arrive in a single, clean emotion. It arrives as a stack of feelings...

Grieving a Pet While Caring for Surviving Animals: Balancing Their Needs and Yours

Grieving a Pet While Caring for Surviving Animals: Balancing Their Needs and Yours

The day a pet dies, the house doesn’t just get quieter—it changes shape. A water bowl still sits in its usual spot. A leash still hangs by the door. A...

Is It Okay to Split Ashes? Etiquette, Religious Views, and Practical Tips for Sharing Remains

Is It Okay to Split Ashes? Etiquette, Religious Views, and Practical Tips for Sharing Remains

After cremation, families often expect there will be one “right” next step—choose an urn, decide where it will go, and move forward. In real life, the question is usually softer...

The Burden of the Decision Maker: When One Spouse Decides and the Other Disagrees

The Burden of the Decision Maker: When One Spouse Decides and the Other Disagrees

There’s a particular kind of silence that can settle over a home after a pet euthanasia appointment. It isn’t only the quiet of missing paws on the floor or the...

Senior to Puppy: The Shock of Raising a Baby After Caring for a Senior

Senior to Puppy: The Shock of Raising a Baby After Caring for a Senior

When you’ve spent months (or years) caring for an elderly dog, your life quietly reshapes itself around gentler things: slower walks, softer food, medication schedules, and the way you learn...

Introducing a New Pet to a Grieving Pack: Timing and Territory

Introducing a New Pet to a Grieving Pack: Timing and Territory

The first time you notice it, it’s something small. A dog who used to sprint to the door when you picked up the leash now lifts their head, pauses, and...

Helping a Friend or Relative with Funeral Planning: What’s Actually Helpful vs Overstepping

Helping a Friend or Relative with Funeral Planning: What’s Actually Helpful vs Overstepping

When someone you love is suddenly in the middle of funeral planning, help often arrives in a rush—texts that say “Anything you need,” phone calls that go unanswered, offers that...

When You Disagree with a Loved One’s Funeral or Cremation Choices: Respecting Wishes While Caring for Yourself

When You Disagree with a Loved One’s Funeral or Cremation Choices: Respecting Wishes While Caring for Yourself

There are grief moments that hit like weather—sudden, physical, uninvited. And then there are grief moments that arrive as a sentence. “I want to be cremated.” “I don’t want a...

When Your Child Wants Another Pet Right Away: How to Respond with Care

When Your Child Wants Another Pet Right Away: How to Respond with Care

There is a moment many parents are not prepared for: the house still feels painfully quiet after a pet’s death, and a child suddenly asks for another pet right away....