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.

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Vermont: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Vermont: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

When a Veteran in Vermont is cremated, the questions that follow tend to be both practical and deeply personal. Where can the ashes be placed? Is a columbarium niche available...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Texas: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Texas: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

When a veteran dies, families often find themselves making two kinds of decisions at once. One set is deeply personal—how to honor a life, what feels respectful, and what kind...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in South Dakota: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in South Dakota: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

If you are reading this, there is a good chance you are carrying two heavy things at once: grief, and responsibility. When a veteran is cremated, families often want a...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in South Carolina: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in South Carolina: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

When a veteran is cremated, families in South Carolina often find themselves holding two very different kinds of responsibility at the same time. There is the emotional work of grief...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Rhode Island: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Rhode Island: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

If you’re planning after a death—or trying to plan ahead—the phrase VA burial benefits Rhode Island can sound reassuring and intimidating at the same time. Reassuring, because the benefits are...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Pennsylvania: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Pennsylvania: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

If you’re helping a loved one who served, cremation can feel like it should make things simpler. In some ways it does. There’s more flexibility, more time to gather family,...

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Oregon: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

VA Cremation Burial Benefits in Oregon: Cemeteries, Niches, and Markers

If you’re reading this in the middle of loss, it may feel unfair that the next steps require so many decisions. When a Veteran is cremated, families often expect the...

Keepsake Jewelry Gift Etiquette: When It’s Appropriate

Keepsake Jewelry Gift Etiquette: When It’s Appropriate

There is a particular kind of love that shows up in grief: the quiet urge to do something tangible when words feel thin. You want the person you care about...

Planting a Tree Over a Pet Grave: Root, Depth, and Safety Considerations

Planting a Tree Over a Pet Grave: Root, Depth, and Safety Considerations

Planting a tree after a pet dies can feel like the most natural kind of memorial. You’re choosing something living, something that changes with the seasons, something that can quietly...

Holiday Wreaths at Cemeteries: Common Rules, When They Get Removed, and How to Avoid Heartbreak

Holiday Wreaths at Cemeteries: Common Rules, When They Get Removed, and How to Avoid Heartbreak

You arrive with a holiday wreath in your arms, fingers cold around a wire frame that suddenly feels heavier than it should. Maybe it’s your first season without them. Maybe...

Leveling Headstones: Why DIY Fixes Are Risky (and What Families Can Do Instead)

Leveling Headstones: Why DIY Fixes Are Risky (and What Families Can Do Instead)

You don’t always notice it right away. Sometimes it’s a small shift you only see once you’re standing in the same place you always stand—near the corner of the plot,...

Adding a Date of Death to a Headstone: On‑Site Engraving, Matching Fonts, and Timing

Adding a Date of Death to a Headstone: On‑Site Engraving, Matching Fonts, and Timing

There is often a quiet blank space on a headstone that families don’t notice until they have to. It may be a single line left open on a companion monument,...

Ceramic Photos on Headstones: Durability, Weather Resistance, and What to Look For

Ceramic Photos on Headstones: Durability, Weather Resistance, and What to Look For

There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles in when you stand in front of a headstone. Names and dates matter, of course. But many families find themselves wanting something...

Cemetery Scattering Gardens: How ‘Raking In’ Ashes Works and What Options Families Get

Cemetery Scattering Gardens: How ‘Raking In’ Ashes Works and What Options Families Get

You may have already decided on cremation, and then a new question arrives: where will the ashes rest, and where will your family return when you need a place to...

Cemetery Flower Vases and Theft: Practical Ways Families Reduce Loss (Without Breaking Rules)

Cemetery Flower Vases and Theft: Practical Ways Families Reduce Loss (Without Breaking Rules)

A graveside visit is often made of small, steady acts: refreshing flowers, rinsing the vase, brushing away leaves, and taking a quiet moment to feel close to someone you love....

Abandoned Cemetery Restoration Laws: Permissions, Liability, and How to Help Without Causing Damage

Abandoned Cemetery Restoration Laws: Permissions, Liability, and How to Help Without Causing Damage

It often starts with a discovery that feels personal: a forgotten family plot behind a treeline, a churchyard no longer maintained, or a handful of stones in a field that...