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.

Autopsy Reports and Death Certificates: How to Request Them and What They Can Reveal

Autopsy Reports and Death Certificates: How to Request Them and What They Can Reveal

In the first days after a death, paperwork can feel like an added weight on top of grief. Families are often trying to do two things at once: make decisions...

Open-Air Funeral Pyres: Where They’re Allowed, How Permits Work, and Cultural Context (2026)

Open-Air Funeral Pyres: Where They’re Allowed, How Permits Work, and Cultural Context (2026)

Sometimes a family’s questions arrive quietly, almost like they’re testing whether it’s “okay” to ask. Someone will say they’ve seen an open-air cremation in a documentary, or they’ve attended a...

Crypto After Death: Managing Bitcoin, NFTs, and Digital Collectibles in an Estate

Crypto After Death: Managing Bitcoin, NFTs, and Digital Collectibles in an Estate

After a death, families often discover that the hardest problems aren’t always emotional or ceremonial. Sometimes they’re technical. A bank account can be unlocked with paperwork. A phone bill can...

What to Do When You Encounter a Funeral Procession: Road Etiquette and Local Courtesy

What to Do When You Encounter a Funeral Procession: Road Etiquette and Local Courtesy

You’re driving along like any other day—coffee cooling in the cup holder, a list of errands in your head—when traffic suddenly shifts. A line of cars moves more slowly than...

Body Donation to Science: Eligibility, What Happens, and How to Communicate Your Wishes

Body Donation to Science: Eligibility, What Happens, and How to Communicate Your Wishes

The call usually comes at the worst possible time—when a family is still trying to understand what just happened. A nurse, a hospice coordinator, or a loved one at home...

How to Create a Digital Vault for Passwords and 2FA Before You Die - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Create a Digital Vault for Passwords and 2FA Before You Die

The first time a family gets stuck, it rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a phone that won’t unlock. A laptop that keeps asking for a password nobody knows. A...

Instagram Memorialization vs. Deletion: Which Should You Choose? - Funeral.com, Inc.

Instagram Memorialization vs. Deletion: Which Should You Choose?

In the first days after a death, families often move between two worlds at once. One world is paperwork, phone calls, and decisions that feel strangely practical in the middle...

What Is a Facebook Legacy Contact (and How to Set It Up) - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Is a Facebook Legacy Contact (and How to Set It Up)

In the days after a death, families often discover that grief comes with a second kind of work: closing loops. Phone calls. Paperwork. Decisions about services. And then, quietly, the...

How to Document Aquamation Wishes: Wills, Advance Plans, and What Families Need to Know - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Document Aquamation Wishes: Wills, Advance Plans, and What Families Need to Know

Most people don’t sit down to write about death because they feel “ready.” They do it because they’ve watched a family they love scramble under pressure—trying to honor someone’s values...

Storing a Body Before the Funeral: Refrigeration, Embalming, and Home Care Options - Funeral.com, Inc.

Storing a Body Before the Funeral: Refrigeration, Embalming, and Home Care Options

A death can make time feel strange. The hours after someone dies may be full of quiet—phone calls, travel plans, a sudden list of decisions—while your heart is still trying...

Scattering Ashes at National Parks: Which Parks Allow It (and How Permits Work) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Scattering Ashes at National Parks: Which Parks Allow It (and How Permits Work)

For a lot of families, the idea of returning someone to a place they loved feels both simple and deeply right. A national park can hold years of meaning in...

Home Funerals 101: What’s Legal, What It Costs, and When to Use a Funeral Home - Funeral.com, Inc.

Home Funerals 101: What’s Legal, What It Costs, and When to Use a Funeral Home

A home funeral is one of those ideas that can feel both surprisingly simple and emotionally enormous at the same time. In the first hours after a death, families often...

Can You Be Buried with Your Pet? State-by-State Rules and What Cemeteries Allow (2026) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Can You Be Buried with Your Pet? State-by-State Rules and What Cemeteries Allow (2026)

If you are asking whether you can be buried with your pet, it usually comes from a very simple place: you loved them, they were family, and the idea of...

Driving a Body Across State Lines: What Paperwork Do You Need? - Funeral.com, Inc.

Driving a Body Across State Lines: What Paperwork Do You Need?

When someone dies far from home, the first wish many families say out loud is simple: “We want to bring them home.” It’s a loving instinct, and it can also...

Digital Executors: Who They Are and Why You Need One - Funeral.com, Inc.

Digital Executors: Who They Are and Why You Need One

A few days after someone dies, the world keeps doing what it always does. Phones buzz. Emails arrive. A streaming service charges a card on file. A “memories” notification appears...

What Happens to Your World of Warcraft Account and Gold When You Die? - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Happens to Your World of Warcraft Account and Gold When You Die?

For many players, Azeroth isn’t “just a game.” It’s where you spent late nights after work, where you celebrated a first clear with people who became real friends, where a...