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.

Apple Watch Fall Detection for Seniors: Setup, Real-World Tips, and When It Works Best - Funeral.com, Inc.

Apple Watch Fall Detection for Seniors: Setup, Real-World Tips, and When It Works Best

Most families don’t start researching apple watch fall detection because they love gadgets. They start because someone they love fell—or almost fell—and the “what if” that follows won’t let go....

Pet Cremation ID Discs: How They Work and How to Confirm You’re Getting the Right Ashes Back - Funeral.com, Inc.

Pet Cremation ID Discs: How They Work and How to Confirm You’re Getting the Right Ashes Back

When a pet dies, grief can feel strangely split in two. Part of you is trying to absorb the silence where a familiar sound used to live: nails on the...

Do Caskets Have Warranties? What’s Usually Covered (and Why “Sealer” Claims Matter) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Do Caskets Have Warranties? What’s Usually Covered (and Why “Sealer” Claims Matter)

When someone dies, families often find themselves making choices that feel both deeply personal and unexpectedly technical. A casket can look like a simple decision—wood or metal, classic or modern,...

Grave Markers for Home Burials: Natural Stones, GPS Coordinates, and Recording the Location - Funeral.com, Inc.

Grave Markers for Home Burials: Natural Stones, GPS Coordinates, and Recording the Location

When a family chooses a home burial, it is almost never a casual decision. It is usually rooted in place: a family farm, a wooded corner of land someone loved,...

Winter Home Burial: Planning for Frozen Ground, Equipment, and Safe Alternatives - Funeral.com, Inc.

Winter Home Burial: Planning for Frozen Ground, Equipment, and Safe Alternatives

When a death happens in winter, grief arrives alongside a second reality: the ground may not be ready to receive anyone. Families who hope for a home burial often imagine...

Transport Permits After a Death: When You Can Move the Body Yourself (and When You Can’t) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Transport Permits After a Death: When You Can Move the Body Yourself (and When You Can’t)

The hours after a death can feel unreal: the quiet in the room, the small decisions that suddenly carry enormous weight, the sense that time has both stopped and started...

Doorway Width for Body Removal: Clearance, Turns, and Stairs for Home Death Care - Funeral.com, Inc.

Doorway Width for Body Removal: Clearance, Turns, and Stairs for Home Death Care

When someone dies at home, the first hours can feel both intimate and unreal. There may be a hush in the house that’s unlike any other quiet you’ve known—gentle, heavy,...

Call Before You Dig for a Home Burial: Utility Lines, 811, and What to Verify on Your Property - Funeral.com, Inc.

Call Before You Dig for a Home Burial: Utility Lines, 811, and What to Verify on Your Property

When a family starts talking about a home burial, the conversation usually begins in a tender place: “They wanted to stay here.” Maybe it’s the land that has held generations,...

Communicable Disease and Home Funerals: When DIY Care Is Restricted (and What Families Can Still Do) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Communicable Disease and Home Funerals: When DIY Care Is Restricted (and What Families Can Still Do)

When a death happens at home, many families instinctively reach for what feels human: to wash a loved one’s hands, to brush hair back from a forehead, to light a...

Florida Home Funeral Laws: 24-Hour Preservation Rules and What “Storage” Means at Home - Funeral.com, Inc.

Florida Home Funeral Laws: 24-Hour Preservation Rules and What “Storage” Means at Home

In the hours after a death, families often move between two realities at once. There is the emotional reality—shock, tenderness, disbelief, the instinct to stay close. And there is the...

Texas Home Funeral Laws: The 24-Hour Refrigeration Rule and Body Care Options - Funeral.com, Inc.

Texas Home Funeral Laws: The 24-Hour Refrigeration Rule and Body Care Options

A death at home can feel like time changes shape. The room is the same room, the light is the same light, and yet everything has shifted. In those first...

New York Home Funeral Laws: Why a Licensed Funeral Director Is Usually Required - Funeral.com, Inc.

New York Home Funeral Laws: Why a Licensed Funeral Director Is Usually Required

When someone you love dies, your first thoughts are rarely about forms, permits, and who is “allowed” to do what. You’re thinking about the person. About the quiet in the...

California Home Funeral Laws: EDRS, Disposition Permits, and Family-Led Care at Home - Funeral.com, Inc.

California Home Funeral Laws: EDRS, Disposition Permits, and Family-Led Care at Home

When someone dies, the first hours can feel strangely split: grief is immediate and human, while paperwork arrives like a second language. In California, families are often surprised to learn...

Alabama Home Funeral Laws: Who Can File the Death Certificate and Get a Burial/Removal Permit - Funeral.com, Inc.

Alabama Home Funeral Laws: Who Can File the Death Certificate and Get a Burial/Removal Permit

A death at home can leave a family holding two truths at once: the emotional need to slow down, and the practical need to act. In Alabama, families generally can...

Burial-Transit (Disposition) Permits: How Families Request Them Without a Funeral Director - Funeral.com, Inc.

Burial-Transit (Disposition) Permits: How Families Request Them Without a Funeral Director

It often starts with a simple question that doesn’t feel simple at all: “We’re handling this ourselves—how do we get permission to bury, cremate, or transport our person?” In the...

The 3-Day Home Vigil: A Simple Plan for Visitors, Quiet Hours, Meals, and Shared Responsibilities - Funeral.com, Inc.

The 3-Day Home Vigil: A Simple Plan for Visitors, Quiet Hours, Meals, and Shared Responsibilities

There is a particular kind of hush that arrives after a death. Even if you expected it, even if you were “prepared,” the home can feel like it has changed...