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.

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

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...

The Two-Injection Method in Pet Euthanasia: Sedation/Anesthesia First, Then the Final Medication

The Two-Injection Method in Pet Euthanasia: Sedation/Anesthesia First, Then the Final Medication

If you’re reading this, you may be standing in one of the hardest places a family can stand: loving a dog or cat enough to consider letting them go. Even...

Signs Your Cat Is in Pain: Why Cats Hide It (and the Quiet Behaviors That Give It Away)

Signs Your Cat Is in Pain: Why Cats Hide It (and the Quiet Behaviors That Give It Away)

A cat can live beside you for years and still keep secrets. They can be playful in the morning and withdrawn by afternoon, and it’s easy to chalk it up...

Companion Urns: Two-Person Urns, Shared Memorials, and How Capacity Actually Works

Companion Urns: Two-Person Urns, Shared Memorials, and How Capacity Actually Works

Most families don’t begin by searching for a “companion urn.” They begin with a simpler, heavier sentence: we want to stay together. For spouses, partners, or two people whose lives...

Vanitas Still Life: Why Rotting Fruit, Wilting Flowers, and Skulls Show Up in ‘Death Art’

Vanitas Still Life: Why Rotting Fruit, Wilting Flowers, and Skulls Show Up in ‘Death Art’

There’s a particular kind of quiet you feel when you stand in front of a vanitas still life. The room may be full of people, but your attention narrows to...

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

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

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,...

Digging a Grave at Home: Safety, Shoring Basics, and Typical Dimensions to Discuss With a Pro

Digging a Grave at Home: Safety, Shoring Basics, and Typical Dimensions to Discuss With a Pro

When a family asks whether they can bury someone at home, they’re usually not chasing a trend. They’re trying to honor a life in a place that mattered—on land held...

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

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...

The Carrying Board: A Safer Way to Move a Body at Home (Design, Materials, and Use)

The Carrying Board: A Safer Way to Move a Body at Home (Design, Materials, and Use)

Right after a death, the world often narrows to the next small step. A phone call. A glass of water. A quiet decision about where everyone will sit. And sometimes,...

Painting a Casket Safely: Low-VOC, Non-Toxic Paints and Finishes for Funeral Use

Painting a Casket Safely: Low-VOC, Non-Toxic Paints and Finishes for Funeral Use

There are moments in grief when “personal” stops being a vague idea and becomes a practical question. Someone you love is gone—or you’re planning ahead so your family won’t have...

How to Line a Casket: Fabric Choices, Padding Options, and Simple, Dignified Finishes

How to Line a Casket: Fabric Choices, Padding Options, and Simple, Dignified Finishes

There is a particular kind of quiet that comes with preparing a final resting place. Even when a family has help from a funeral home, there is often a moment...

Closing Eyes and Mouth Naturally: Gentle Techniques for a Peaceful Resting Expression (No Glue)

Closing Eyes and Mouth Naturally: Gentle Techniques for a Peaceful Resting Expression (No Glue)

Right after a death, a room can feel both unbearably still and strangely busy. Someone adjusts a blanket. A phone buzzes with missed calls. A cup of water sits untouched...

What If Someone Asks for Ashes Later? How Families Handle “Delayed Requests”

What If Someone Asks for Ashes Later? How Families Handle “Delayed Requests”

It often happens when the calendar has quietly moved on. A few months pass. Sometimes it’s a year. The big, early decisions are already made, the service is over, and...

What a “Keepsake Urn” Means—and What It Doesn’t

What a “Keepsake Urn” Means—and What It Doesn’t

When a family chooses cremation, the first decisions are often practical: paperwork, timing, transportation, and the immediate question of how much does cremation cost in your area. But after the...

Urn Inscription Ideas: Names, Dates, Phrases, and Symbols Explained

Urn Inscription Ideas: Names, Dates, Phrases, and Symbols Explained

If you’re stuck on “what to write on an urn,” you’re not alone. Most families aren’t trying to be poetic. They’re trying to be true. You want something meaningful that...