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.
Stained Glass Memorial Windows for Home: Design Ideas, Symbolism, and Commissioning Tips
There is a particular kind of quiet that settles into a home after loss. The phone calls slow down. The casseroles stop arriving. And yet the absence stays loud in...
Bird Baths as Garden Memorials: Placement, Safety for Birds, and Simple Dedication Ideas
Grief often shows up in ordinary moments. It can meet you at the kitchen sink, on the back steps, or in the quiet pause before you turn the porch light...
Military Flag Shadow Boxes: Display Options, Etiquette, and How to Protect the Flag Long‑Term
The folded flag is often the moment everything becomes real. You may remember the precise way it was handed to you—carefully, intentionally, with a level of respect that can feel...
Memorial Trees: Choosing a Species That Lives Long (and Thrives Where You Plant It)
There is a moment that many families recognize after a death—sometimes after the service, sometimes after the cremation, sometimes weeks later—when the world grows quieter and the practical tasks finally...
Memorial Plaque Wording Ideas: Short, Meaningful Phrases for Benches, Trees, and Gardens
If you have ever stared at a blank space on a plaque order form and felt your mind go quiet, you are not alone. The hardest part is not a...
Memorial Benches: How Park Donation Programs Work, Costs, and What Families Should Ask
There is a particular kind of comfort in finding a name in a place that still feels alive. A bench beside a trail. A seat near the playground where grandchildren...
Adopt-a-Highway Memorials: How They Work, Eligibility, and What Signs Typically Say
On a drive you’ve taken a hundred times, the world can change in a single instant—after a loss, familiar roads stop being “just roads.” They become the route to the...
NFT Memorials and Blockchain Tributes: What They Are, Pros/Cons, and Longevity Questions
When someone dies, the world gets very small and very practical at the same time. You may be choosing music for a service, looking through photos, trying to coordinate relatives,...
Colorizing Old Photos: What AI Can Do, What to Watch For, and How to Get Natural Results
There’s a particular kind of ache that comes with an old photograph. It’s proof, it’s comfort, it’s history—and sometimes it’s also the only clear image you have of someone you...
How to Create a Memorial Space That Doesn’t Overwhelm the Room
A home memorial can be one of the gentlest forms of remembrance. It can also become surprisingly hard to live with when it starts to feel like a “project” you...
Planting Memorial Trees With Ashes: Questions to Ask First
Planting a memorial tree can feel like the opposite of finality. After cremation, when so many decisions have already been made quickly, a living memorial offers something steady: a place...
Yard Memorials and HOA Rules: What’s Usually Allowed (and How to Get Approval)
After a loss, families often discover that grief doesn’t just live in the heart. It shows up in the places someone used to be—the porch light they always turned on,...
Choosing Between Cemetery Placement and Home Placement: A Decision Guide
After a cremation, there is often a moment when everything gets quiet—quiet enough that you can finally hear the question you have been avoiding. The ashes are home, sometimes in...
Scattering Plus a Cemetery Marker: How Families Create a “Place”
Scattering can feel like freedom. It can be exactly the kind of goodbye someone wanted: open air, open water, a favorite trail, a family cabin, a backyard where years unfolded...