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.

Creating a Goodbye Ritual for Your Pet: Ideas for a Peaceful Final Day

Creating a Goodbye Ritual for Your Pet: Ideas for a Peaceful Final Day

There’s a particular kind of heartbreak that comes with knowing your pet’s time is near. You may be balancing medical decisions, scheduling a euthanasia appointment, watching energy fade, and trying...

Understanding Your Cemetery Contract: Plot Rights, Fees, and Long-Term Obligations

Understanding Your Cemetery Contract: Plot Rights, Fees, and Long-Term Obligations

In a season of loss—or even in the quieter weeks of funeral planning—a cemetery contract can feel like a different language. The phrases look familiar (plot, deed, perpetual care), but...

Traveling with Cremation Ashes: Airline Rules, TSA Guidelines, and Peace of Mind

Traveling with Cremation Ashes: Airline Rules, TSA Guidelines, and Peace of Mind

Traveling with someone’s ashes is one of those tasks that can feel deceptively simple on paper—until you’re actually doing it. You’re juggling logistics and grief at the same time, and...

How to Talk to Teens About the Death of a Pet Without Minimizing Their Grief

How to Talk to Teens About the Death of a Pet Without Minimizing Their Grief

When a pet dies, adults often expect the grief to look “simple”: a few hard days, a small ritual, a gradual return to normal. But teenagers can surprise you. A...

Hair Memorial Jewelry: From Victorian Traditions to Modern Lock-of-Hair Keepsakes

Hair Memorial Jewelry: From Victorian Traditions to Modern Lock-of-Hair Keepsakes

There’s a particular kind of comfort in what’s small. In the days after a death, families often move through big decisions—paperwork, phone calls, schedules, costs—while the heart keeps reaching for...

Comforting Children at a Pet's Euthanasia Appointment

Comforting Children at a Pet's Euthanasia Appointment

There are few moments in family life that feel as heavy—and as tender—as a pet’s euthanasia appointment. Adults often describe it as a “final act of love,” but for kids,...

Wake vs Viewing vs Funeral vs Celebration of Life: Which Is Right for Your Family?

Wake vs Viewing vs Funeral vs Celebration of Life: Which Is Right for Your Family?

If you’ve been handed a list of options—wake, viewing, funeral, memorial, celebration of life—it can feel like someone just asked you to plan an event while your heart is in...

How to Support Kids When a Classroom Pet Dies

How to Support Kids When a Classroom Pet Dies

The day a classroom pet dies rarely looks dramatic from the outside. The fish doesn’t swim to the surface. The hamster doesn’t come out of its hide. A turtle stays...

Best Stone for Headstones: Comparing Granite, Marble, Sandstone, and Other Materials

Best Stone for Headstones: Comparing Granite, Marble, Sandstone, and Other Materials

If you’ve ever stood in a cemetery with your hands in your pockets, staring at rows of markers that look “fine” from a distance but weather very differently up close,...

Do Funeral Homes Provide Prayer Cards?

Do Funeral Homes Provide Prayer Cards?

When a loved one passes, families are often faced with an overwhelming number of decisions about the funeral service. From choosing caskets to planning the order of ceremonies, every choice...

What Are the Disadvantages of Funeral Insurance?

What Are the Disadvantages of Funeral Insurance?

Making end-of-life arrangements is one of the most emotionally challenging experiences a family can face. Grief is raw, and decisions must often be made quickly, combining both financial pressure and...

How to Send Food to a Grieving Family

How to Send Food to a Grieving Family

In the first days after a death, time does a strange thing. Hours blur, decisions pile up, and even the simplest routines, drinking water, answering a text, heating up a...

How to Build a Support System After Pet Loss

How to Build a Support System After Pet Loss

There’s a particular kind of silence that follows pet loss. It isn’t only the absence of paws on the hallway floor or the familiar weight at the edge of the...

What Is a Typical Funeral Program?

What Is a Typical Funeral Program?

Funerals are moments filled with profound reflection, remembrance, and love, times when families and friends come together to honor a life that has left a lasting mark. They are both...

What Is the Proper Etiquette for Thank You Cards for Funerals?

What Is the Proper Etiquette for Thank You Cards for Funerals?

Grief can feel like an unrelenting tide, pulling you in different directions as you navigate the days after a funeral. Each morning may bring the ache of absence, while the...

Is a Black Dress OK for a Funeral?

Is a Black Dress OK for a Funeral?

Funerals are moments of profound reflection and heartfelt remembrance, where emotions run high and even the smallest gestures carry deep meaning. During these times, what you wear can communicate empathy,...