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You Are Not Alone

        People from all walks of life grieve in one way or another. In my honest and true opinion, formal funeral services allow people an opportunity to visit feelings and some hard-hitting truths. This process can be a taxing one for a family. The early and beginning days of grief are a hazy, dizzying, heart-shattering response to a trauma that your mind simply can’t wrap itself around. You are, what I like to call a Grief Zombie; outwardly moving but barely there in every other respect. You shuffle through life not knowing what's next after the loss of your loved one. Grief is different for everyone and at their own pace. The pressure of the loss can be devastating at times, especially throughout a visitation, memorial, or a celebration of life.

        Grief comes in all shapes and sizes. There isn't a designed way to navigate through this process. However, there are a lot of positive avenues to travel through when coping with such a loss. From the banner page of the site, I offer some options for family and friends to do when celebrating the life of their loved one. Always reach out to people when hitting lows. Leaning on one another is an important pillar of humanity. It is vital for people to come together when they lose someone. Remember, you are never alone.

 

What is Grief ?

 

       Grief is a strong, sometimes overwhelming emotion for people, regardless of whether your sadness stems from the loss of a loved one from a terminal diagnosis they or someone they love have received. It also could be sudden. You might find yourself feeling numb and removed from daily life, unable to carry on with regular duties while saddled with their sense of loss.

       Grief is the natural reaction to loss. Grief is both a universal and a personal experience. Altogether and most importantly, it's a process. Individual experiences of grief vary and are influenced by the nature of the loss. 

       Experts advise those grieving to realize they can't control the process and to prepare for varying stages of grief. Understanding why they're suffering can help, as can talking to others and trying to resolve issues that cause significant emotional pain, such as feeling guilty about something after the fact.

The Grieving Process

 

       As our acknowledgment of the death progresses from what I call “head understanding” to “heart understanding,” we begin to embrace the pain of the loss—another need the bereaved must have to meet when healing.  Healthy grief means expressing our painful thoughts and feelings, and healthy funeral ceremonies give a grand opportunity for this.

       People tend to cry, even sob and wail, at funerals because funerals force us to concentrate on the fact of the death and our feelings, often excruciatingly painful, about our loved ones.   Others become silent and distant. Remember, take grief one step at a time, hour to hour, day to day. Overcoming such raw emotions is hard to do for anyone. You must be able to externalize these feelings in a healthy and constructive way.

       

Helping Yourself Heal

 

       Rituals are symbolic activities that help us, together with our families and friends, express our deepest thoughts and feelings about life’s most important events.  In Catholicism, baptism celebrates the birth of a child and that child’s acceptance into the church family.  Birthday parties honor the passing of another year in the life of someone we love.  Weddings publicly affirm the eternal love shared by two people.

       The funeral ritual, too, is an important, traditional and symbolic means of expressing our beliefs, culture and feelings about the death of someone dearly loved.  Rich in history and rife with symbolism, the funeral ceremony helps us acknowledge the reality of the death, gives testimony to the life of the deceased, encourages the expression of grief in a way consistent with the culture’s values, provides support to mourners, allows for the embracing of faith and beliefs about life and death, and offers continuity and hope for the living.

       Meaningful funeral ceremonies can serve as wonderful points of departure for “head understanding” of the death.  When you contact my funeral service, I will work tirelessly to conduct the proper service to showcase how special your loved one will forever be to family and friends. It will be my utmost privilege to work together. 

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100 Years

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