Monthly Archives: July 2022

Tips for Coping with Grief

While grief after a service at a funeral home in Oakland, CA looks different for everyone, there are helpful tips that can help you cope with your loss. If you process your grief, you can look forward to healing in your own time.

You’ll still always miss your loved one, you can look forward to a healthy, productive, and meaningful life if you allow yourself to grieve fully and openly. Here are helpful tips to help you cope with your grief and emerge stronger on the other side.

To begin, take care of yourself. Put yourself and self-care first and you grieve. Don’t be afraid to turn off your phone and have quiet time or reach out to loved ones or friends for support when needed, binge watch that TV show, or whatever else you can do to help yourself feel better. Memorials like headstones are wonderful for grief as they provide a concrete place where you can go to remember and honor your lost loved one. You can set up a traditional memorial like a headstone, or you can create something more unique like a bird feeder, memory jar, painting, engraved heirloom, or even just a scrapbook filled photos and memories. It can also be very helpful to write down the thoughts and feelings you have as you grieve. A journal is a space, private space in which you can freely express yourself.

Don’t be afraid to accept the changes in your life and try something new. Your life will change because of your loss, and resisting these changes will only make them harder. Take steps to make sure these adjustments are positive and healthy, like taking time for yourself and moving slowly. Consider trying a new hobby or pastime to remind yourself there is always the possibility for happiness and fulfillment even after a loss. You can try traveling, taking a class in a new skill, or even getting a new pet. You also need to prepare for and accept the symptoms of grief. When we grieve, our brains release hormones and chemicals that cause physical, mental, and emotional symptoms throughout the body. Be prepared for symptoms like brain fog, pain, or anxiety, and accept them as they come so they will leave when they’re ready.

You also should exercise! Physical activity is wonderful for reducing the symptoms of grief. Take time to move your body in whatever way feels good, whether that means going for a walk, taking an exercise class, or even just dancing around your living room to your favorite music. Try honoring old traditions. While trying new things is great for grief, so is honoring and remembering the old traditions you had with your lost loved one. Considering doing some of the things you used to do together, whether alone or with another loved one or a friend. Facing the loss and your grief is incredibly difficult, but it must be done. Ignoring your grief and its associated feelings will not make them go away but will instead make them harder to deal with down the road.

We are here to help if you want more information on grief or Oakland, CA funeral homes. Call or visit today to learn more.

Final Disposition and Cremation Services in Oakland, CA

Do you know what final disposition is? It is what happens to a body after death, including after a cremation service in Oakland, CA. Keep reading to learn more about final disposition and the various methods used for after cremation services.

To begin, there are many nontraditional final disposition methods available, from water cremation and body donation to body preservation and more. You are welcome to explore these nontraditional methods to see if they would work for you or your lost loved one.

Ground burial at a cemetery is the most traditional disposition method in the United States. In this method, the body is kept intact, generally embalmed, placed in a casket, and then buried in a cemetery. While there are many options available for cemetery burial, cemeteries are becoming crowded. You can also bury remains above ground. Above ground burial in a mausoleum is when the body is entombed above the ground in some kind of crypt or sarcophagus. These above-ground burial types are rarer than most other final disposition options, due to limited space and far greater cost. A lawn crypt is a vault that is partially underground and holds one or more caskets, usually a family or husband and wife pair. They generally have a few steps down to enter and can often be completely covered with grass.

After cremation, there is natural burial and cremation with ash burial. A natural burial is similar to ground burial except that the body is not embalmed or placed in a traditional casket. Instead, the body is placed in the earth with a few simple wrappings to ease natural biodegradation. The whole point of natural burial is to return the body to the earth in a simple, clean way. In a cremation with ash burial, the body is cremated and the cremated remains, or ashes, are placed in a cremation urn. The cremation urn is then buried in a cemetery plot inside a cremation urn vault to protect the cemetery grounds.

You can also choose final disposition methods like cremation with inurnment. You can place cremated remains inside cremation urns and then house the urn inside a, above-ground permanent resting place called a columbarium. The columbarium houses urns in niches that are either in a freestanding structure on the cemetery grounds or an outdoor wall with niches that you can visit anytime. If you don’t want to bury or house cremated remains, you can also scatter them. The most traditional scattering method is scattering the ashes in a body of water such as a river, lake, or ocean. You can also scatter the ashes in a location special to you or the deceased, such as a favorite park or landmark. Don’t forget about housing cremated remains at home, whether on display or somewhere private.

Do you want to learn more about final disposition or Oakland, CA cremation services? We are here to help. Call or visit us today for more information on our services or what we can do for you in your time of loss.

What’s A Crypt?

Maybe you’ve heard about crypts before or seen them in a scary TV show or mummy movie. What is a crypt, really? Do people still use crypts for after funeral home services in Oakland, CA? Are there different kinds of crypts? Keep reading to learn more about crypts.

Crypts aren’t as dark or scary as they seem in the movies. Instead, they are simple, meaningful places to house loved ones who have passed on and have had a service at a funeral home. Per Merriam-Webster, a crypt is, “a chamber (such as a vault) wholly or partly underground, a vault under a main floor of a church, or a chamber in a mausoleum.” Simply put, a crypt is a vault or small space used to house dead bodies, generally in the floor of a church or underground in some capacity.

It’s important to note that crypts and mausoleums are not the same thing. Mausoleums are the building that house crypts above ground, while crypts are the small rooms that house caskets. In other words, a mausoleum holds the crypt, and the crypt holds the casket or the body. Interestingly, there are different kinds of crypts, including mausoleum crypts and lawn crypts. While “crypt” refers to chambers underneath churches, it also refers to the chamber inside a mausoleum where the body is stored. Another word for the chamber where the body is stored inside a mausoleum is “mausoleum crypt.” A lawn crypt is an underground or partially underground mausoleum that contains more than one casket, such as several members of one family side by side or above and below.

The world’s first know crypts were used in Italy, Greece, and South Africa to house the bodies of saints, priests, martyrs, and other ancient Christians deemed worthy of entombment within a church as well as religious relics. Perhaps the most famous crypt is the one in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Built in the 4th century, the crypt in St. Peter’s Basilica is believed to house the remains of Saint Peter underneath the floor of the high altar.

It’s also important to note that some cemeteries use the term “lawn crypt” to refer to above-ground structures that hold one or more caskets. There are many other different types of crypts. Some of the most common are single crypts that house just one casket, companion for two caskets, and family or Westminster crypts that have enough room for an entire family. Most crypts are dark, dry, and somewhat cold. Single crypts are generally small rectangles just big enough for a casket, while Westminster crypts can be quite large as they need to hold multiple caskets. Usually, one end of the crypt is open to place the casket inside. Modern crypts also often have drains, pipes, and ventilation to prevent bad smells from building up inside the mausoleum.

Do you want to learn more about crypts or Oakland, CA funeral homes? We are here to help. Please call or visit us today.

More About Grief and Cremation Services

Everyone grieves and mourns in their own way and for their own length of time. No matter how or how long you grieve after a death and cremation services in Oakland, CA, it’s an important part of processing a loss.

But how will you handle a loss? How should you mourn? How do you cope with the grief? To better understand what grief is and how to work through it, use this list of important information about grief.

To begin, grief is a deep kind of sorrow associated with a loss, whether that loss is a death or another kind of loss, such as that of a relationship, job, or even hope for the future. But grief is not the same as mourning. Grief is the internal experience or emotional response after a loss, while mourning is the external way, we process our grief. In other words, grief is what you are holding onto on the inside and mourning is what you’re letting out. While everyone grieves and mourns differently, is important to be aware of and acknowledge where you are in your personal grief and mourning process. Mourning is the outward expression of grief. As such, there is no set timeline for how long you should mourn after a loss. Mourning periods vary between people, cultures, religions, and more. For example, the Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, and Muslim religious sects have set mourning periods, while many western cultures believe one year is an acceptable mourning period. Cultures and beliefs also dictate how to mourn, with traditions including wearing black, no dancing or celebrations, a black wreath on your door, and covering the doorbell.

What does grief look like? What symptoms does it have? Grief manifests in many different ways between different people or even at different times. How you grieve at one point in your life might be very different than how you grieve at another. Grief can also manifest in a variety of ways from physician and emotional to mental symptoms. Some of the most common include heart palpitations, headaches, GI issues, body pain, anger, bitterness, confusion, loss of joy, apathy, irritability, fear, shame, anxiety, or even betrayal. There is also no set timeline for grief. How long grief lasts varies from person to person and even from loss to loss. For example, you might grieve longer after the loss of a spouse versus the loss of a job. If you feel that your grief is lasting longer than it “should,” you might feel more comfortable speaking to a professional.

Grief is hard work, and it’s important to acknowledge it as such so you can face it and come out stronger on the other side. No matter how, why, or how long you grieve, it’s an important part of processing a loss. We are here to help if you want to learn more about grief or Oakland, CA cremation services. Stop by and visit us or give us a call today for more information on what we can do for you in your time of loss.

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