Seeing as we handle death from many different angles and our customers not only need help picking out custom urns, but are also looking for a compassionate soul to talk to, we can’t help but pay attention to the many different aspects of death and the way we, as a society look at it. Even if that means that our culture is fascinated with the undead. So, we started to wonder, “What is it about zombies that we love so much?”

After all, there isn’t much that you really can like about a zombie. They have no personality, no thought processes and, well, most of them aren’t going to be winning any beauty pageants any time soon. Zombies go back centuries and can be found in many stories and cultures in many different names, but the term zombie has African and Haitian roots in Voodoo.

Many zombie experts (yes, those actually exist) believe that many of us fixate on zombies due to our increasingly complicated daily lives. From email, cell phones, internet, increased workloads, more family/social activities, our lives are a constant barrage of information and action. Even death is more complicated than ever, with families needing sort through wills, property, make funeral and cremation arrangements, design the “perfect” custom urn, find the right burial for their loved ones cremains and then make sure that the burial meets health and safety standards. It’s overwhelming!

Zombies are simple. Even the “zombie apocalypse” that some people talk about is simpler. There’s no need for an abundance of paperwork. Just survival. Even getting rid of zombies is simple: shoot them in the head. People crave what they don’t have in their entertainment, and, while we’re sure there are very few people who actually want to come face to face with a zombie, people connect with the simplicity that they provide.

While we aren’t exactly staying in on the weekend to catch up on the latest zombie flicks, we can sort of understand why these walking undead creatures appeal to a culture that is inundated with information and activities from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep.

We honestly just hope that none of these zombie plot actually comes to fruition.

• The social security number of the deceased.
• A certified copy of the death certificate.
• A certified copy of their original DD124.
• Any paid receipts from the hospital, funeral home, crematorium and/or cemetery.
• Other financial and dependent information for survivor benefits which can be found here.

If your loved one died during active duty, the government will provide a $2,000 burial allowance to help pay for cremation, burial, caskets or urns. The VA will also provide a flag for your loved one’s funeral or memorial service and, should you desire it, your loved one can have full military honors at their funeral if they were killed during service to their country.

A plot in one of the country’s 114 national cemeteries is available, but cannot be reserved. If you’ve chosen to have your loved one cremated, there are columbariums in many of the national cemeteries to serve as a burial site for their military urns. The VA will also provide headstones or markers for soldiers buried in national, state veteran or military cemeteries and will also cover the cost of engraving pertinent information onto the marker.

For more on military honors, please take a look at our funeral etiquette blog.

But just because you have an actual need to write an obituary doesn’t mean you should become morose at the thought. Writing your own obituary allows you to look back on your life and decide what points are really, truly important for everyone to know. It’s an important part of funeral pre-planning.  It may feel difficult to condense your life down into one or two paragraphs, but try and think of it as the “highlights reel.” Here are a couple pointers to help you get started.

Be yourself. Remember, this is something you want people to read and feel as though this is a pretty accurate representation of who you are. If you’ve lived your life with a dry or somewhat macabre sense of humor, don’t let it stop just because it’s your obituary. If you’ve always been quick with kindness, make sure it shines through in your obituary.

Think about what’s important. This isn’t the time to dwell on that one time that you stole a shirt from a department store (unless it’s plagued you with guilt your entire life). Your obituary is the time for you to focus on the big picture of your life. If you’re having a hard time thinking in broad strokes, try and think about three words that could be used to sum up your life. Then expound briefly on those three words.

Leave a message. There are people in your family who would love nothing more than to hear words of solace from you after you pass. Leaving a message for your spouse, partner, children or friends in your obituary lets them know that you were always thinking of them, just as they’ll be thinking of you in the time to come.

Many times, when a person is cremated, they want their ashes (technically called cremains) to be scattered in an area that they loved. It might be on a lake, perhaps in a forest or park, but wherever they want their cremains spread, the task can be one that’s slightly messy when the cremains are in the air.

That’s why we typically recommend burying cremains rather than spreading them. There’s less mess and there are a wide variety of cremation urns to choose from. In fact, there are quite a number of biodegradable cremation urns to choose from, if you would like to choose an urn that’s not only beautiful, but will biodegrade over time to leave no trace behind.

Why bury cremains in a biodegradable cremation urn instead of spreading your loved one’s ashes? Well, besides it being a much neater process, it provides you with a specific spot that you can visit rather than a general area. Also, if you bury cremains in a cremation urn, you can incorporate the cremains into a memorial, whether it’s a tree or an entire garden. If the urn is biodegradable, the shell will wear away over the course of a month or two and your loved one’s cremains will mix with the soil that’s helping the newly planted life grow.

Next time you’re faced with the decision of spreading ashes versus burying cremains in cremation urns, consider getting a biodegradable urn and burying your loved one’s cremains rather than spreading them.

It’s then that the community steps in to support their friends in their time of need. While food is almost always a great way to show your support for the family, there are a couple of rules or considerations that you may want to consider when you’re bringing a meal to a grieving family.

Keep the dish simple. While everyone loves a gourmet meal, remember that your dish may not be the only one the family has received. The idea is that they can easily reheat the dish without any fuss. So, while a duck confit on a bed of arugula might sound absolutely delicious (and very thoughtful), it might not be the best dish to bring on this occasion.

Consider food allergies or diet restrictions. These days, there are a lot of people who have allergies to many types of food from nuts to milk to gluten. Find out if anyone in the family has any allergies before you go baking several loaves of bread for a family that has members with Celiac’s disease.

Bring something healthy. It’s easy to eat junk food after a loved one dies. Most of the food items that you can get delivered or through a drive-thru are not healthy in the slightest. So, when you make your dish to bring over, make it something packed with vitamins and nutrients that will give the family the much needed energy and strength.

Don’t overstay your welcome. Oftentimes, people will bring food and then stay at the grieving families home for a little too long. This can actually be more draining for the family. When you bring your dish, drop it off and only stay if you’re invited to come in for a while.

Offer to help elsewhere. Sometimes you can help by doing other things around the house. Ask if the family needs help with anything and if they say yes, follow through and actually help them where they say they needed help.

What can you do to honor their memory after they pass away?

The government does provide honors for soldiers that die during active duty. You can choose to have a funeral with military honors and you’ll be presented with a flag as well as any medals that they may have earned during their service. Some people aren’t quite sure what to do with these items after they’ve had their loved one’s funeral.

We suggest having a custom urn created in order to showcase their medals and flag and hold their cremains as well. This is a great way to display the items that make you proud to have had a member of the United States Armed Forces in your family.  A custom urn is a good way to display these items the way that you want, using the materials and form that you think your loved one would have preferred.

how to make an urn potters wheel

At a time when more and more people are investing in the DIY scene, and folks from 18 to 65 are learning to knit their own scarves, make their own furniture and even brew their own beer, it’s no surprise that some people are interested in learning how to make an urn. If you think about it, it makes sense. If you make your own urn, you have complete control over the outcome and the appearance. If you want to make an urn for a loved one, it’s really the ultimate memorial for them. You spend time and thought making an urn using your own two hands that’s suited perfectly for them.

If you’ve never worked with clay before, it might take several tries before you like the results, but remember, this is for something meant to last for years, so take the time to do it right.

There are two ways to work with clay when making an urn: using your hands to make a pinch pot or working on a potter’s wheel. Unless you have years of experience, pinch pots can often come off looking like a 3^rd grade art project rather than a stately cremation urn, so we typically recommend working on a potter’s wheel.  Here’s a very basic overview on how to make an urn using a potter’s wheel.

• Throw the clay onto the wheel.
• Center the clay.
• Get the wheel spinning.
• Wet your hands and the clay.
• Press firmly on the clay to form it.
• Create the opening.
• Pull the clay upwards.
• Continue to form the vessel until you have the shape you want.
• Trim the base of the urn from the potter’s wheel.

After you have the clay formed the way you like, you’ll need to take it to a place that has a kiln so that it can be fired and hardened as well as have the glazes added.

If all of this seems a little difficult, it’s OK. Maybe consider having a custom urn made to your specifications. You can design it, pick the style you’d like and let a professional artisan handle the production of the urn. It’s just as meaningful and you might even find that an artisan can help deliver a memorial urn beyond your dreams to honor your loved one.

In fact, choosing the way you want to be remembered can even start with your obituary. One Michael “Flathead” Blanchard made sure that his obituary said exactly what he wanted it to. One can only assume that it’s representative of his personality to a “t.” It has actually become a bit of an internet sensation because of its candor and humor.

While you don’t necessarily have to tell of some of your relatives in your obituary, you may want to think about what you want yours to say. Remember, if you don’t write it, it will fall to either your family members or the funeral home to write your obituary. Take the short amount of time it will take to properly express your life and legacy in words and find comfort knowing you’ll be represented the exact way that you want.

Another way that you can customize your memorial service is to look into custom urns as an option for your cremains. Custom urns can add a unique touch to not only your memorial service, but your display or burial as well. They can be just about anything that you can dream up, from a certain subject to something more abstract.

It’s important to note that custom urns take a lot of extra time because they’re being made to your specifications, so they take around 6-8 weeks before you have the urn. If you decide on custom urns as part of your memorial service, make sure that you order the urn with enough time.

While it may seem morbid to have your custom urn in your home and waiting for you, you can take solace in the fact that your family won’t have the unnecessary stress of trying to find and buy an urn after your death. Plus, you get the exact urn that you feel suits your perfectly.

One such blogger took to the internet when he discovered that his cancer was terminal and began to write about his life as it neared its end. Derek Miller was perhaps one of the best known and longest running bloggers in Vancouver when he began writing about his impending death.

In fact, the day after he passed away, eerily enough, he had one last blog from the grave that was posted posthumously. The post is an intimate look into the mind of a person who knows they will die soon and his thoughts on what that will mean to him and his family. It’s touching and honest. At one point he writes:

“It turns out that no one can imagine what’s really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can’t expect our plans to work out. Some of them might, while most probably won’t. Inventions and ideas will appear, and events will occur, that we could never foresee. That’s neither bad nor good, but it is real.”

Miller used his blog to come to terms with his death and some researchers are starting to believe that social media can actually be a great asset for people who are facing an untimely death due to terminal illness. Social media allows us to express our thoughts and emotions to more than just our close friends that we may see once a week. It allows these people to reach out to family and friends (and perhaps even strangers) to express how coming to terms with their death makes them feel.

In fact, even after their death, some people choose to have their social media accounts, from blogs to Facebook, serve as a memorial to their life so that friends and family can grieve openly and as a community; to experience connections, even when people are thousands of miles away.

Like it or not, social media is now not only a part of our everyday lives, it’s a part of our deaths as well.

Pet cremation is more ecologically friendly. As one of the animals living on this earth, whether your pet was canine or feline, it would be best to give them a burial that is kind to the earth. Cremation is a much more eco-friendly alternative to a full burial and your pet’s cremains can be put to good use as soil to plant a tree or garden in their memory. In their death, they can actually help to make the world a better place.

It’s more economical to choose cremation. Having your pet buried can be fairly expensive. Most states have laws against burying pets on private property (such as your backyard), so any funeral director will tell you that you would need to purchase a plot in a pet cemetery. Pet cremation is much less expensive and is typically priced based upon the weight of your pet.

There are a wide variety of pet urns. Not only is pet cremation more economical, but also pet urns are much more affordable than caskets. Plus, there are a myriad of style, materials and designs to choose from when you’re looking online.

You can customize your memorial to the pet. If you can’t find the perfect urn for your pet, you can always opt to have a custom pet urn made for your beloved family cat or dog. If you bury your pet, your options are fairly limited. Cremation allows you to choose the type of memorial you’d like for your pet.