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When a beloved pet dies, the death leaves a void in its human owner’s life. There will be no jumping, wagging greeting waiting for them when they come home. Every pet owner knows there are days when the walk, or cleaning the litter, is more dreaded than enjoyed. But when the chore is gone, they feel the loss. Sure, they have their popcorn all to themselves. But they miss their fur friend. They miss those expectant eyes looking up at them waiting for a kernel of the human treat. Their pet is gone and it is missed!

So, what about getting a new dog? Getting new dog or cat is not for everyone. But for some pet lovers, that void, the hole in their life, is unbearable. They seek to fill the hole. They need that fur baby to take for a walk, to feed, to talk to, to sleep on their feet, to be glad they are home. 

Fair warning to the mourning owner, a new pet is not a replacement for the beloved pet that has passed. Just as when we lose a human family member, the individual cannot be replaced. The pet that died was unique, one of a kind. There will never be another cat or dog just like your fur friend. For those who need to get a new dog, or cat, or bird, or snake, it’s the role the pet played in their life they seek to fill. There is just a need to fill the hole death has left in their life. 

The pet who passed isn’t forgotten. People who have had multiple pets have a whole string of memories and stories. Those memories stay. They are with them always.

Pets enrich our lives. So, for some the need to have a new pet is almost immediate.  Others need more time. Some fill the hole in another way entirely. Try not to judge the needs of a family member when their desire to get a new pet is out of sync with yours. Do your best to understand.

Taps. There is nothing like the sound of those patriotic notes. It grabs your heart, it makes you cry. It honors the service and risk a man or woman took for our safety and the safety of our country.  

Public law provides military burial benefits for all who served and were honorably discharged from any of the five branches of the U.S. Military. Your funeral director or advance funeral planner can explain all of the benefits you or your family members are eligible to receive. They will also access those benefits related to the funeral or burial on your behalf. Your funeral director can help you weave the remembrance of your loved one’s military service into the fabric of their full life experience.  

Most who have served in any of the branches of our military, whether it be for a few years or as a career, will tell you the experience had a profound impact on their life.  Even when the service period was brief and at a tender age and followed by many years of some other vocation, that service should be honored.   

The funeral professionals at your local funeral home have the resources and know how to help you get the remembrance just right. In addition to the playing of taps and flag ceremony provided by public law, there are caskets, vaults, and urns that highlight each branch of the armed services to be considered. Photos and music can also be a part of the funeral gathering or ceremony and can add so much to the remembrance.   

How much or how little your family wishes to focus on the military service of a loved one is a matter of personal choice. With the assistance of your funeral director, a military service can be planned that finds the perfect balance for your family.

Let’s all give a big shout out for all the fathers! Boy, have they ever stepped up to the plate and embraced the changing role of fatherhood. Lots of those who are young dads today were raised by a very different kind of dad. Their dads may have never changed a poopy diaper or traveled alone with an infant. But times have changed.

Now, dads are all in. You see them on planes toting a little one in a carrier on their chest, no mom in sight, so you just know they will be changing that diaper. We have stay at home dads, dads who cook meals inside the house as well as on the grill, and dads who know where the kids’ PJs are stored. Lots of big changes in one generation. 

That’s not to short-change the granddads. The generation that spawned those super adapters. They are now grandfathers and were grand fathers. A generation ago lots of dads supported the family all by themselves. They also coached, were scout masters, mowed their own lawn (with a push mower) and made pancakes on Sunday mornings.   These same guys are now the grandpas who are teaching their grandchildren to fish and holding the hand of a princess in a tutu as they wander the zoo. Kudos to the Dad’s! It’s their day!

Today is the day to appreciate your dad and to say thank you. You won’t have him forever, you know.