Because We Aren’t Meant To Mourn Alone
The Importance of Funerals & Ceremony
When a loved one dies, we are thrust into a variety of states emotionally, intellectually, and even physically. Initially we can experience shock, confusion, sadness, disbelief, fatigue, and even anger. Eventually grief will settle in, and the bridge to healthy grieving is a funeral or ceremony where friends and family can gather and remember and mourn together.
“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.” - Center For Loss
Why is mourning together so important, you might ask? The support that is both given and received when we mourn together not only provides comfort and companionship to our sadness and remembrance, but it helps us intellectually accept the reality of our loved one’s death. Our need to mourn together was made very clear during the pandemic when restrictions made being together to mourn difficult at best. Many families who were prevented from having a traditionally well-attended service for their loved one during the pandemic are now choosing to plan a ceremony to give themselves as well as their friends and family an opportunity to remember together. We aren’t meant to mourn alone.
Grieving is a normal and necessary outcome of loss. While it can be heavy, uncomfortable, and a foreign process for all who walk its road, grief is required to heal and to process the loss while also creating a new relationship or connection to the person who has died. This might seem counter-intuitive, but the reality of grief is that it is simply a statement of our love that once existed for the person who has died. The person ceases to exist, but the love remains; this is grief.
Park Memorial is proud to be a pillar of comfort and connection for bereaved families in northern Alberta. We are grateful to be recognized by the communities that we serve as Edmonton Journal’s Reader’s Choice for funeral home for 2022.
