Grief resources are among cremation services provided in Shaker Heights, OH. Elderly people are affected by grief in very profound ways. When elderly people lose loved ones, which is more frequent and often includes spouses, existing health problems can get much worse, living arrangements may have to be changed, and stress gets much more intense.

Because the elderly experience grief more frequently, as friends, family members, and peers die, they may sense that their time to die is closing in on them, which can lead to greater feelings of anxiety and loneliness.

The emotional and physical ways that grief may affect elderly people are different than for younger people. Grief always has an impact on physical health. However, elderly people are much more susceptible to severe health problems after a loved one dies because their stress levels are significantly elevated for a longer period of time.

A decrease in appetite is one physical symptom of the effective grief on the elderly. Many older people have a normal decrease in their desire to eat. They will eat fewer meals and their meal portions will be smaller. However, grief can decrease their appetites even more, which can lead to malnutrition and dehydration.

Feeling confused during the grieving process is common at any age. However, among the elderly this confusion can be much worse and lead to periods of forgetfulness, disorganization, and disorientation. Since these are many of the same symptoms associated with cognitive impairment and dementia, testing should be done to eliminate these conditions as the source of confusion.

Elderly people are more likely to experience significant life changes following the death of a loved one, especially a spouse, then younger people. For elderly spouses who were married for many years, the loss of the other spouse creates a void in caring and support. The surviving spouse may find themselves having to leave a home that they’ve lived in for many years and either move into small apartment, in with their families, or into an assisted living facility. These kind of life changes magnify the stress of grief.

Another loss that elderly people may experience following the death of a spouse are financial difficulties. Unless there is life insurance or financial investment that ensures financial security, many elderly people who lose their spouse also lose the fixed income that the spouse received. So instead of living on to fixed incomes, the surviving spouse has to make it on one fixed income. This is also an extra stress added to the grieving process.

Another source of stress associated with grief among the elderly are the feelings of being isolated, alone, and lonely. Losing a spouse, a close friend, or close relative can mean losing someone to confide in, to talk to, or to spend time with. Younger family members are usually wrapped up in their own lives with and raising families, so they don’t have a lot of extra time to spend with older family members (and they don’t realize what older family members are feeling and experiencing). This can lead to elderly to believe that they are truly all alone in the world, which can exacerbate the stress associated with grief.

Grief support and grief counseling are good resources for elderly people who are dealing with extra stress and different grief than their younger counterparts. Many of these resources are free.

If you’d like to learn about grief resources and cremation services in Shaker Heights, OH, our compassionate and experienced team at E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home is here to help. You can visit us at our funeral home at 25900 Emery Road, Warrensville Heights, OH, or you can call us today at (216) 831-7906.

Helping write obituaries is among the cremation services provided in Warrensville Heights, OH. Although there is a growing trend toward writing more creative obituaries, most obituaries still follow a traditional format.

You have the choice of where you want them published. Both digital and print editions of newspapers have a cost associated with them (most charge by the word) for obituaries. Funeral homes will publish obituaries on their websites as part of their service to you and your family. There are other digital options for publishing obituaries as well. Some may be free and some may have a cost associated with them.

Traditional obituaries have several elements included.

The first is the announcement of the death. It includes the deceased’s name, age, and residence at the time of death. Do not include street addresses, because there are people who regularly scan obituaries to see when homes will be empty so they can burglarize them. Simply include the city and state.

There are many ways to say someone has died. While some people are comfortable with using the word died, others feel it’s too harsh, so they’ll use phrases such as passed away, went to their heavenly home, and went to be with the Lord. There’s no right or wrong way to express that someone has died, so use the phrasing that you are most comfortable with.

The next element in an obituary is a list of the immediate family members who have died before the deceased, including parents, siblings, spouses, and children.

A brief biography is the next thing that should be included in a traditional obituary. This should include important events, qualities, contributions and connections in the deceased’s life. These are things like the date and place of birth, parent’s names, date and place of marriage, birth name of spouse, education, work, and military service. Within this, the impact that the deceased had during their lifetime should be highlighted.

The next element in an obituary is a list of the family members and friends-who-were-like-family who survive the deceased. The order should be surviving parents, surviving spouse, surviving children (and their spouses’ first names in parentheses), surviving grandchildren, and any other family members or friends that were special to the deceased.

Arrangements are listed next. These will include the arrangements for visitations, funeral or memorial services and burial (if the deceased is not being cremated). Dates, times, and locations of all funeral arrangement events should be included as well.

The next section of the obituary is for special messages that the family of the deceased would like to communicate. This is where requests for donations instead of funeral flowers should be placed as well as thanks to hospital staffs, hospice staffs, and individuals who may have been involved in taking care of the deceased before they died.

Photos are now very common in obituaries. If they’re being published in a newspaper, they are an additional cost (color photos cost more than black and white), while they are part of the funeral home’s services if they’re published on their website. Choose a good quality (good lighting, no smudges or creases, and dressed nicely), recent photo of the deceased for the obituary.

If you’d like to learn more about writing obituaries and cremation services in Warrensville Heights, OH, our compassionate and experienced team at E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home is here to help. You can visit us at our funeral home at 25900 Emery Road, Warrensville Heights, OH, or you can call us today at (216) 831-7906.

Helping with suicide awareness is among the cremation services provided in Warrensville Heights, OH. Americans, in general, avoid talking about suicide. We skirt the subject and obituaries and death notices by saying things like, “passed away suddenly” or “passed away unexpectedly,” even though it’s clear to anyone reading them that the person was neither sick nor elderly.

The stigma against suicide in the African-American community is even stronger because it is seen as a sign of weakness. There are unrealistic expectations among African Americans about the constant outward display of strength. We are expected to have it all together all the time. There is no discussion about mental health, emotional health, or seeking help from qualified professionals when we need it.

Yet we only have to look at a few names to understand that suicide, in the mental health issues that preceded them, is prevalent among the African-American community.

Don Cornelius, the genius behind the very popular TV show, Soul Train, which introduced many still-popular African-American entertainers to the world, died from a self-inflicted gun wound in 2012. Cornelius, who underwent complicated brain surgery in the late 1980s, said that he never felt the same mentally or physically after the surgery. Finally the pain and the mental strain caught up with him.

The singer and actress, Phyllis Hyman, committed suicide with a drug overdose in 1995. The suicide note Hyman left said, in part, “I’m tired. I’m tired. Those of you that I love know who you are. May God bless you.” She was 46 years old.

Musician Donny Hathaway was 33 when he plunged to his death from his 15th floor hotel room in New York City in 1979. Incredibly talented, Hathaway was known not only for his skills as a musician and as a writer, but also his incredibly smooth sound both as a solo artist and as a duet artist.

Hathaway suffered from severe depressive bouts at the height of his career. After seeking professional treatment, Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Psychiatrists prescribed a very strong medication to help control the symptoms. However, Hathaway’s wife, Eulaulah, said as Hathaway got busier and more popular, he became less diligent about taking the medication.

Hathaway’s mental instability during the 1970s created havoc in his personal life and resulted in several hospitalizations. At the time of his death, Hathaway was in the recording studio with his frequent duet partner, Roberta Flack. They were doing a follow-up album of duets after the release of the widely-popular “The Closer I Get to You.”

However, Hathaway’s behavior both in the studio and outside the studio was increasingly erratic. The day Hathaway died, he had become paranoid and delusional, claiming that white people were trying to kill him and had hooked his brain up to a machine to steal both his sound and his music. The record producers decided to stop the recording session and send everybody home. Within hours, Hathaway lay dead on the sidewalk outside his hotel.

Mental illness and suicide show no partiality. We must, as African-Americans, seek professional help if we need it and not be afraid of what other people might say or think. Our lives are at stake and the lives of our community are at stake. Each of them is valuable and worth saving.

But when suicide hits our families, we should not be afraid to say so, so we can finally break down these walls to keep us from getting the help we need.

If you’d like to learn about cremation services in Warrensville Heights, OH, our compassionate and experienced team at E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home is here to help. You can visit us at our funeral home at 25900 Emery Road, Warrensville Heights, OH, or you can call us today at (216) 831-7906.

Grief resources are among the cremation services provided in Warrensville Heights, OH. When a loved one dies, intense grief and mourning are the natural human emotions that are evoked. When they are expressed and processed in a safe and supportive environment, healing occurs as the nature of grief is transformed into memories and the hope of seeing our loved ones again.

However, some people believe that showing grief makes them look weak, which, in turn makes them feel more vulnerable. And when people feel vulnerable, they can also feel powerless.

The Western world has indoctrinated us with the idea that we can’t show emotions because they will leave us exposed as a target for bullying, derision, and even potential violence. Therefore, we’re taught at an early age to hide our emotions and our feelings and act as though we don’t have them.

Boys are taught at a very early age not to cry. When they fall down and skin their knees or get a few bumps and bruises, they’re told, “Buck up and take it like a man.” If they do cry, they are often called sissies or crybabies, something no boy ever wants to hear. This indoctrination is so intense that by the time boys become men, they’ve become very adept at stuffing every emotional reaction deep inside and putting on the stoic face of indifference.

Girls are allowed to cry and get upset when they’re very young. But as they mature, the same limits that are imposed on boys start being applied to them. Women who cry and who express their emotions publicly are held in less regard than women who put on the same stoic face of indifference as men.

However, the intense grief of losing somebody you love makes it very hard to uphold the Western tradition of stoic indifference. Losing somebody that you love hurts deeply. It not only rips your heart out, but it tears your soul in two. Containing that kind of emotion is virtually impossible.

But in some cases, some of us still try to stuff all those emotions down and carry on as if nothing has happened. In men, this is often expressed as silence. They simply don’t talk about it. In women, this is often expressed as busyness. They simply stay is busy as possible to avoid having to think about or feel grief.

Because grief is an expression of love, trying to contain it, deny it, or avoid it takes a serious toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The physical toll of suppressing grief manifests itself in health problems. Blood pressure goes up, headaches abound, fatigue nags constantly, stomach issues arise, and sleep often eludes us. This may, in turn, cause us to seek relief in alcohol and drugs, which create more physical health problems.

The mental and emotional toll is immeasurable, and can actually result in severe depression and even suicidal thoughts.

Grief demands our attention. If we choose to ignore it, we do so at our own peril. We are denying a basic part of what makes us human, but all the denial in the world will not make it go away. It’s better to deal with it immediately and reap the benefits of healthy grief processing.

If you’d like to learn about grief resources and cremation services in Warrensville Heights, OH, our compassionate and experienced team at E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home is here to help. You can visit us at our funeral home at 25900 Emery Road, Warrensville Heights, OH, or you can call us today at (216) 831-7906.

Helping bereaved families is among the cremation services provided in Warrensville Heights, OH. However, friends and family are involved in the process as well, even though we don’t always know exactly what to do. We can fall back on clichés, like “just let me know if you need anything,” or “I’m here if you need me,” but we seldom, if ever, will hear anything from a family that’s grieving.

In part, that’s because they don’t know what they need. And, in part, that’s because they know people say those phrases without thinking, so they don’t expect follow through on them in the weeks and months ahead when needs do arise.

So here are some ways, we can take the initiative to actually do something helpful for a bereaved family.

Send them something. While most people will send flowers to the memorial service, they don’t often think about the more practical needs the grieving family may have. You can start a food chain, where people rotate delivering home-cooked meals every day for the first few weeks after someone has died. The easiest way to do this is to have a large box, along with a cooler filled with ice, set up by the front door, where people can drop off food and drinks without disturbing the family.

Be sure to include breakfast and lunch items, as well as coffee, tea, and water among the drinks. People who are grieving can forget to eat and forget to stay hydrated or they can depend on fast food or snack foods and sodas to keep them fueled because they’re easy and they’re available. Make sure the bereaved family has nutritious food and drink choices is a fantastic way to help them out.

Send them some groceries. Many stores now do home deliveries, so you can also buy food and home staples so that their pantries are stocked and they have enough toilet paper and paper towels.

Another way to help grieving families is to offer practical support. Often, the loved one who has died handled certain things in the home, and the rest of the family may be at a loss of how to proceed forward. Take care of yardwork or offer to take the car in for an oil change and tune-up. If children and pets are part of the family, then offer to babysit or pet sit, or simply, if the pets are dogs, to walk them several times a day.

You can also help a bereaved family in practical ways like helping them go through their loved one’s things to decide what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away. Then you can take the donation items to the places they are being given to. You can also help the family assume new responsibilities, like finances, cooking, and childcare, if those are areas in which you have expertise. Some people don’t want to be alone after a loved one dies, so you could offer to let them stay with you until they’re comfortable being back in their home.

Most of all, you can help a grief family by being there, physically and emotionally. Call them up and ask to visit – looking for opportunities to help – and call or text them often to let them know that you are available for them. Don’t be vague. Tell them you love them and you want to help and support them. And then do it.

If you’d like to learn about cremation services in Warrensville Heights, OH, our compassionate and experienced team at E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home is here to help. You can visit us at our funeral home at 25900 Emery Road, Warrensville Heights, OH, or you can call us today at (216) 831-7906.