Grief Pictured, LLC

06/13/2024

The metaphor I chose for one woman's life story was a symphony, which worked extra well because she loved to turn on classical music and dance to it in the kitchen, but also her life was filled with so many different interests, layered like harmonious instruments.

For a man's life story, I once wrote all about how he did so many types of work with his hands, both professionally and even things like cooking for his loved ones.💜 Handcrafted things are imbued with the love and care of the person whose personal touch was going into it.

More recently I wrote about someone whose soul shined like a diamond, formed under extreme forces but emerging so beautifully and with so many distinct facets to their life story. The poetic metaphors are tricky to come up with but it is exciting to find one that resonates!

07/21/2023

Today I designed new business cards for this business of mine. 💙

05/10/2023

What were some of the biggest shocks to you around the experience of grief and loss?

What advice might you have if someone you care about was to go through something similar?

04/22/2023

Happy Earth Day!

I highly recommend you check out some of the information aGreenerFuneral.org has on their website. https://www.agreenerfuneral.org/burial/

I have known for 15 years now that when I die I would love to have a green burial. But specific options keep evolving!🌳

Please share your thoughts below!

03/23/2023

My role as the Funeral Celebrant means I will:

1. Interview the honoree’s closest family members and friends.

2. Write a comprehensive eulogy that authentically captures your loved one’s personality.

3. Select readings, music, rituals, and symbolism which are linked to specific memories.

4. Officiate a comforting ceremony that celebrates the life that was lived.

Please reach out if you'd like to ask me questions or discuss Celebration of Life events in general! I'm always happy to clarify things and talk about this not-very-well-known approach to how to handle the death of someone dear to you! Traditional funerals are not the only way!

01/06/2023

If you had one main wish for something that you'd want to happen at your , what would it be?

12/22/2022

I'm happy to edit these types of life tribute slideshows for people regardless of your location. A client can scan the physical/hard copy photographs for me and upload them to a special form on the back-end of my website, with or without captions (your choice).

Please reach out to me if you might be interested! https://www.griefpictured.com/memorial-slideshow-services/

As a memorial slideshow editor, I take on the time consuming, technically challenging, always emotionally-huge-for-the-family task of editing together photos of the honoree before their funeral.

We may also incorporate other elements at times, such as inspirational quotes. 💙💜 I work with the family to make sure to include a variety of photos from different times, places, and people in their life, and capture what made them them. It's a special privilege, as a person who never met the honoree, to get to know a small piece of who they were through so many cherished photographs.

I put my years of video editing skills to use and add in zooms towards the individuals face and careful pacing based on how much or little there is to look at in each photo, taking each one on its own to evaluate what would make it look best - removing a yellow cast, brightening, etc are also things I can do. There's a lot I have the expertise to be able to help with! Even things like cropping out a ripped edge from a scanned physical photograph, or walking you through scanning the photographs and uploading them.

12/21/2022

I'm someone who thinks about our mortality often. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. But it helps me to find the joy in the present, and to live in the moment. It's important to allow ourselves joy and to embrace living fully. It's great if we all can live intentionally rather than impulsively, but I don't think it helps any of us to feel guilty for having prioritized fun, or simple pleasures, or to act like we have to delay the good things in life because we haven't yet "earned" them. We often make life harder on ourselves than we have to.

Try to enjoy your days, your weeks, your life. We only live once!!

12/17/2022

My thoughts are with everyone who's grieving this holiday season.

It can sometimes be especially hard to end a calendar year without someone who was alive earlier this year.

I've started a resources section of my website, and there isn't much there yet, but the first thing I've done is explain the unique things journaling about your grief can offer you.

https://www.griefpictured.com/resources-for-the-newly-bereaved/finding-words-for-unspeaking-pain-a-look-into-grief-journaling/

I also suggest at the end of this short blog post some nice guided grief journals with prompts that are available for purchase on Amazon where you can support my Secular Funeral Celebrant business by clicking on my affiliate link and purchasing a last-minute Christmas or Hanukkah gift for a friend or family member in your life. I'll earn a small commission if you choose to.

I know sometimes prompts are helpful, and knowing someone is thinking of how you're grieving a deep loss during a time where everyone else is so focused on joy and love and togetherness can be so meaningful, and help you feel so supported.

11/11/2022

I rewrote my celebrant profile on the Celebrant Foundation & Institute's website, for their celebrant directory, today. It's required to be limited to 100 words. Sometime next week when they update it for me it'll be very different than what it says today.

I appreciate how Funeralwise.com allows Celebrant Profiles in their Celebrant Directory to be as long as you'd like. This is the FuneralWise one:
https://planning.funeralwise.com/search-app/celebrant/maryland/potomac/emily+karp

Check out that FuneralWise profile of mine if you get a chance!

I really was able to better share more of what I wanted to share with a longer profile. Being concise is still a skill I'm still improving at.

The more I do work as a Funeral Celebrant the more I hone this skill of conciseness. A big part of my job is trying to figure out how to capture the essence of a person's life and who they were in a relatively short eulogy, ceremony, and even in a relatively short life tribute video or memorial slideshow, which photos to include vs leave out is all work that basically requires being able to narrow in on what's going to leave the biggest impact for everyone in attendance at the ceremony.

Search for funeral homes, cremation services, cemeteries, final expense advisors, pet cemeteries and pet cremation services throughout the U.S. Also, find sellers of cremation urns, caskets, grave markers and burial vaults.

10/30/2022

I'll be promoting my business today at a Resource Fair for seniors in Silver Spring, Maryland!

If you're local and have some time, please stop by my table at The Beacon 50+ Expo between noon & 4 PM today (Sunday October 30th).

It's at the
Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center. :)

09/12/2022

September is . Yesterday was .

I would highly recommend you consider setting aside an hour to educate yourself on what would help a friend struggling with suicidal feelings. This article is great:
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/how-to-help-a-suicidal-friend

As a funeral celebrant who's had three people I loved die by ***de before I went into this career, I have more to say on this topic than most, but even I don't really know what to say.

Deaths that could have been prevented are the hardest types of deaths for people to grieve.

It can feel impossible to imagine a future where you want to wake up in the morning, where you are happier again, where life is worth living.

But life is worth living, and taking some really simple steps can help.

Hold onto the hope to see a new episode of a TV show you like, or the next album be released by your favorite band, or plans to eat something really delicious.

Use a sensory alternative like playing with ice cubes instead of self-harming. Some good ideas:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/412431278367577046/?mt=login

Reach out to others even if it feels overwhelmingly difficult. Nearly every suicidal person struggles with this because their brain makes them feel like people would be "better off without them" - but that is NOT true.

This perspective may help:
https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/rejection/feeling-like-a-burden-what-it-means-and-how-to-overcome-it/

Discover even more ideas for you

09/01/2022

has been researched and studied. It's starting to finally be understood on a scientific level.

In early acute grief, that end point is hard to imagine, where we carry the grief with us—without it hurting so badly!!

Celebrant-led end of life ceremonies, like the Funerals and Celebrations of Life that I lead as a secular funeral celebrant, serve to help people imagine this integration will be possible one day.

The funeral typically takes place long before grief has any chance of being integrated. The event takes place while all the individuals who loved the person are still in the acute grief stage. But the beauty of so many of these ceremonies is how they find a way to provide a road map towards integrating the loss. One piece of all this is how these ceremonies provide unique ways to approach thinking of the person going forward.

One ceremony I witnessed recommended every time you eat Skittles, you think of this woman who loved Skittles so much as her favorite candy. That was such a sweet touch (pun perhaps a little intended ;) ) and is such a nice way to integrate grief where every time you eat a certain kind of candy you smile fondly over your memories of the person.

08/24/2022

I had a complicated childhood situation where my mother was abusive and I was estranged from her for 12 years - from my 18th birthday until her death. Her mother, my maternal grandmother, helped raise me for much of my childhood.

When my Grandmom passed away, it was about 9 years into my estrangement from my mom, and I knew my abusive mom was likely to be at the funeral and visitation. I am so grateful to my aunts & uncles for being understanding.

They didn't pressure me to attend the funeral.

I ultimately decided to attend the funeral for my grandmother, but my abuser's presence there did re-traumatize me and leave a new psychological wound. It would've been so valid for me to protect myself from the trauma of it. It wouldn't mean I wasn't my Grandmom.

08/08/2022

I'm a Secular Funeral Celebrant and Memorial Slideshow Editor just starting out on this new career path for myself.

If you join my Patreon, you'll get exclusive access to more in-depth and more personal stories of my experiences with & loss. https://www.patreon.com/GriefPictured

I may write personal essays for my Patreon, share videos of myself speaking about my experiences, even reading aloud poetry I wrote to help myself process... I will also be paying attention to what kind of Patreon content you all most want and will adjust over time!

While I work up to a regular client base, any supplemental income through donations from kind supporters will be very much appreciated. People who feel positively towards my social media posts and think they are helpful tidbits of advice, worthwhile insights into the experiences of grief and loss and end of life ceremonies, if any of you want to support me continuing to post these pieces of free content...

Even just the amount of "buying me a coffee" ☕ (or what I'd personally prefer, a hot chocolate 😉) helps!
https://ko-fi.com/griefpictured

Thank you so much! 💛💛💛

08/05/2022

Grief Beyond Belief Private Support Group is a special place online for this kind of support. As an , I know it is so important to be able to share our feelings and be met with words of comfort that actually reflect our worldview.

If you are a nonbeliever struggling with processing a loss, you too can ask to join this group - make sure you answer their questions in order to be accepted into the private support space. 💙
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GBBGroup/

My business is not affiliated in any way with Grief Beyond Belief - I'm just a big fan of this space that has been provided to for so many years now.

Also, Grief Beyond Belief has a website! They have many additional resources there! http://griefbeyondbelief.org/library/

And they also have a public page: Grief Beyond Belief

08/05/2022

When you are an , , or , common ways grievers find comfort don't work for us.

I'm a Funeral Celebrant who really wants to make sure that when someone dies, there is an option for end of life ceremonies that don't imply you'll be reunited one day.

08/04/2022

As a memorial slideshow editor, I take on the time consuming, technically challenging, always emotionally-huge-for-the-family task of editing together photos of the honoree before their funeral.

We may also incorporate other elements at times, such as inspirational quotes. 💙💜 I work with the family to make sure to include a variety of photos from different times, places, and people in their life, and capture what made them them. It's a special privilege, as a person who never met the honoree, to get to know a small piece of who they were through so many cherished photographs.

I put my years of video editing skills to use and add in zooms towards the individuals face and careful pacing based on how much or little there is to look at in each photo, taking each one on its own to evaluate what would make it look best - removing a yellow cast, brightening, etc are also things I can do. There's a lot I have the expertise to be able to help with! Even things like cropping out a ripped edge from a scanned physical photograph, or walking you through scanning the photographs and uploading them.

08/03/2022

There are no "rules" in life against having a funeral years late for someone who never had one when they died. Or sometimes a person's first funeral was sufficient.

A nontraditional ceremony, perhaps on the anniversary of the loss, might be healing & provide much needed closure.

I'm a secular celebrant in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area who'd be happy to help host some kind of Celebration of Life or similar event no matter what the circumstances of why the timing is unusual, how small the 2nd event might be, or the fact that one ceremony already happened.

Is there situation that's happened in your life where you wished a loved one could have had a second ceremony? Or a later first ceremony?

If you want to share in the comments below, I would appreciate your perspective on what those circumstances were!

08/03/2022

07/31/2022

07/30/2022

Today is !

and are things that can, sadly, affect friendships too.

When a friend of any kind dies, it can be devastating, and extraordinarily lonely.

You may not have ever seen an example of someone else grieving their friend. You may not know anyone else who deeply misses this person.

Please consider, if you feel so inclined, sharing a memory of your friend in the comments.💙💔

Also, if you like content like this, and are looking forward to more content that is similar... please consider financially supporting me!

You can buy me a Ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/griefpictured

Or I just created a brand new Patreon page as well: https://www.patreon.com/GriefPictured - My Patreon-only content will be longer form than the short things I tend to post publicly on Facebook. I may post videos, personal essays explaining my experiences, etc.

07/28/2022

Unlike many other secular celebrants who craft and officiate personalized, meaningful ceremonies, I didn't start out with weddings. My Secular Celebrant business has officially launched, with my focus exclusively on Funerals and Celebration of Life events. The local areas I serve are Maryland, Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and even parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania!

I believe people underestimate the importance and power of a well-done funeral-type event!

I feel such passion and drive towards helping recently bereaved clients find the perfect ways to honor and remember their loved ones, figuring out how to capture as much as possible about the life story of a person in a brief amount of time and to do so in a satisfying, cathartic, and healing way.

There is almost nothing more disappointing and frustrating than to be in the depths of a fresh, devastating, loss, just waiting for the small dose of comfort their funeral might provide, and then for the funeral to end and you don't feel like it provided even a modicum of comfort.

My entire mission is to craft end-of-life ceremonies that carry every single attendee through an emotional arc that helps them feel seen, understood, and in community with others grieving this specific person. And I'll do it all while deeply honoring so many specific aspects of your loved one's personality and how they touched the lives of those around them!

Every life story deserves to be honored. Non-religious Celebration of Life ceremonies and expertly edited Memorial Slideshows. She's an experienced video editor and is a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant as well. Emily Karp is well equipped to serve you.

05/16/2022