Owens Memorial Services

04/13/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief...

04/10/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief journey...

The small things, the random thoughts, the moments that would have turned into a conversation or laughter from our bellies. Grief takes those ordinary exchanges and leaves them with nowhere to go. They just sit there, building up, with no place to go.

It is not only the big things we lose when someone dies. It is the running commentary of a life shared with someone. The quick texts, the “you will not believe this,” the way you could say something halfway and they already understood. Now those words have no receiver. They stay in your head or come out into a room that does not answer back.

This is a quiet part of grief that people do not always talk about. The silence where connection used to be. The habit of reaching for them that does not go away just because they are gone. You still think of them all day long. You still form the words. You just do not know where to send them.

If you are carrying all of those unsaid things, you are not alone in that. This is part of grieving someone you talked to, someone who mattered in your everyday life. And even though there is no clear place to put those words right now, they are still connected to them, because they came from love, and that does not stop just because they are gone.

04/09/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief journey...

Sometimes I wonder...

am I supposed to keep going
for me....

or for the part of them
that’s still here in me.

04/08/2026

Jo Lynn Linder of Alexandria passed away unexpectedly at her home on April 6, 2026, at the age of 57.

Born to Joe and Margaret Linder, Jo's journey began in Anderson on December 18, 1968. Though she spent most of her life in Alexandria, she resided for a brief period in Tennessee, where she...

04/08/2026

ALEXANDRIA, IN - Nancy (Libler), Duffy, born May 17, 1945, in Anderson, passed away peacefully on April 7, 2026, at the age of 80, at her home and surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

A lifelong resident of her beloved Alexandria, she was the cherished daughter of Harry and Jane (Cr...

04/08/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief journey...

There’s a word many of us in the grief community know all too well.

‘Deathaversary’…the anniversary of the day our loved one died.

It’s not a word I ever used before my loss. But once it did apply to me, that date on the calendar took on a weight I never expected.

When the first year was approaching after my loss, I remember thinking about that day for weeks in advance, maybe even months. I dreaded it. It sat there on the calendar like a dark cloud slowly moving toward me. I wondered how I would handle it, what I would feel, and if I’d fall apart.

I guess part of me believed that day would somehow be worse than anything else I experienced up to that point. But when the day finally arrived it wasn’t really what I was expecting at all.

Here’s the thing…it didn’t really feel worse.

As far as I was concerned, I was already living inside that pain for the previous 364 days, so the grief didn’t suddenly arrive on the anniversary. It was with me every day.

So when the date finally came around, it didn’t bring some new level of sadness. It just felt like another day in the fog I was already walking through.

I spent so much time bracing myself for that day, when in reality the hardest part had been living through all the ordinary days leading up to it.

That doesn’t mean the day wasn’t difficult. It was. There were memories, and there were moments when the reality of the loss felt really close. But it didn’t break me in the way I feared it might.

And then it actually changed over time…and that date slowly lost some of its power.

In the early years, I noticed it weeks ahead of time. Then maybe a few days before.

Eventually there were years when the day arrived and I realized sometime in the afternoon, “Oh…today is that day.”

Not because I forgot anything about that day, but because life had slowly grown around the grief.

And as the years passed, I found myself focusing less on the day my loved one died and more on the days that celebrated the fact that they lived.

Because that date might be the last chapter…but it isn’t the whole book.

Gary Sturgis
Author: ‘SURVIVING GRIEF – 365 Days A Year’

04/07/2026

Peggy Lynn Hufford of Tipton completed her life's journey on April 5, 2026; the cherished wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and sister, was 74 years old.

Born in Elwood on February 10, 1952, Peggy was the only daughter of Bill and Ruth Ellis, and she would go on to graduate from ...

04/07/2026

Madison County's #1 Florist now has their phone number and street location. keep your dollars in Alexandria, you won't be disappointed.

04/07/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief journey...

04/06/2026

Here is today's thought to encourage you on your grief journey...

Easter is often spoken about as a time of hope, renewal, and new beginnings.

But when you’re grieving, those words can feel distant, almost like they belong to someone else’s life, and not yours.

The world starts to look a little brighter this time of year. The days stretch out a bit longer and people begin talking about fresh starts and moving forward. And inside, you may be thinking, “how am I supposed to feel any of that when someone I love is missing from it all?”

Here’s the thing…grief doesn’t follow the seasons.

It doesn’t ease just because spring has arrived. In some ways, days like Easter can make the absence feel even worse. Because you remember what these days used to look like. The traditions, the meals, the way their presence filled the room in ways you didn’t fully notice until it was gone.

Now there’s a space where they used to be, and it can feel heavier than ever, even in a season that’s supposed to feel light.

You might find yourself going through the motions, sitting at the table, hearing laughter around you, and yet feeling like you’re somewhere else entirely. Or maybe you’ve stepped away from it this year because it just feels like too much.

Either way, there’s no right or wrong way to move through a day like this. Easter, like every meaningful day after loss, changes. It becomes something different than it once was, a day where joy and sorrow can exist side by side, where memories can bring both comfort and pain in the very same moment.

You might smile at something and then feel the weight of their absence just seconds later. And that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. It means you’re carrying love. And love doesn’t disappear just because someone’s gone. It finds new places to live in the way you still think of them without even trying.

It’s still there…even when everything else feels different.

So if Easter feels heavy this year, if it doesn’t look or feel the way it used to, if you’re just trying to make it through the day, that’s enough. You don’t have to force yourself to feel hopeful. You don’t have to celebrate in ways that no longer feel right.

You’re allowed to take this day as it comes, one moment at a time, honoring both what was and what is.

And if you can, maybe find one small way to feel close to them. Not as a way of letting go, but as a way of holding on in a way that fits who you are now.

Because even here in the middle of grief…love still exists.

Gary Sturgis
Author: ‘SURVIVING GRIEF – 365 Days A Year

04/04/2026

ALEXANDRIA, IN – Nancy Lee (Achterman) Speeg, 86, entered peace and rest from Alexandria Health and Rehabilitation on Thursday, April 2, 2026, following an extended illness.

She was born on August 8, 1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio to Hubert and Alberta (Moore) Achterman. She was a graduate of Nor...

04/04/2026