Swaim Funeral Chapel-Dodge City, Cimarron, Sublette, & Montezuma

04/05/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Montezuma is assisting the family of Howard Koehn.

View Howard Koehn's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/04/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Cimarron is assisting the family of Albert Burns.

View Albert Franklin Burns Jr.'s obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/04/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Lillian Smith.

View Lillian G. Smith's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/02/2026

Swaim Funeral of Montezuma is assisting the family of Sherrill Esau.

04/02/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Harry Hixon.

View Harry Hixon's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/01/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Tim McDaniel.

View Timothy V. McDaniel's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/01/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Kae Bryant.

View Kae Bryant's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/01/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Montezuma is assisting the family of Dennis Jantzen.

View Dennis G. Jantzen's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/01/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Raymond "Sonny" Stinemetz, III.

View Raymond "Sonny" C. Stinemetz III's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/01/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Dodge City is assisting the family of Larry Thompson.

View Larry Max Thompson's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

03/23/2026

Swaim Funeral Chapel of Cimarron is assisting the family of Tim Dewey.

View Tim L. Dewey's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

03/21/2026

The first year after someone dies is often spoken about as if it is the hardest year. People count it like a milestone, the first birthday without them, the first holidays, the first anniversary of the day everything changed. There is an expectation that once you have survived those “firsts,” something about grief should become easier.

But the first year of grief isn’t the hardest. It is simply the first.

In that first year you are still learning what has happened. Your mind and body are trying to understand a reality that still feels impossible. Much of the time you are moving through shock, through disbelief, through the strange feeling that the world has continued while your own life has been split into before and after.

The second year, and the years that follow, bring a different kind of pain. By then the permanence of the loss is clearer. There are no longer just “firsts.” There are seconds, thirds, and countless ordinary days where their absence is always there.

Grief does not finish its work after twelve months. The first year is not a finish line people must reach in order to begin healing. It is simply the beginning of learning how to live in a world where someone you love is gone. ~the compassionate friends Victoria, Inc.