Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels

04/20/2026

Did you know that you can transfer your prearrangement plan from another funeral home to Mount Sinai? Give us a call at (732)390-9199 to discuss your options

04/10/2026

04/10/2026

A thoughtful piece worth the read…

It feels like I spend most of my waking moments trying to get my life organized.

And I’d love to make it happen so I can think about other things.

It seems that most of my time is spent taking care of all the things that I have, car, property, knick-knacks, clothes, and the accompanying cleaning and maintenance that goes along with it all.

After my loss, I had to figure out what I wanted to do with all my spouse’s belongings.

What a daunting task!

I remember through my initial fog, someone telling me, “It’s just ‘stuff’."

Here’s the thing…we spend the first half of our life trying to accumulate things, and the second half trying to get rid of them.

I think the only reason we even have houses is because we need a place to keep all of our “stuff.

But it’s complicated…because some of this “stuff” is actually meaningful to me, and as for all the other, less meaningful stuff, the problems get even more difficult.

My stuff is like having a cast of characters surrounding me in life, and I have a relationship with all of it.

But is it more important than my relationship with other people? No! And how much do I truly need to keep me safe, warm, and, how about happy?

Cause I’m pretty clear at this particular moment that having too much stuff isn’t making me happy. I actually think less is more.

One of the lessons I learned while my spouse was sick, and fighting terminal cancer, was how incredibly valuable it is to stop and smell the roses. That I should take the time to appreciate what I have, the loved ones in my life, and the very air that I breath.

In the end, after death took what was most important to me, I only kept what still serves me and brings me comfort. Because the rest WAS just ‘stuff’.

And I feel the same about a lot of things now.

So if you’re worried about what to do with all your loved one’s belongings, try to remember that you never see a moving truck following alongside a hearse.

Because the only thing you’ll take with you in the end is love.

Gary Sturgis - “Surviving Grief”
Author: ‘SURVIVING GRIEF – 365 Days A Year’

04/08/2026

This is so awesome!

When I saw this it made me think about how grief doesn’t stay here on Earth. It follows us everywhere. Even to places most of us will never go.

The astronauts of the Artemis II asked that a crater on the moon be dedicated to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman. She died of cancer in 2020 at just 46 years old.

A pediatric nurse practitioner.
A mother to two daughters, Ellie and Katherine.
A wife.
A life that mattered.

And now…her name will be put on the moon.

Think about that for a second.

Because underneath the headlines and the science, and the mission itself, this is still a story about love. About loss. About someone who was here, and should still be here, but isn’t.

Even an astronaut, someone trained to leave this world behind for a while, doesn’t leave his grief behind. He carries her with him, because that’s what we do.

We carry them into the moments that matter, and even the ones that don’t. And sometimes, we carry them into places so vast and unimaginable that it almost feels impossible.

But grief doesn’t care about distance.
It doesn’t care if we're standing in our kitchen or orbiting the moon.
It shows up anyway.

And maybe that’s the part that really stayed with me. That even in one of the most extraordinary moments a human being can experience, there’s still this very ordinary, very human ache.

The missing.
The remembering.
The quiet “she should be here.”

I think about his daughters, too.
Knowing their mother’s name will be on the moon.
There’s something beautiful in that.

Not because it takes the pain away.
It doesn’t.

But because it says something we all hope for in our own way, that the people we love aren’t forgotten. That their names still matter.

That their lives still echo…even in places we can’t see.

Okay…so most of us won’t have a crater named after the person we lost. But that doesn’t mean their imprint is any less real.

We create our own ways of remembering.

A photo by the bed.
A favorite song.
A story we tell again and again.
The way we still say their name when no one else does.

That’s our version of leaving a mark.
That’s how our love continues.

Because even as a spacecraft traveled around the moon, someone on board was carrying the same thing we are, a love that didn’t end.

And when it comes to grief…we all just learn how to travel with it.

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

04/01/2026

All of us at Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels wish you and your family a CHAG PESACH SAMEACH!

03/31/2026

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