Klaassen Family Funeral Home

04/21/2026

"Here's what I know: death abducts the dying, but grief steals from those left behind."
- Katherine Owen, Seeing Julia

When you have experienced a loss, you can feel like a victim. Something precious was taken away from you, and there is a definite helplessness to that. You need to make the active decision to not be a victim of your grief. Feel the sadness, but work through the pain proactively each day to take back control of your life.

04/20/2026

We would like to extend our sympathies to the family and friends of Dr. Donald W. Steere, D.D.S.

Celebrate the life of Dr. Donald Steere and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.

04/20/2026

"The depth of the feeling continued to surprise and threaten me, but each time it hit again and I bore it...I would discover that it hadn't washed me away."
- Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Just about the time you think you are doing better, something happens that brings memories flooding back. Try not to feel discouraged. Think of grief like a toddler learning to walk. The child has to hold on at first (and cries a lot!). Over time, the steps become more steady. While the child falls as he gains his footing, his strength grows with time and the help of people who care. While the toddler will surely fall again, those falls will become less and less frequent. You too will learn to "walk."

04/19/2026

"Heart weeps.
Head tries to help heart.
Head tells heart how it is, again:
You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday.
Heart feels better, then.
But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart.
Heart is so new to this.
I want them back, says heart.
Head is all heart has.
Help, head. Help heart."
- Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance

Your head seems to be healing faster than your heart. You understand your loss intellectually. Why then do you awake with the hope in your heart that it was all just a bad dream? As with all matters of love, the heart has a bigger role to play than the head would want!

04/18/2026

"Sometimes she'd go a whole day without thinking of him or missing him. Why not? She had quite a full life, and really, he'd often been hard to deal with and hard to live with. A project, the Yankee old timers like her very own Dad might have said. And then sometimes a day would come, a gray one (or a sunny one) when she missed him so fiercely she felt empty, not a woman at all anymore but just a dead tree filled with cold November blow. She felt like that now, felt like hollering his name and hollering him home, and her heart turned sick with the thought of the years ahead and she wondered what good love was if it came to this, to even ten seconds of feeling like this."
- Stephen King, Lisey's Story

Take time to work on your other relationships today. It could be with your children, your siblings, your parents, or your friends. Make sure you stay connected to the people who matter to you. As you heal, those bonds will grow stronger and help you to return to life.

04/17/2026

"What happens when you let go, when your strength leaves you and you sink into darkness, when there's nothing that you or anyone else can do, no matter how desperate you are, no matter how you try? Perhaps it's then, when you have neither pride nor power, that you are saved, brought to an unimaginably great reward."
- Mark Halperin

Can you let go of your grief for one day? You may not be ready quite yet. Try to involve yourself in a project or hobby today that frees your mind, even if it's only for a short time.

04/16/2026

"Sometimes, there was no getting over it. Sometimes, you lived with the empty place inside of you until you imploded on it, loss as singularity, or until the empty place expanded and hollowed out the rest of you so thoroughly you became the walking dead, a ghost in your own life."
- Caitlin Kittredge, Bone Gods

There will still be days when you feel like you are a shell. You have to go through the motions and get through it. As you know by now, it won't be easy. The good news is that it won't last forever, and you will get through it. Try to find a spark of hope. You just need to weather this storm, because tomorrow will probably be a little easier.

04/15/2026

We wish to express our sympathies to the family and friends of Betty Cooper Ritchey.

Celebrate the life of Betty Cooper Ritchey and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.

04/14/2026

"I waited for dawn, but only because I had forgotten how hard mornings were. For a second I'd be normal. Then came the dim awareness of something off, out of place. Then the truth came crashing down and that was it for the rest of the day. Sunlight was reproof. Shouldn't I feel better than I had in the dead of night."
- Francine Prose, Goldengrove

When you least expect it, there will be a morning when you wake up and forget about your loss. Try not to feel guilty, for it is a sign of progress. While it may not happen again for a long time, waking up without sadness will eventually be the norm.

04/14/2026

We would like to extend our sympathies to the family and friends of William "Bill" Holman.

Celebrate the life of William Holman and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.

04/14/2026

We wish to express our sympathies to the family and friends of Barbara Burke.

Celebrate the life of Barbara Burke and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.