Signature Funerals

09/07/2025

As summer slowly gives way to fall, it’s the perfect time to head outside and soak up the beauty of the season. The Hollis trails offer crunchy leaves underfoot, sunlight streaming through the trees, and the quiet rustle of the breeze through the forest.

Whether you're a frequent walker or just discovering us, our four main trails, Cedar, Red Bud, Walnut, and Sycamore, offer peace and wonder year-round. These well-loved paths are part of what makes Hollis a sanctuary for so many.

Studies show that spending even just 20 minutes outside—what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”—can lower stress, boost mood, and restore mental clarity. Our trails offer this peace daily, winding through woods where guests find space reflect and relax in nature.

Now, we’re offering a new way to deepen your connection with Hollis and support the care of these beloved trails:

🌿 Become a Hollis Trail Sponsor 🌿

For $250, sponsor a personalized sign along your chosen trail for two years, with the option to renew.

For $500, make your mark with a permanent trail sign, a lasting tribute to your support of Hollis’ mission.

For $1,000, create a space for rest and renewal by sponsoring a bench along one of our trails, complete with a dedication plaque.

Trail sponsorships are a meaningful way to honor a loved one, celebrate a milestone, or create a memorial that will inspire others for years to come. Your gift helps us maintain the trails and ensure others continue to experience the quiet beauty of walking through creation.

We invite you to walk with us, literally and figuratively. Become a trail sponsor today.

https://holliscenter.charityproud.org/Donate/Index/39733

We’ll see you outside.

09/01/2025

Hi Friends! After almost 15 years of owning Signature Funerals and a multi-year journey, I have published my first book "Before You Go. Why Planning Your Funeral Makes Sense"
I hope you consider it a compassionate guide to leave your family and friends peace that they know what your wishes are for your funeral. It is available on Amazon and can be purchased through Barnes and Noble. Also, Sidelines in Martin City will be carrying it locally.

It is a privilege to care for your families on the hardest of days. Thank you for your support!

06/18/2025

This is weird. I realize this. But I wanted to write to you, dear loved one. Namely, because I’ve been dead for some time now. And the way I left this world happened so fast. So unexpected.

I wasn’t expecting it to end like this. None of us got any closure. Especially not you.

The pain you went through after my death was much worse than the pain I went through by actually dying.

Dying, it turns out, wasn’t all that bad. In fact, I wish someone would have told me how beautiful the transition is. I would’ve never been so afraid of death if I’d known.

When I was alive, I was horrified of death. This unspoken fear hovers beneath human consciousness, motivating all decisions. Fueling everything from obsessively healthy eating, to elderly men buying Corvettes.

But it’s death they’re really afraid of. The fear permeates a human’s psyche, and makes us small. Paralyzes us. Other creatures do not fear death this way. Dogs do not wake up and say to themselves, “Gee, I wish I had adequate life insurance.”

But we do. I think this fear has something to do with our logical brains. That human logic we use to problem solve; that same logic can also be our enemy.

Because this very intelligence makes us doubt what our heart is always saying. And what our heart is saying is: “This is not all there is.”

I know that now, dear loved one. When you pass, it’s like not like dying at all. It’s like waking up from a dream. There will be relatives you have never met, waiting for you. A massive cloud of witnesses, a stadium of souls who are all waiting to embrace you.

I will be at the front of this crowd. And when we finally see each other, we shall weep supernatural tears of joy. Because this will be the moment in space-time when it will all finally hit you, just like it hit me.

You’re not alone. You were NEVER alone. You were always looked after. You were always loved. You will always BE loved. Once you feel this, you will never un-feel it.

Oh, I wish you could’ve seen my arrival. Imagine the biggest surprise party you can think of. Then triple it times a few bazillion.

As a huge family of souls was engulfing me with hugs and affection, the crowd parted. I felt something making its way toward me. I could not see what was approaching, but I could sense it coming. It was a familiar feeling.

I knew this presence. I knew it more intimately than I realized. This presence has always been with me. This presence knew me before I was in the womb.

This presence was the origin of love. The source of everything. This was the God that everyone on earth talks about but nobody seems to understand. A love so rich and pure that it blinded everyone. People sort of fell to their knees to keep from being washed away in the hurricane of love.

When this pure love embraced me, I was swallowed entirely. But do you know what I was thinking about in that moment? I was thinking of you.

When God and I released, I asked, with tears in my eyes, whether He might travel to earth, personally, and give this same incredible love to you.

He just smiled and said, “I’m way ahead of you, kiddo.”

12/31/2024

‘Left on Tenth,’ her first Broadway play and based on her memoir, is personal for the beloved sister and collaborator of Norah Ephron

09/22/2024

On those days when you miss someone the most, as though your memories are sharp enough to slice through skin and bone, remember how they loved you.

Remember how they loved you and do that, for yourself.

In their name, in their honour.

Love yourself, as they loved you.

They would like that.

On those days when you miss someone the most,

love yourself harder.

~ 'On Those Days' from 'Loss' Poems to Better Weather the Many Waves of Grief by Donna Ashworth

~ Art by Duy Huynh

08/11/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/dhgHsy7jNPW846ne/

Thank you Sara Rian Books

07/24/2024

Thank you Friends and Families! Your confidence in Signature Funerals has voted us as the number one funeral home in Kansas City with the Kansas City Star-Kansas City Favorites. We are honored to help you make the best choices for your families on your hardest days.

07/12/2024

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to. ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

(Book: On Grief and Grieving https://amzn.to/479B3Zs)

06/30/2024

When grief
first came knocking,
I thought I had
two choices.
I could lock the door.
close the blinds.
Activate alarms
And shut it out.
But I still
lived in fear
of its intrusion,
of it finding a way
around my security systems,
around my defenses.
Or, I could invite it over
for morning coffee.
I would set the terms.
Block out the time.
I would get my house in order
and sit beside it,
let it say its piece
and send it away
as quickly as it came.
But grief doesn’t care much
for schedules
or facades.
An unexpected visitor
who comes and goes
as it pleases.
So, now I’m learning
another way.
When grief comes to visit,
I leave the door unlocked.
Sometimes, it
Frantically storms in.
Sometimes, it taps quietly on
the door waiting for
my response.
But, I’m learning to let it in.
To sit with it.
To see it.
To feel it.
So now,
When grief knocks,
I let it in.
I let it in.

By ~ Liz Newman
Taken from the FB page Tree of Souls

Artist Credit:~Gillian Durno

05/05/2024