Blogs | Koch Funeral Home : State College, Pennsylvania (PA)

#BePresentWithKoch

#MondaysMoments

Q&A With Remembering A Life

What is an End-of-Life Doula or Death Doula? The National Funeral Directors Association Remembering A Life team asked Jackie Naginey Hook to be part of their Q&A Remembering A Life blog to tal...

Q&A With Remembering A Life

What is a Celebrant? The National Funeral Directors Association Remembering A Life team asked Jackie Naginey Hook to be part of their Q&A Remembering A Life blog to talk about, "What is a Cele...

Love is Stronger Than Death

Love is Stronger Than Death The National Funeral Directors Association Remembering A Life team asked Jackie Naginey Hook to write an article for their Remembering A Life blog. Click here...

After Death

This month Jackie Naginey Hook talks to Holly Reigh about the importance of having conversations and being present before and after death. Holly is a nurse who passionately advocates and cares for ...

Whole, But Not the Same

This month Jackie Naginey Hook talks to Jennifer Stubbs about being whole but forever changed as the result of pregnancy and early infant loss. After the loss of her first son, Jennifer became a pa...

Finding Balance

This month Jackie Naginey Hook, MA, and Evelyn Wald, MS, M.Div, LPC, discuss ways to find balance after the loss of a loved one. Evelyn has more than 25 years as a grief counselor, is the program d...

Why Are Rituals Important?

This month Jackie Naginey Hook and F. Glenn Fleming, supervisor and funeral director with Koch Funeral Home, have a conversation about why rituals are important. They also discuss the Because LOVE ...

Welcome to #BePresentWithKoch

Welcome to the the new monthly #BePresentWithKoch series Hi, I’m Jackie Naginey Hook, a spiritual director, celebrant and end-of-life doula and...

To Embalm or Not to Embalm

To Embalm or Not to Embalm When a loved one dies, family members are confronted with decisions regarding how they would like to honor the life that was lost. One of the first questions the funeral...

How did you choose the funeral director profession?

How did you choose the funeral director profession? “I like helping people and making them feel better in times of need.” For Katie DeCapria, funeral director intern, that sums up why she chose th...

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September 25 2023

To close out this month’s posts about “Surrendering Your Soul,” here’s a poem by Antonio Machado that answers the question, is my soul asleep? Is my soul asleep? Have those beehives that labor at ...

September 18 2023

Author Terry Patten wrote, “In truth, the heart must crack open if the soul is to become free. And you simply cannot think your way into that.” Loss cracks our hearts open and grieving is how we he...

September 11 2023

It’s impossible for me to see today’s date and not think about the horrific events that happened on this day in 2001. My family and I were living in Yardley, Pennsylvania, at the time and my husban...

September 4 2023

This month our theme is “Surrender Your Soul.” The word soul can be very intimidating. What is it? Where is it? And how do I connect with it? There are no definitive answers to those questions, but...

August 28 2023

– I’ll share this poem as we close out our discussion of “Death Is the Memory of the Living.” At least from my perspective, our lives are so full of dead people that any sane way of li...

August 21 2023

One of the quotes that I think of in reference to this month’s theme of “Death Is the Memory of the Living” is Thomas Campbell’s quote, “To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.” A few wee...

August 14 2023

Thinking about our theme of “Death Is the Memory of the Living,” I’m so grateful for Continuing Bonds Theory. This theory recognizes that a death does not end a relationship. It’s healthy and even ...

August 7 2023

Our theme this month is “Death Is the Memory of the Living.” What this means to me is the living carry the memories of both the life and death of their loved ones. Sometimes these memories are comf...

July 31 2023

To close out this month’s theme of “Yield to Your Grief Journey,” I invite you to let the words of this poem by Padraig Ó Tuama wash over you: To greet sorrow today does not mean that sorrow will ...

July 24 2023

As we’ve been talking about our theme “Yield to Your Grief Journey,” I’ve been encouraging movement toward grief. Please know that sometimes it’s okay to take a break from grief. In fact, the Dual ...

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#BePresentWithKoch

#MondaysMoments

Q&A With Remembering A Life

Q&A With Remembering A Life

Love is Stronger Than Death

After Death

Whole, But Not the Same

Finding Balance

Why Are Rituals Important?

Welcome to #BePresentWithKoch

To Embalm or Not to Embalm

How did you choose the funeral director profession?

September 25 2023

September 18 2023

September 11 2023

September 4 2023

August 28 2023

August 21 2023

August 14 2023

August 7 2023

July 31 2023

July 24 2023

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