Heartland Funeral Home and Cremation Services

12/27/2025

12/26/2025

Merry Christmas from your Heartland Funeral Home family!

12/24/2025

Live for me.
Down there.

I see you struggling.
Coasting on autopilot.
The hardships of everyday life…

Especially during the holidays.

I know you miss me.
You long for the past.
When we were…Us.

Some of the best chapters of my life.

I want you to know. I’m safe and sound.
Warm. Encompassed by light. And your love.

With that said…
Please live for me.

See…to have the human experience..
A whole lot of emotions must be involved.

What makes a great story of someone’s life?

Think of your favorite movie minus love, heartbreak, laughter, adventure, grief, surprising twists and devastating emotions.
It wouldn’t be a story at all. Just a mundane plot line. Safe.
But incredibly mundane.

This is the heartbreaking part of your story. Where grief and darkness move in for a while.

But I want you to know…there is so much more living left for you. And someday when you least expect it..you will laugh again. Promise.

And i will smile.

When you put one foot on the floor each morning..
Picture me cheering you on.
When you laugh…take a chance…figure something out on your own…dive into the ocean…sing in the car…dance to our favorite song…LIVE..

Picture me smiling.
Because you are living.
And I want nothing more than to see you happy.

When your story is completed down there..

I will see you on the other side of the sunset.
To catch up.
To tell you how proud I am of you..
For trying. For taking chances. For loving yourself through..

For continuing to Live.

Credit: The After Glow

12/22/2025

Today is the Winter Solstice. The longest night of the year.

When you think about it, the longest night is the perfect metaphor for grief. When you are grieving, it feels like your world is always dark.

Many churches offer a Longest Night or Blue Christmas service on this day. This service is for those who are grieving. If you need extra comfort this year, find a church near you that offers this service tonight.

Some perfect words from Donna Ashworth.

The winter solstice just happened, at 8.21am … from this point onwards, more light becomes ours.

And though it won’t always feel that way, when the day barely seems to begin before darkness wraps everything in its depth, remember… light is coming back for you. It is ALWAYS coming back for you.

And if you begin to stockpile the light when you can, take a screenshot in your mind of the moments in this life that fuel you…

If you gather all the glimmers and stitch them into the pockets of your soul to be viewed when you feel the murky waves have washed you out to sea again.
You will float. On the hope. For more.

Winter is hard. Christmas can be harder still, if your stockpile of hope and joy is running low. Or if it has been erased entirely by the storm of grief.

So, do whatever you need to do to pile some more on that stash.
Light is coming back for you. Always.

Use your memories, and your little wins, to keep your fire bright until then.

These little fires are visible from heaven, I so very much believe.

And someone is looking for it there. Keep it lit.

12/21/2025

Naomi “LeAnn” VandenBussche
December 18, 2025 ~ September 17, 1958

(and yes—she would absolutely roll her eyes at her middle name being included)

Naomi “LeAnn” VandenBussche , 67, Valley Springs, passed away peacefully on December 18, 2025, at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, SD, with her daughter and two oldest grandchildren at her side.

December 18, 2025 ~ September 17, 1958 (and yes—she would absolutely roll her eyes at her middle name being included) Naomi “LeAnn” VandenBussche , 67, Valley Springs, passed away peacefully on December 18, 2025, at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, SD, with her daughter and two o

12/19/2025

12/18/2025

Melvin “Mel” Carl Zuehlke
February 4, 1932 ~ December 17, 2025

Melvin “Mel” C. Zuehlke, 93, Sioux Falls, died Wednesday, December 17, 2025, at the Sioux Falls VA hospice cottage.

February 4, 1932 ~ December 17, 2025 Melvin “Mel” C. Zuehlke, 93, Sioux Falls, died Wednesday, December 17, 2025, at the Sioux Falls VA hospice cottage. Visitation for Mel will be 10:00am, Monday, December 22, 2025, at Abiding Savior Free Lutheran Church. (4100 S Bahnson Ave., Sioux Falls, SD)

12/13/2025

“You are handling it so well.”
They say it with soft eyes, like it’s a compliment.
Like strength is the thing I’m most desperate to prove.
I nod. I smile the kind of smile that feels like thin ice over deep water.
But when the house grows quiet,
when the world finally stops pulling at the frayed edges of me, I turn off the lights and whisper their name into the dark.
Just to hear it.
Just to know it still belongs somewhere.
Just to prove it didn’t disappear with the life I lost.
Some nights, the whisper feels like a prayer.
Other nights, like a wound I reopen on purpose,
just to remind myself I’m still human…
that grief hasn’t hollowed me out completely.
I say their name as if the syllables hold me together.
As if heaven leans a little closer each time I let it fall off my trembling tongue.

People see the part of me that stands upright.
The part that nods politely and keeps breathing and keeps moving.
They don’t see the nights where courage looks like speaking into the silence and hoping God is somewhere in it, catching every fragile whisper like a sparrow falling.
Truth is…
I am not handling it “well.”
I am handling it barely.
Handling it breath-by-breath,
night after night,
with a voice that cracks when I say the only names that still break me open.
But maybe this is what strength actually looks like.
Not the shining kind that never bends,
but the quiet, trembling kind
that keeps showing up to its own darkness
and still chooses to speak love into it.

Maybe grief is not proof that I’ve lost everything.
Maybe it’s proof that something once lived here so deeply that even silence cannot swallow it whole.
So today, again,
I whisper their name into the dark.
Not to resurrect the past,
but to remember that love never needed light to exist.
It has always lived here,
in the softest, most hidden parts of me.
And somehow…
that is enough to get me through one more night.

Credit: Sarah Trent

12/11/2025

In Memory Of:
Melvin “Dick” Richard Steineke
December 8, 1940 ~ December 10, 2025

Melvin R. “Dick” Steineke, 85, of Sioux Falls, SD, passed away peacefully at his home on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.

December 8, 1940 ~ December 10, 2025 Melvin R. “Dick” Steineke, 85, of Sioux Falls, SD, passed away peacefully at his home on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. A Celebration of Life Open House will be held from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, at Heartland Funeral Home, 1801 Front

12/11/2025

Thank you for sharing your experience with Heartland. We are honored to have the chance to be there for your family.

And we love Kimber too! ❤️

12/10/2025

This month’s Grief Book Recommendation is a children’s book about grief during the holidays.

‘The Memory Tree, A Holiday Grief Book’, written by Joanna Rowland, is a picture book to help comfort families celebrating a holiday after the loss of a loved one.

From beamingbooks.com: ‘Grief is challenging for children and families any time of year, but during Christmas or other family-focused holidays, the death of a loved one can bring especially difficult feelings. In The Memory Tree, a child struggles with the recent loss of a loved one. Holiday lights don't seem to shine as bright, and celebrations don't feel quite as merry. But then she and her family find a way to commemorate their lost loved one: the decoration of a special Memory Tree, which allows them all to process their feelings and make the person a meaningful part of their celebrations. Joanna Rowland's sensitive writing and Thea Baker's beautiful illustrations gently prompt reflections and suggestions for readers to create their own Memory Trees at home.

A grief book and heartwarming Christmas story in one, The Memory Tree provides comfort to grieving families--whether for the first holiday celebrated after the loss of a loved one, or many years later.’