Klaassen Family Funeral Home

02/22/2026

"The only language she could speak was grief. How could he not know that?
Instead, she said, "I love you." She did. She loved him. But even that didn't feel like anything anymore."
- Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle

When you are grieving, it becomes the dominant emotion in your life. While it may feel like no other emotion will thrive again, it will. You just need to be patient and trust that you will return to your old self in time.

02/22/2026

We would like to wish our Funeral and Visitation Assistant, Chuck Fuller, a very Happy Birthday today! Chuck has been with us since 2021, and is a big Grand Haven history buff, who is also known around town as “Mr. Grand Haven.”
Enjoy your day, Chuck! Thank you for everything you do! 🐓🥳

02/21/2026

"Sydney discovers that she minds the loss of her mourning. When she grieved, she felt herself to be intimately connected to Daniel. But with each passing day, he floats away from her. When she thinks about him now, it is more as a lost possibility than as a man. She has forgotten his breath, his musculature."
- Anita Shreve, Body Surfing

Your grief will be a strong presence in your life for the next couple of years. Strangely, it will be something you become accustomed to over time. It will eventually fade into the background of your life.

02/20/2026

"Loving someone means that you will inevitable grieve for them; love is an engraved invitation for grief."
- Sunshine O'Donnell, Open Me

Continue to treasure the love you have for your loved one. By having loved, you can love again.

02/19/2026

"Remember that grief is a necessary pain. It's your only way to heal. To starve it will destroy you."~The Grimoire"
- S.M. Boyce, Lichgates

Do not hold back your tears, your words, and your feelings. Grieving is not always pretty, but it is how we heal our hearts from great loss.

02/18/2026

"Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors, even for patients who have not lost loved ones to death. We are often haunted by important relationships from the past that influence us unconsciously in the present. As we work them through, they go from haunting us to becoming simply part of our history. (243)"
- Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Your loss has changed who you are. As with any difficult experience, you will look back in a few years and know how it has changed you.

02/17/2026

"The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow. Happiness lives where sorrow is not. When sorrow arrives, happiness dies. It can't stand pain. Joy, on the other hand, rises from sorrow and therefore can withstand all grief. Joy, by the grace of God, is the transfiguration of suffering into endurance, and of endurance into character, and of character into hope--and the hope that has become our joy does not (as happiness must for those who depend up on it) disappoint us."
- Walter Wangerin Jr., Reliving the Passion: Meditations on the Suffering, Death, and the Resurrection of Jesus as Recorded in Mark.

You will endure this experience. There will undoubtedly be pain, but the joys in your life will help you to survive it.

02/16/2026

"He felt lighter than he had in weeks, and he realized that the monster he had been running from wasn't really a monster after all. It was simply that place in the heart that holds the measure of your history, the joy and the grief, the laughter and the tears, the magic and the wonder; all the ingredients that add up to the story of a life well lived."
- Lilli Jolgren Day, The Wonder of Ordinary Magic

When you start to find some happiness again, you will feel physically lighter and more energetic than you have in months. If this has not happened for you yet, try not to be discouraged. As with all things with the heart and mind, everyone's pace is different.

02/16/2026

The Funeral Service for Maryellen Bramer will be live-streamed beginning at 11:00 a.m. today (on Monday, February 16th). Please click below to view:

Content from Maryellen Bramer Funeral Service

02/15/2026

"I know now what was happening to me, what was overwhelming me, what was about to consume and almost destroy me. Didier had even given me a name for it - assassin grief, he'd once called it: the kind of grief that lies in wait and attacks you from ambush, with no warning and no mercy. I know now that assassin grief can hide for years and then strike suddenly on the happiest day, without discernible reason or exegesis. But on that day, ... almost a year after Khader's death, I couldn't understand the dark and trembling mood that was moving in me, swelling to the sorrow I'd too long denied. I couldn't understand it, so i tried to fight it as a man fights pain or despair. But you can't bite down on assassin grief and will it away. The enemy stalks you, step for step, and knows your every move before you make it. The enemy is your own grieving heart and, when it strikes, it can't miss."
- Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

Out of the blue, you will feel sadness that you did not expect. Don't let that blast of emotion make your feel discouraged. It will happen even years after your loss when some trigger reminds you of your loved one. What you can do is to try to build the best life for yourself that you can, knowing that at times your sadness will appear without warning.

02/14/2026

Typically when we think of Valentine's Day, we think of romance. That's why the day is stereotypically hard on people who don't have a "date." But look deeper, and you see at the heart of the day is 'love'. Valentine's day ought to be about giving and receiving love of ALL kinds. Here are some tips and suggestions for getting through this holiday.
• Invite a group of people over for a casual get together or dinner party.
• Plan a night out with others who have experienced the same loss. Acknowledge the day is hard, but make it your goal to have fun and laugh. Go to the movies and see a comedy, have a game night, bowl, go to a comedy club, sing karaoke.
• Allow your children to pick an activity. Let them dream as big as your budget will allow. Grieving children need opportunities to have good, healthy fun, and seeing them smile will warm your heart a bit. Don't be afraid to acknowledge that being together as a family highlights who is missing and take every chance you get to remember and talk about your loved one, even if it's just to say, "Dad would have loved this."
• Send a card or flowers to a friend or family member who you know is also feeling down on Valentine's Day. Perhaps they are grieving the same loss you are, or they have experienced some other hardship. Let them know they are not alone.
• Recognize your limitations. Don't push yourself into an activity you're not up to.
• Treat yourself. Taking budget into consideration, take yourself out for a day of relaxation – whatever that means to you. It may be a spa treatment, retail therapy, or a monster truck rally; as long as it relieves stress or makes you smile, anything goes.
• Deliberately set aside time to engage in any activity that helps you cope with grief – exercise, yoga, journaling, art, etc.
• Allow yourself to be really present with your loved one's memory and allow yourself to cry for as long as you like. We all have our rituals and reminders that make us feel close to deceased loved ones, go ahead and engage in them.
• Believe that next year will be a little bit easier.

02/13/2026

We wish to express our sympathies to the family and friends of Ruth Ann DeKoekkoek.

Celebrate the life of Ruth DeKoekkoek and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.