Family

Mourning in the 1800s wasn’t just a feeling. It was a lifestyle. An entire etiquette system existed around death: how long you should grieve, what you should wear, where you could go, and even how to behave on your front porch. Here are 8 mourning customs from the Victorian era that we’re (mostly) glad have faded with time — and a few that still hold a kernel of meaning in how we grieve today.

Children experience loss just as deeply as adults — but in different, sometimes harder-to-understand ways. That’s why including them in funerals and memorials can be powerful. Not only does it honor their bond with the person who passed, but it also gives them tools for processing grief in a healthy, supported way. At Wildflower, we believe funerals should be inclusive, compassionate spaces — and that includes the smallest members of the family. Here are a few beautiful ways