Carol Van Ahlers

Each year, as soon as Halloween is over, we are inundated with advertising for the next holiday in line – Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays as it focuses on gratitude and spending time with loved ones, not materialistic elements of other celebrations. For some, Thanksgiving can be a time of loneliness and […]

For Becky Areias, president of Hilgenfeld Mortuary, every day at work is not just a day of running a successful business, it is a day of moving forward a mission that has been part of her family for 97 years. On October 27, 1927, Areias’ great-grandfather, Reverend Samuel Hilgenfeld, opened his doors on Broadway in

Through nearly a century of changes and challenges Hilgenfeld Mortuary continues to provide compassionate and caring service to those who have lost a loved one here in the North Orange County community. Reverend Samuel Hilgenfeld and his wife Lydia opened for business in 1927 after acquiring the Huddle Funeral Home that had been in Anaheim

Last Christmas my niece gave my mother, who is now in her nineties, a fantastic present that benefitted the entire family. She purchased a subscription to “Storyworth” an online service that provides a year of weekly story prompts which culminate in a hardcover book. It was truly a remarkable gift, one that I enjoyed immensely,

In our last blog I talked about bringing back the forgotten art of letter writing. As a child, you may recall getting the name of a pen pal from somewhere far away to whom we would introduce ourselves and begin a long-distance relationship through our written words. We may never have met them, but we

Take me to an office supply store and it’s hard to get me to leave. I love walking through the aisles with pens and markers and browsing the sections with notecards and fine stationery. It is my way of holding on to a type of communication that is all but lost today – corresponding by

When my children were growing up, we had a tradition that each night at bedtime, I would ask them to tell me three things about their day. The only rule was that each one had to be a good thing, something positive, something that made them happy. I loved this ritual and even now, when

Did you know that the most popular courses in the history of both Harvard University and Yale University are courses on happiness? It’s true and both have had a significant impact on the mental well-being of not only the students who take them, but also the general public. Entitled Positive Psychology 1504, the Harvard course

In this blog series on pet loss, we have dealt with the reality of what our pets mean to us and the impact on our lives when they are gone. No one should ever diminish the grief they, or someone they know, feels when a pet dies. Knowing when, or if, to bring another pet

Years ago, I told a friend that I was considering euthanizing my cat. Saphy, my beautiful white cat with sapphire blue eyes, was nearly 15 years old, survived for most of her life with three legs and had multiple health issues. My friend was truly a pet whisperer and I valued her thoughts. She looked