Funerals fill an important role for those mourning the loss of a loved one. By providing surviving family and friends with an atmosphere of care and support in which to share thoughts and feelings about death, funerals are the first step in the healing process. It is the traditional way to recognize the finality of death. Funerals are recognized rituals for the living to show their respect for the dead, and to help survivors begin the grieving process.

You can have a full funeral service even for those choosing cremation. Planning a personalized ceremony, or service, will help begin the healing process. Overcoming the pain is never easy, but a meaningful funeral or tribute will help.

• Pick up the deceased and transport the body to the funeral home (anytime day or night)
  
• Arrange and prepare Funeral Director's Proof of Death
• Prepare and submit obituary to the newspapers of your choice
• Bathe and prepare the body for visual identification for cremation
• Bathe and embalm the deceased body, if necessary
  
• Prepare the body for viewing including dressing and cosmetizing
  
• Assist the family with funeral arrangements 
  
• Coordinate with clergy if a funeral or memorial service is to be held
• Schedule the opening and closing of the grave with cemetery personnel, if a burial is to be performed
  
• Arrange a police escort and transportation to the funeral and/or cemetery for the family
• Order funeral sprays and other flower arrangements as the family wishes
  
• Provide Aftercare, or grief assistance, to the bereaved
  

The funeral home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery.

• Bring the following information to complete the vital statistic requirements:
  • Birth Certificate
  • Health Services Card
  • Father's Name (and where he was born)
  • Mother's Name (and where she was born)
  • Social Insurance Number
  • Marital Status
• Contact your clergy. Decide on time and place of funeral or memorial service. This can be done at the funeral home.
• Make a list of immediate family, close friends and employer or business colleagues. Notify each by phone.
• Decide on a charity (s) where donations may be made to.
• Gather obituary information you want to include such as age, place of birth, occupation, college degrees, memberships held, military service, outstanding work, list of survivors in immediate family. Include time and place of services. The funeral home will submit to newspapers. 
• Arrange for members of family or close friends to take turns answering door or phone, keeping careful record of calls. 

If you request immediate assistance, yes. If the family wishes to spend a short time with the deceased to say good-bye, that’s perfectly acceptable. Your funeral director will come when the time is right.

Burial in a casket is a common method of disposing of remains. Cremation is increasingly selected because it can be less expensive and allows for the memorial service to be held at a more convenient time in the future when relatives and friends can come together.

A funeral service followed by cremation need not be any different from a funeral service followed by a burial. Usually, cremated remains are placed in urn before being committed to a final resting place. The urn may be buried, placed in a columbarium, or interred in a cemetery. 

Viewing is a part of many cultural and ethnic traditions. Many grief specialists believe that viewing aids the grief process by helping the bereaved recognize the reality of death. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long as the process is explained and the activity is voluntary.

Embalming sanitizes and preserves the body. Embalming makes it possible to lengthen the time between death and the final disposition, allowing family members time to arrange and participate in the type of service most comforting to them.

Embalming may be necessary if you choose to have a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming this may be possible; however, this depends on many factors, and you will need to speak to the licensed embalmer about this.

When compared to other major life events like births and weddings, funerals are not expensive. A wedding costs at least three times as much; but because it is a happy event, wedding costs are rarely criticized. A funeral home is a 24-hour, labor-intensive business, with extensive facilities (viewing rooms, chapels, limousines, hearses, etc.), these expenses must be factored into the cost of a funeral.

Additionally, the cost of a funeral includes not only merchandise, like caskets, but the services of a funeral director in making arrangements; filing appropriate forms; dealing with doctors, ministers, florists, newspapers and others; and seeing to all the necessary details. Funeral directors look upon their profession as a service, but it is also a business. Like any business, funeral homes must make a profit to exist.

It really depends entirely on how you wish to commemorate a life. One of the advantages of cremation is that it provides you with increased flexibility when you make your funeral and cemetery arrangements. You might, for example, choose to have a funeral service before the cremation; a memorial service at the time of cremation or after the cremation with the urn present; or a committal service at the final disposition of cremated remains. Funeral or memorial services can be held in a place of worship, a funeral home chapel, hall, etc.

With cremation, your options are numerous. The cremains can be interred in a cemetery plot, i.e., earth burial, retained by a family member, usually in an urn, scattered on private property.

Today, there are many different types of memorial options from which to choose. Memorialization is a time-honored tradition that has been practiced for centuries. A memorial serves as a tribute to a life lived, and provides a focal point for remembrance, as well as a record for future generations. The type of memorial you choose is a personal decision.

You might choose ground burial of the urn. If so, you may usually choose either a bronze memorial or monument. Cremation niches in columbarium are also available at many cemeteries. They offer the beauty of setting with the benefits of above ground placement of remains. 

It is advisable to check for local regulations regarding scattering in a public place-your funeral director can help you with this.

Yes — Depending upon the cemetery's policy, you may be able to save a grave space by having the cremains buried on top of the casketed remains of your spouse, or utilize the space provided next to him/her. Many cemeteries allow for multiple cremated remains to be interred in a single grave space.

Uncertainty about income tax issues can add to the stress experienced from the death of a spouse. You should meet with your family attorney and/or tax advisor as soon as possible to review your particular tax and estate circumstances. Bring a detailed list of your questions to the meeting. 

There are a number of options available, including:

• Determine if the deceased person qualifies for any entitlements. 
  
• Review all insurance policies the deceased person has, including life insurance. Some life insurance policies have coverage clauses for funeral related costs.