Preparing A Funeral When Someone Pass Away

When loved ones pass away, you'll want to make sure that they have the funeral they deserve. Dealing with bereavement is often difficult. Here are eight aspects you need to consider when planning a funeral. Here are the main aspects you need to consider when planning a funeral.


Photo: Chuckumentary

1. Viewing

When someone dies, family members and friend may wish to view the body of their loved one. Viewing can assist with the resolution of grief. It can help people accept that death has occurred. Each family member's viewpoint on visitation or viewing may be different, and this is a very personal decision. The best option in most cases is to leave the option of visitation open to an individual's own emotional needs. Before or shortly after death some people may be adamant that they do not wish to view the deceased, then change their mind a short time later. By presenting the option of visitation, all family members' individual emotional needs can be met.

Advice From A Funeral Director

Funeral Planning - Advice From A Funeral Director
By Jerry R. Guy

Making funeral plans can be a very stressful event. Many things must be considered and decisions made. This usually comes at a time when most people are at their worst, mentally.



Today, it is not uncommon for traditional funeral and burial costs to be well over $10,000+ in many areas of the United States, and these costs continue to rise fast! This is due in large part, to the rapid increase in cremation rates over the past few years. As a result, many families are finding it difficult to pay these expenses. This makes an already difficult time much harder for the family.

As an active licensed funeral director with over 28 years funeral service experience, I have personally assisted thousands of families in making funeral plans for a loved one. While some were prepared, unfortunately in my experiences, most were not and finances was usually the key issue.

One way to avoid this problem is to consider prearranging funeral services. Many funeral homes and cemeteries now offer programs that allow you to preplan funeral and burial arrangements. In some cases, they will even freeze your costs for these services. As a funeral director, I strongly urge anyone to consider looking into these options at your facility of choice. This one thing alone could potentially save you thousands of dollars as funeral prices continue to escalate.

Another way is to become educated about the process of funeral planning. There is an abundance of material available on this subject and much of it is free for the asking. Contact your funeral facility of choice, most will be happy to send you educational material that could possibly save you thousands of dollars when the time of need arises and hopefully make that time less stressful.

Jerry R. Guy is an active licensed funeral director and author. More information on how to save money planning funeral services can be found at his sites: http://www.integritypreneedsolutions.com/ or http://www.beforeplanningafuneral.com/

Photographic Tribute

Funeral Planning: Producing a Photographic Tribute
By Trish Anderson

Planning a funeral can be complicated and wrought with emotion. Anger, despair, depression, confusion combine into a turbulent cocktail in the mind through which some fairly important decisions need to be made. What type of funeral? Religious or non-religious? Which funeral director? Which cemetery? These are just a few of the considerations involved.



Photo: bowersfuneraldirectors.co.uk

What I'm going to look at today is one part of all that, a tiny part to be sure, but at the same time, something that can help ease some of the emotional strain of the upcoming funeral.

A photographic tribute in the form of a single, double-sided A4 program that guests can take home with them not only helps the healing process of the immediate family, but reaches out to friends and other family with fond memories and emotive words.

The program can be entirely put together by the family or an outside person such as a close friend can be inveigled into production. Whoever does it, whether close or paid designer, the end product will be something to treasure.

Find the right photographs

Go through the photo albums and boxes for images that depict your loved one doing the things that made them happy, the things that made them "them". A contemplative moment or two is always nice to include as well as photos that include close family and/or friends, beloved pets, favourite cars or boats. Choose photographs also that cover the range of the deceased's life, a mix of black and white, and colour shows the passage of time clearly and adds interest to the layout.

The photographs will need to be of reasonably good quality, not blurry or overexposed, faces in the light rather than shadowed, but if the most emotive ones are damaged in some way, then keep them aside. A clever graphic artist [or digitally artistic contact] might be able to perform a miracle or two.

Keep layout simple yet varied. If the images are different shapes and sizes than you could turn some at opposite angles and have large near small. If they are similar sizes then use a pattern that flows and still allows differentiation between the images. You want a seamless and unjarring final layout. A block of images all the same size will draw the eye and detract from the other photos. Layout is important, so double-check before having the program printed.

Background

An appropriate background will link the photographs and should also be an image or pattern of something that brings the deceased to mind. For instance, for an avid fisherman, a simple image of water or an empty beach. For someone who had regularly enjoyed the great outdoors a transparent image of trees or an oft-used walking track. The background image should not over-take [visually] the photographs but be an adjunct to them, a suitable setting for the memories the pictures evoke.

Cover

The cover can be a repetition of the inside background or your most evocative image enlarged [it will definitely need to be of good quality to avoid graininess and pixelation]. Choose a pleasant, easy-to-read font and a colour that stands out from the background for name and years of life on the front. On the back cover, include a few lines of a poem, a quote or song.

Words

Although I have called this project a program, it isn't really. It is a piece of memorabilia that you can share with family and friends, a visual reminder of what the deceased person's life meant to everyone they were connected with. Of course, you could include it as part of an overall program, especially if the funeral is a formal affair with certain religious procedures to follow, but that would take up far more than this one article.

The words I'm referring to should, as will the images, bring the deceased back to mind. It doesn't have to be complicated or great literature. Choose either your loved one's favourite song or poem, or a piece that evokes that person's memory. It may be a song that can also be played during the funeral, therefore, strengthening the connection and the recollection of the day as sad yet fond; a fitting tribute and farewell to someone cared for. Keep it reasonably short however so that you can keep the font large enough to be easily read.

This photographic "program" will trigger the healing process in the family, through the collection of photographs, discussion of happy times and sharing of amusing stories. Guests at the funeral can hold the program in their hands and look at the pictures while listening to speakers or music and, in so doing, also remember happy times with the deceased.

A funeral is a time for letting go and saying goodbye, for remembering and understanding. It is a celebration of a life lived and of connections made, of stories and images that enable that person to live on in the hearts and minds of those that loved them. Your visual program allows bridges to be crossed, happier times to be recalled and memories to be strengthened. You and your guests will leave the funeral, program in hand, ready to move on knowing that you [and they] still have a physical connection to a loved one and friend now gone.

~~~~~~~

Trish is a freelance writer with desktop publishing [including photographic tributes], promotional material, content sourcing, location and information research, fiction critique and web group management skills tucked firmly into her workbelt. To find out about rates and other services, or to read more of her articles, visit Trish at http://beginningsmiddlesends.blogspot.com/ or send an email to wordcatcher@hotmail.com.

Funerals - How To Save Money When Planning One

By Michael Russell

There is substantial money that can be saved by shopping wisely for all the expenses associated with a funeral. I have outlined some tips for saving funeral money below.

Talk to family members about your funeral. When you die, grieving survivors may be vulnerable to the subtle ploys of the funeral director to spend a lot of money. If your wishes are in your will, it may not be read until after other arrangements have been made. Make sure that your family knows what your wishes are.




Price shopping in person, by phone, or via the internet can save you thousands of dollars. To try to accurately calculate the time spent for each funeral option, add an hour or two for behind the scenes work. Be sure to ask if there will be any other charges. If you calculate paying more than $100 per hour, your mortuary is very high priced. On the other hand, if the cost seems reasonable, be sure to check the cost for caskets. In the past, mortuaries had a high markup for their caskets.

Choose a simple, wood casket. It is currently illegal for mortuaries to charge a handling fee for bringing in an outside casket. Some cost-conscious individuals choose a minimum priced casket from the mortuary and drape it in material that the deceased loved one would like.

Many people are choosing cremation over a traditional burial. It costs much less to have the cremated remains sent from one state to another. The space that the cemetery charges will probably cost less than the space needed for a body burial. Or, you can opt to have the cremated remains buried or scattered in a special place of your choosing. If you choose to have a memorial service sans the body, there is no need for embalming, a fancy (and expensive) casket, or transporting of the body back and forth. You can use a park, church, or community center for the service, without paying for the funeral home staff.

A lesser known option is to donate your body to a medical school. In many cases, there is no cost to the family. An attractive option to this is that the cremated remains are usually returned to the family after scientific study.

If you prefer a traditional, body burial, opt for the grave liner. For all intents and purposes, it is just a box for a box. The outer burial container has become a way for morticians to increase their bottom line. Remember that it just gets covered by the cemetery lawn.

Funeral directors are not necessary. You can handle all arrangements by using a third party. There are numerous resources available that tell you what permits are required, when and where to file them, plus a lot of practical information for families.

Join or communicate with a Funeral Consumers Alliance. Many of these alliances have contracts with mortuaries for discount services. They have the price shopping already completed and can help if you die or move to another state.

A funeral is an extremely sad, hectic and expensive time in the life of a family. Following the tips that I have outlined should help with the burden of traditional and non-traditional, funeral planning.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Funerals

Funeral Planning is Important

By Jason Montag

None of us like to think about our loved ones passing on but the reality is that it will happen. The key is that you must be prepared for the complexities of finalizing someone’s life. There is a lot of money and planning that goes into a funeral and when we are in a depressed state is the last time we want to attempt to do it. Plan ahead and plan appropriately so that when the devastating news does come that is the only worry, not what to do about the funeral.




When planning a funeral there are a number of things to consider and it is all based off of budget. The first thing that you have to plan is where the deceased is going to be taken. The choosing of a funeral home is important since they will be paid a lot of money and they need to be trusted with the remains of your loved one. Research all facets of their business before finally deciding which one to use.

The next thing to do is to choose a casket. There are a million and one choices in the casket area which all depend on how fancy you want to go. There are caskets that are adorned with gold and other precious metals as well as the simple wooden ones. Feel free to purchase a nice one but do not spend more than you can afford since a person passing on is no reason to bankrupt yourself and make the rest of your life difficult. They would agree.

The last area of importance is the head stone. Choose a design and be happy with it since that is the easiest part. The engraving on the stone is the most important part. Think long and hard about what you want it to say since it will last forever. Involve many of the close relatives to see what they have to say. The more personal the better since this is going to be what everyone that visits the plot will read.

It is a hard thing but the more planning you do now the easier the time will be when you need it to be.

For more information about funeral planning visit http://www.makingfuneralplans.com/.

Funeral Planning

When a loved one dies, grieving family members and friends are often confronted with dozens of decisions about the funeral-all of which must be made quickly and often under great emotional duress. What kind of funeral should it be?

What funeral provider should you use? Should you bury or cremate the body, or donate it to science? What are you legally required to buy? What other arrangements should you plan? And, as callous as it may sound, how much is it all going to cost?




Each year, Americans grapple with these and many other questions as they spend billions of dollars arranging more than two million funerals for family members and friends. The increasing trend toward preneed planning-when people make funeral arrangements in advance - suggests that many consumers want to compare prices and services so that ultimately, the funeral reflects a wise and well-informed purchasing decision, as well as a meaningful one.

There are two stages to arranging a funeral. In the first stage, work with your local funeral director to explore the options. Once you've made your choices and arranged the ceremony, the second step is to arrange the financing.