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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.
The funeral home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery.
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 your time is right.
Burial in a casket is the most common method of disposing of remains in the United States, although entombment also occurs. 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 an indoor or outdoor mausoleum or columbarium, or interred in a special urn garden that many cemeteries provide for cremated remains. The remains may also be scattered, according to state law.
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.
The Federal Trade Commission says, "Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary, however, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial."
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 or in a crematory chapel.
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, or at a place that was significant to the deceased. (It would always be advisable to check for local regulations regarding scattering in a public place-your funeral director can help you with this.)
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 columbariums are also available at many cemeteries. They offer the beauty of a mausoleum setting with the benefits of above ground placement of remains. Many cemeteries also offer scattering gardens. This area of a cemetery offers the peacefulness of a serene garden where family and friends can come and reflect.
If you wish to have your ashes scattered somewhere, it is important to discuss your wishes to be scattered ahead of time with the person or persons who will actually have to do the cremation ashes scattering ceremony, as they might want to let your funeral professional assist in the scattering ceremony. Funeral directors can also be very helpful in creating a meaningful and personal ash scattering ceremony that they will customize to fit your families specific desires. The services can be as formal or informal as you like. Scattering services can also be public or private. Again, 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. If you do not have an attorney or tax advisor, call the IRS toll-free at 800-829-1040 for answers to specific tax questions.
There are a number of options available, including:
Our funeral home is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on all holidays.
We encourage you to call as soon as the death occurs as you are ready. You can reach us day or night.
If you request immediate assistance, yes. If the family wishes to spend a short time with the deceased to say goodbye, that is fine. We will typically arrive within an hour of your call.
The Traditional Funeral Service is when your loved one is present. The night before the funeral, a visitation would occur. The funeral service is normally the following day either in the funeral parlor or a church chosen by the family and is followed by a procession to the cemetery to have a committal service at the grave site.
The Traditional Funeral Service with Cremation is the same as the traditional funeral service only following the funeral the deceased is transported to the crematory.
The Graveside Service is when your loved one's funeral is held at the cemetery grave site. No visitation or other services are held during the day. The casket will remain closed while at the cemetery.
A Direct Cremation Service is when there is no funeral ceremony. Once all necessary paperwork and documentation are completed, the deceased is transported to the crematory. The cremated remains are placed in an urn and ready to be buried, placed in a niche or be taken home.
A Memorial Service is when friends and family come together to honor the deceased either before or after interment in the final resting place. An alternative site or chapel can be arranged with photographs and personal items.
Human remains can be buried, entombed, cremated or donated for scientific study.
There are five elements of the funeral ritual. These elements are designed to comfort us during our time of grief. The elements include:
Embalming is the use of chemicals, internally and externally, to disinfect and temporarily preserve the body for open casket viewing and/or for the removal of the body to distant destinations. Embalming also enhances the appearance of a body disfigured by traumatic death or illness.
No, however most common carriers will require that a body be embalmed prior to shipping and the laws of the destination state apply. Because of the rapid deterioration of a body after death, Missouri law does require that a body held for over 24 hours or in transit must be embalmed, refrigerated or encased in a leak and odor proof container. Also, most funeral homes require a body to be embalmed if there will be an open casket viewing.
The deceased is enclosed in a special cremation container. The container is placed in a cremation chamber where it undergoes up to three hours of direct flame, intense heat and evaporation. The container is consumed and body transformed into cremated remains. These remains are then processed into fine particles and are placed in a memorial urn.
Flameless Cremation, scientifically known as Alkaline Hydrolysis, is a natural, gentle, and eco-friendly alternative to fire based cremation. The process uses WATER as opposed to fire. By using a combination of 95% water and 5% alkalinity, Flameless Cremation mimics the same natural break down of a body if it were to be laid to rest directly in the soil, only accelerated. The following information is a brief description of what happens during the Flameless Cremation process.
During the Flameless Cremation process, a body is gently placed in a container which is then placed in a clean stainless steel vessel. A combination of warm water flow and alkalinity are used to accelerate the natural process of tissue hydrolysis and return the body back to nature.
At the end of the Flameless Cremation process, just like fire-based cremation, the only solid that remains is mineral bone (calcium phosphate) which is then processed and placed in an urn to be given back to the family. However, unlike fire-based cremation, the mineral bone ash from Flameless Cremation is clean and lighter in color because it is without carbon discoloration. The mineral bone ash is 100% safe; pathogen and disease free.
Because Flameless Cremation is not a combustion process, it is more environmentally friendly. The total carbon footprint is 18 times less than fire-based cremation. Compared to fire based cremation, Flameless Cremation reduces: Natural Gas usage by 90%, Electricity usage by 66%, Carbon Dioxide emissions by 90%, is 100% Mercury free.
In order to handle official tasks for you, we will need the following:
When requested, the basic Military Funeral Honors ceremony is conducted for the deceased veteran. It includes the playing of the Taps and the folding and presentation of the United States flag to the veteran's family. Also, veterans who qualify are entitled to a grave marker supplied by the Department of Veteran's Affairs. To establish veteran eligibility, the family needs to provide the Form DD 214 (the certificate of release of discharge from active duty). For more information, contact the United States Department of Veteran Affairs or go to http://www.cem.va.gov.
Yes, as a convenient method of payment, we allow for an insurance assignment. This assignment transaction is processed by the funeral home, releasing only the funeral expenses with any remaining balance going directly to the beneficiary.
The answer for this question varies from individual to individual. For those who qualify, Social Security will pay up to $255. This amount is paid to the family, not the funeral home. It is our policy to file all necessary documents -death certificates, insurance claim forms, and the Social Security notification - for families and assist in determining what Social Security will pay. For more information, visit the United States Social Security Administration website http://www.ssa.gov/pgm/survivors.htm.
Children grieve just as adults do. Any child old enough to form a relationship will experience some form of grief when a relationship is severed. As adults we may not view a child's behavior as grief as it often is demonstrated in way which we misunderstand as "moody", "cranky", "withdrawn", or other behavioral patterns which do not appear to us as grief. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long as the process is explained and the activity voluntary.