3 Things To Know Before Making Funeral Arrangements
Have you had a friend or a relative pass on recently? Are you in charge of making the funeral arrangements for this person? The passing of someone is always difficult, but things can be even harder if you're the one in charge of interpreting the loved one's final wishes and setting up the funeral. While this time can be hard, there are some things that you should know that can make things slightly less trying for you and for everyone else. These things include:
You can use a different funeral home. Sometimes, a hospital or a nursing home will call a funeral home before they're able to locate the deceased's next of kin. Since they may not have the facilities to keep the body for more than a few hours, it makes sense that they would want to contact someone who can respectfully store the body until further arrangements can be made. However, nothing says that you have to use this first funeral home. Whether for financial or sentimental reasons, it may make more sense to have the body transported to a different location. Some funeral homes may try to dissuade you from doing this, but most will allow you to proceed without argument. Trying a place like Fletcher Funeral Home PA is a great start.
It's okay to shop around for funeral accessories. Some funeral homes will try to persuade you that you must use only coffins, urns, flower arrangements, and so forth that have been bought directly from them. While it can be less stressful to make all your decisions in one place, the financial cost of doing so can be high. It may be more cost effective to purchase a coffin at a completely different funeral home and have it transported to the one that will be providing the services. If you're trying to decide on the perfect urn for your loved one's ashes, an inexpensive plain wooden box will be fine for holding the remains until you can locate the perfect final container.
Donating flowers is a possibility. Although it may seem wasteful, most funeral homes will simply throw out excess flower arrangements after a funeral is over. They simply don't have the room or the reason to store the flowers for long periods of time. While some flowers may be put on the grave and others taken home by family, there are still often several arrangements left over. If you'd like to reduce waste while also allowing your friend or relative to brighten someone's day one more time, ask the funeral home if they know of or work with any local charities that accept flower donations. These kinds of charities will deconstruct the larger arrangements to make smaller ones that can be taken to hospices and nursing homes. The people who receive these flower deliveries are often patients who wouldn't receive any flowers at all.
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