No matter how much advance funeral planning takes place, the death of a loved one will always leave a paper trail behind. Bank accounts, social security and retirement benefits, life insurance policies, electric and utility bills…all these things have to be taken care of in the weeks and months following your loss.
To help you navigate the process, we’ve complied our most helpful and in-depth articles about what to do with financial accounts when someone dies. (more…)
What Kind of Day Will You Make
Searching for answers about life, loss, love, and grief, we often turn to advice and wisdom in memorable quotes.
Sometimes, it is useful to remind ourselves of the richness of life by framing wisdom in thoughtful questions like this life inspirational quote about life: What Kind of Day Will You Make?”
One of the nice things about funeral options today is that families have choices when it comes to how they want to take care of a loved one’s final remains. Burial, cremation, body donation, sending your body into space—with enough money, you can do almost anything to make your final farewell special.
While most of us will probably skip the space step, burial and cremation remain the top choices across cultures and religions. Cremation is less expensive and generally comes with less fanfare than burial, but burial itself can also be streamlined thanks to options in DIY casketry and direct burial.
Britney Spears should hit the mall one more time to find an appropriate outfit for this funeral.
The fastest way to give offense at a funeral is to wear something inappropriate, and guidelines of what not to wear to a funeral often outline the most obvious funeral attire no-nos. Things like excessively short skirts, shorts, flip flops, casual jeans, or clothes that are dirty or torn are all commonly avoided—and with good reason. Anything that belongs at a beach or in a nightclub isn’t right for the formal and somber setting of a funeral.
While most of us can be expected to avoid the more obvious funeral attire pitfalls, there are also more subtle fashion choices you should avoid. Follow our what not to wear to a funeral guide below to ensure that you present yourself in a way that is respectful and appropriate for the day.
Images of funerals in the movies and on TV often give a skewed vision of what mourning looks like. In many of the on-screen depictions of burial or ash-scattering ceremonies, families appear collected and dignified in their grief. Everyone is dressed in a well-tailored suit of black and holds an umbrella to keep the rain away. Limos and other dark sedans transport everyone to and from the funeral home. Families travel from hundreds of miles away and meet again after years apart.
After the funeral planning has come to an end and the family gathers to say goodbye to the deceased, it’s time for the funeral luncheon to start. Because most funerals take place during the morning (or in the early afternoon), it’s common for the deceased’s family to hold an informal luncheon afterward, in which guests can enjoy a light repast and share their grief.
Although this type of after-funeral memorial party isn’t a required tradition, it’s a good idea to brush up on your funeral lunch etiquette before you arrive.
Not everything related to funerals and funeral planning is grim. In celebration of Emma Crawford, a historical inhabitant of Manitou Springs, one Colorado city holds an annual coffin race. That’s right: coffin race. With a bizarre mixture of respect and irreverence for the traditions of death, local residents craft rolling coffins that are pushed through the city streets in a kind of race-parade that draws up to 15,000 spectators every year.
Timed to coincide with Halloween, the Emma Crawford Coffin Race is based on a local story about a young woman who moved to the city in 1889, hoping the air and mineral springs would cure her of tuberculosis. The cure didn’t take, and Ms. Crawford died just two years later. Her story might have ended there, but storms and erosions caused her casket to become dislodged from her mountain burial site and slide down the hillside in 1929, uprooting her final resting place.
Advance funeral planning is becoming an increasingly popular choice for people who want to handle the burden of burial before death occurs. With so many different funeral pre-plan packages to choose from and the opportunity to relieve your loved ones of the costs and stress associated with burial, it’s no wonder why.
Because it is impossible to predict death, the only way to ensure that pre-planned funerals work is to bind everything in a legal contract or agreement. Every contract is a little bit different depending on where you go and what type of service you choose, but one thing that everyone should be aware of before signing on the dotted line is what the fine print says regarding cash advance items.
What is a Cash Advance Item?
When it comes time to start funeral planning, you may find that you have lingering questions about cremation. Yes, we all know that it provides a lower-cost alternative to traditional burial, and that the outcome—an urn of ashes—can be scattered or kept on the mantelpiece as a kind of memorial to the deceased.
But what about the details? When is cremation not recommended? How personalized is the process of transforming the body into ashes? And where can you go to find more information?
The following list of common questions should help provide a baseline of understanding the cremation process. For additional information, you should always contact a local funeral home or the Cremation Association of North American (CANA).
These days, funerals have become such grand, ornate affairs that it’s almost impossible to know where all your products come from. Caskets may be shipped from a manufacturer in another state or even overseas. Flowers might come from Internet funeral florists or be sent up from as far away as South America. Even memorial videos are often outsourced to third party providers who are spread around the globe.
While there is nothing wrong with the globalization of the funeral industry (in fact, this kind of practice can substantially reduce funeral costs), some people prefer a smaller, more intimate service that draws from local vendors. If the deceased was a person who believed in supporting the community and taking things back to a more grassroots level, it might be a good idea to include many local and small businesses in the funeral plan.
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Need to send sympathy flowers today? Our florists offer same day delivery to ANYWHERE and gorgeous arrangements
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Appropriate attire to wear to a funeral For Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, & Hindu funerals
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