Funerals provide an important role for those who are mourning the loss of a loved one. With all the family and friends together, an atmosphere of care and support can be created, where people can share their feelings about death and begin the healing process. Funerals are a very traditional ritual that recognizes the finality of death and gives the living the opportunity to show their respect for the dead and support the survivors through the grieving process.

A funeral service is not just for people who have been buried, but also for people who have been cremated. Having a personalized service or ceremony can help people start to overcome the pain by showing how much everyone cared about the deceased. Overcoming the pain is never easy, but a funeral can help the process get started and create a sense of closure.

When a death occurs, the funeral home will work with the cemetery to coordinate all the necessary arrangements. However, there are also some things you will need to do:

Provide the state with the following vital statistic requirements:

• Birth Date
• Birthplace
• Father’s Name
• Mother’s Name
• Social Security Number
• Veteran’s Discharge or Claim Number
• Education
• Marital Status

• Reach out to the clergy of your choice. Decide when and where the funeral and/or memorial service will occur. You can have this done at the funeral home, if you prefer.
• The funeral home will be able to help you determine how many copies of the death certificate you will need, and can place the orders for you.
• You likely will want to make a list of immediate family, close friends, employers, business associates, etc. and contact them over the phone.
• Choose a memorial where gifts or donations can be sent (e.g. a church, library, charity, or school).
• Collect information for the obituary. Get information like age, place of birth, occupation, memberships held, cause of death, list of survivors and immediate family, photograph, etc.
• Decide when you want the article to appear in the newspaper. Funeral homes can write and submit articles for you, or you can write your own.
• Plan how you and your family members will coordinate answering phones, the door, and incoming and outgoing information. Make sure to keep a record of calls. If Social Security checks come as an automatic deposit, remember to notify the bank of the death.

If immediate assistance is needed, we can help you fast. If your family wants to spend a short period of time with the deceased to say farewell, that is perfectly acceptable. When you need the help of a funeral director, Fort Worth Funerals & Cremations will come at your request. 

The most common method of disposing of a body in the United State is burial in a casket. While entombment is also popular, cremation is increasingly becoming the preferred choice, as it is less expensive and allows for memorial services to be held at a later, more convenient date, when all the family and friends are able to come together.

You can also have a funeral service followed by cremation, which is no different from funeral services that are followed by a burial. Before being committed to a final resting place, the cremated remains of your loved one will likely be placed in an urn. If you want, you can bury the urn, place it in an indoor or outdoor mausoleum or columbarium, or it can be interred in an urn garden in a cemetery. Lastly, cremated remains may be scattered at your location of choosing — just be sure to follow state laws.

Having a public viewing is often a significant part of cultural and ethnic traditions surrounding the death of a loved one. Many grief specialists believe that being able to view the body helps the bereaved recognize the reality of death and aids in the grieving process. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long as it’s voluntary, as it can help them understand what is happening. 

Why embalm a body? It sanitizes and preserves it. It also makes it possible to lengthen the time between death and final disposition, meaning the family is able to arrange a time for the funeral and service that is more convenient and comforting to them. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, “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.”

Compared to the cost of other major life events like weddings and births, funerals are typically less expensive. Weddings typically cost at least three times as much. Funeral homes are 24-hour, labor-intensive businesses, requiring extensive facilities (e.g. chapels, viewing room, limousines, hearses, etc.).

The cost of a funeral isn’t just to purchase things like caskets, but also for the services of the funeral director, who is responsible for making arrangements, filing forms, collaborating with doctors, florists, newspapers, etc, and seeing to every small detail of the funeral. While funeral directors look at their profession as a service, it’s also important to recognize that it is also a business that must make a profit if it is to remain viable and continue providing its service.

Depending on how you want to commemorate a life, you have the flexibility to choose between things like burial and cremation. One of the benefits of cremation is that it allows you to have more flexible funeral and cemetery arrangements. For example, you could have a funeral service before a cremation, a memorial service during or following the cremation, with the urn present, and then you could have a committal service for the final disposition of the cremains. You can hold a funeral or a memorial service in a place of worship, at a funeral home, in a crematory chapel, or elsewhere. 

When you choose to cremation, you have a number of options for what to do with them afterwards. You can choose to inter them in a cemetery plot, bury them, have them scattered on private property, or keep them in the urn in a special location. It’s a good idea to speak with your funeral director if you are planning to spread the ashes, as they will be able to provide you information regarding the local regulations for this.

It also may be a good idea to have a memorial service. Memorialization is a time-honored tradition which has been practiced for millennia. Memorial services can honor a life, and function as a focal point for remembrance. What type of memorial service you choose is up to you.

An urn can be memorialized by pairing it with a bronze monument, placing it in a beautiful mausoleum, displaying it in a garden where the ashes were scattered, and other options. Scattering or placing the remains somewhere where family and friends can come and reflect in peace is one of the benefits of memorialization. 

Don’t scatter cremated remains on a whim — make sure you plan a bit beforehand. You can plan a cremation ashes scattering ceremony, for example. With the help of a funeral director, you can make it as meaningful and appropriate as possible. Scattering services can be formal or informal, public or private, solemn of joyful — anything to suit your preferences and those of your loved one. Once again, make sure you check the local regulations for scattering remains in public places, as it varies from place to place. Your funeral director will be able to provide you this information.

This is possible, depending on the cemetery’s policy. They may allow your cremated remains to be buried atop their casket or buried in a space next to their plot. Many cemeteries permit multiple cremated remains to be interred in a single grave space.

It can be stressful not being certain about income tax issues following the death of a spouse. Meet with your family attorney or tax advisor as soon as possible to get a clear understanding of your particular estate and tax circumstances. When you go to the meeting, bring a prepared list of questions. If you don’t have either a tax advisor or attorney, you can call the IRS toll-free at 800-829-1040 to get answers to your specific tax questions.