What do I do when a death occurs?
What Options Are Available in Services and Disposition?
What Does a Funeral Director Do?
What would I need a certified Death Certificate for?
It’s important to recognize that funerals and memorial ceremonies are for the living … for those who are affected by the loss of a loved one. It is through the funeral process that a number of emotional needs are met for those who grieve.
A funeral is similar to other ceremonies in our lives. Like a graduation ceremony, a wedding, a baptism, and a bar mitzvah, a funeral is a rite of passage by which we recognize an important event that distinguishes our lives.
The funeral declares that a death has occurred. It celebrates the life that has been lived, and offers family and friends the opportunity to pay tribute to their loved one.
The gathering of family and friends for a time of sharing and funeral service helps to provide emotional support so needed at this time. This will help those who grieve to face the reality of death and consequently, to take the first step toward a healthy emotional adjustment.
What do I do when a death occurs?
The main thing to remember, when a death occurs, is to know what funeral home you will be using and have that funeral home contacted. Death may occur in a hospital, nursing home or a home. With each of these, the situation is different and we will try to give you the information you will need for each.
Hospital-If death occurs in a hospital or care center, the attending physician is notified (if he/she is not already present) and the family is contacted. The charge nurse will usually ask at this time which funeral home you wish to use. The nurse will then contact the funeral home, after the physician has released the body. The funeral home will respond to make the removal.
It is not necessary to remain at the hospital until the funeral director arrives, but if you leave, you should leave a phone number where you can be reached. The funeral director will need to contact you to secure permission to embalm the body and set a time for the family to meet with a funeral director to make the funeral arrangement. He will also be able to answer any questions you have at this time.
Nursing Home-When death occurs in a nursing home, it is much the same as a hospital. Usually a nurse will make the pronouncement of death and then contact the attending physician. The nursing home will then contact the family and the funeral home. Funeral home information is normally given at the time of admittance to a nursing facility and the nursing home staff will call the funeral home listed unless otherwise directed by the family.
Home-When a death occurs at the residence, it is usually classified as an attended or unattended death. An attended death would either be the death of an individual under Hospice or Home Heath Care or under a physicians care with family or friends present at the time of death. In the case of an attended death the funeral home can be contacted immediately.
An unattended death is any death that occurs without someone present and not directly under the care of a physician or home health service. In this case, the police department or Sheriff’s department should be contacted. They will contact the J. P. or Medical Examiner, depending on the county in which death occurs, who then will come to the place of death to determine if the death was of natural causes or not. Once the authority releases the body, the funeral home will be contacted and will respond.
“What Options Are Available in Services and Disposition?”
A valuable aspect of contemporary funerals is their individuality. Whether a ceremony is elaborate or simple, funerals are often individualized to reflect the life of the deceased and to hold special meaning for family and other survivors. A service may reflect one’s religious beliefs as a reaffirmation of faith in a greater life beyond this world. Some families choose to reflect upon the occupation or hobbies of the deceased, and some choose to center the service around an ethnic background or social affiliation.
In our society, three basic forms of final disposition are practiced. The first is earth burial, which continues to be the form of disposition chosen most often.
Cremation is also a choice. This is a process of preparing the body for final disposition whereby the body is reduced by intense heat over several hours to a few pounds of small fragments. These cremated remains are usually placed in an urn, which may be buried, placed in a memorial niche, or kept in some other location. Cremated remains may also be scattered where permitted by law.
Finally, entombment in a crypt is also a choice and is one of the oldest forms of disposition. Today many cemeteries maintain crypts for entombment, which may be in a mausoleum or in an outdoor garden.
“What Does a Funeral Director Do?”
It has been estimated that over 136 individual activities must take place in order for one funeral to be conducted. The funeral director is actually an organizational specialist.
Here is a condensed list of some of the more visible activities of a typical funeral director.
- Removal and transferring the deceased from place of death to the Funeral Home.
- Professional care of the deceased, which may include sanitary washing, embalming preparation, restorative art, dressing, hairdressing, casketing and cosmetology.
- Conduct a complete consultation with family members to gather necessary information and to discuss specific arrangements for a funeral.
- File all certificates, permits, affidavits, and authorizations, as may be required.
- Acquire a requested amount of certified copies of the death certificate needed to settle the estate of the deceased.
- Compile information and create an obituary for placement in the newspaper and/or website of the family’s choice.
- Make arrangements with a family’s choice of clergy person, church, music, etc.
- Make arrangements with cemetery, crematory, or other place of disposition.
- The providing of a register book, prayer cards, funeral folders, and acknowledgements, as requested by a family.
- Offer the assistance of notifying relatives and friends.
- Arrange for clergy honorariums, music, flowers, death certificates, obituaries, additional transportation, etc.
- Care and arrangement of floral pieces and the post funeral distribution as directed by a family.
- Arrange for pallbearers, automobiles, and special services (fraternal or military) as requested by a family
- Care and preservation of all floral cards, mass cards, or other memorial contributions presented to the funeral home.
- Your funeral director, with his/her staff personnel, will direct the funeral in a most professional manner, and be in complete charge of the funeral procession to the cemetery or other place of disposition.
- Assist a family with social security, veterans insurance, grief counseling, and other death-related claims.
- A post funeral meeting, by the funeral director, with a family, to deliver such things as the register book, floral and mass cards, and to ascertain whether or not he/she can be of further assistance.
What would I need a certified Death Certificate for?
CERTIFIED COPIES OF DEATH CERTIFICATES
You will need copies for the following items and privately made copies are illegal and not accepted.
- Transfer of real property, houses and lots
- Settling of insurance claims, one (1) for each company
- Obtaining union benefits, usually two (2) or three (3) require
- Transfer of automobiles, boat, trailer or camper titles
- Transfer of stocks and bonds, one (1) for each corporation
- Transfer of bank savings or trust accounts
- Transfer of checking accounts
- Filing Federal/State/City income tax returns
- Social Security Benefits
- For insured loans, insured credit cards
- For credit union accounts
- To qualify for bereavement time compensation from some employers
- Welfare benefits
Probate proceedings (check with your lawyer as to how many)
