Funeral Planning: When someone you love dies, the last thing you want to think about is planning their funeral. Unfortunately, most of us will have to carry out that difficult emotional and financial task at least once in our lives. While funeral planning can be tinged by deep sadness and sorrow, there are ways to make finalizing the arrangements just that little bit easier.
However, often in such incidents the family squabbles erupt over something that should be relatively straightforward. It is important to take the wishes of the deceased into account, as well as the wishes of their surviving family. Avoid bickering by getting everyone together to discuss the planning as much as possible, and by talking in depth about religious preferences.
A funeral is always a somber affair. The whole world seems to stop spinning, and time is halted. But alas, there are responsibilities to take care of and though planning a funeral service may be hard, with all the legal and financial matters to attend to, there are ways to alleviate the difficulty somewhat.
Unless the deceased had planned ahead, it is best to tap the services of a funeral director. They are knowledgeable in these matters and know what to prepare. Though you might have an idea, in a time of mourning, sometimes you cannot think clearly or are in a daze so a funeral director is of utmost importance.
When someone passes on, the obvious first step is to consult their will. Did they leave some specific arrangements about their funeral, did they specify whether they wanted to be buried or cremated, did they leave instructions concerning the type of eulogy they wanted read out in front of friends, family and colleagues. Then your choices will be limited according to how much you are willing to pay for the funeral itself.
Then decide on a service, where your loved one may have already left implicit instructions about what they want. If not, it is up to you to choose something based on the type of person they were. Finally, you can also prepare a funeral that fits the personality of the deceased. If the departed was a happy go lucky individual and loved music, you can play his or her favorite music while asking everyone to dress as a musician.
