Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a funeral service important?
Why think about funerals now?
How are funeral arrangements made?
What is visitation?
Where do you hold a funeral?
How can a funeral be personalized?
What are the final burial or disposition choices?
Should I involve the clergy?
How do I choose a burial site?
What type of music can be used?
What part do flowers play during a funeral?
What are memorial contributions?
What do I need to bring to the funeral home?

Why is a funeral service important?

In the earliest recorded times, societies honored the dead through ceremonies. According to beliefs at that time, the purpose of the ritual was to properly send the decedent on the journey into the next life.

Today, however, psychologists and other experts agree that the benefits of the funeral are for those left behind; those who must reconstruct their lives following their loss. Before family and friends can fully adjust to their loss, survivors must express their grief in ways meaningful to them. Openly and realistically, they must face the fact that death has indeed occurred. The funeral provides the opportunity to do exactly that.

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Why think about funerals now?

Often, the major concern for those making funeral arrangements is: What are the right choices? At the time of death, the right choices are often something only the family can determine. However, it is possible and increasingly common for a funeral to be pre-planned. An individual can make arrangements concerning his/her own service, memorialization, and final resting place prior to the actual need. Pre-planning not only allows the individual to choose his/her desired options, it relieves the family of making these decisions.

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How are funeral arrangements made?

Your first contact, when beginning the funeral planning process, will most likely be a funeral home. When a death occurs, your chosen funeral home begins helping you immediately. The staff is prepared to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The first duty of the funeral home staff is to transfer the deceased to the funeral home. The funeral home personnel are professionally trained to provide you and your family and friends with the appropriate service and guidance during this very difficult time. The funeral director's primary function is to assist you in determining the funeral service details, including such aspects as:

• Providing for care and custody of the body
  
• Helping you determine the time, structure, and all the details of the visitation and/or service
  
• Coordinating details with the clergy and/or fraternal orders
  
• Placing the obituary and death notice in the newspaper
  
• Helping you select the appropriate merchandise, such as a casket, urn, or vault
  
• Obtaining necessary paperwork, including death certificate
  
• Arranging motor vehicles for transportation and for use in the procession

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What is visitation?

The visitation, preceding the funeral or memorial service, is a time when family and friends gather at the funeral home or other appropriate place to share their grief and to offer support with tributes of flowers, donations to favorite charities, cards, and prayers. The visitation has become increasingly important. Today's lifestyle has actually resulted in more people attending the visitation than the funeral service. The visitation is often held during non-working hours and gives friends and family a flexible time frame in which to offer their support.

The casket may be opened for viewing or it may be closed during the visitation (at the family's discretion). This detail is left completely to the person or persons making the funeral arrangements. Some psychologists and other experts suggest that viewing the body, either privately or during the visitation, is helpful because it erases any denial that death has occurred.

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Where do you hold a funeral?

The location of the funeral service can be in any funeral home, church, or other location chosen by the deceased or the family. A full-service funeral home has the knowledge, the equipment, and the personnel to fulfill the requirements of any family's faith, regardless of the location of the funeral service.

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How can a funeral be personalized?

It is becoming more common to tailor a funeral service to the personality of the deceased. Prayers and remembrances offered by family and friends, favorite music, treasured belongings, pictures, and mementos can all play a major role in making the final tribute fitting and moving.

The family can choose to assemble a display containing family photographs, favorite possessions, items from a hobby, or awards the deceased received. These items help sift the emphasis of the services to the memories of the person's life, rather than on the circumstances of his or her death.

Personalization can also be added by simply choosing the most appropriate services and products available from the funeral home. These include cremation and its various service options, participating in a living memorial program, or purchasing a burial plot below the canopy of a sturdy oak tree.

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What are the final burial or disposition choices?

Most funerals in North America conclude with earth burial, which is burying the remains contained in a casket into the ground. Purchases made for this option generally include a casket, a vault, a cemetery plot, and a headstone or grave marker.

Another choice is cremation. People choose cremation for a variety of reasons, including environmental concerns, personal preference, religious beliefs, changing family surroundings, and traditions. Cremation is not intended to replace the elements of the traditional funeral, but is simply an alternative to earth burial or entombment of the body of the deceased. Accompanying funeral services can range from the most traditional with full visitation and memorial service to cremation with minimal services.

Above-ground entombment is provided in mausoleums-buildings designed and maintained to house human remains. Mausoleums are especially popular in certain regions of North America. The availability and price ranges of mausoleum crypts vary depending on geographic location.

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Should I involve the clergy?

It is very common for a member of the clergy to lead the funeral service, graveside service, and to offer support to family and friends. It is important for the funeral process to have special meaning for those closest to the deceased regardless of the service options chosen. If the person being honored was active in his/her church, it is fitting for the clergy to be an important part of the funeral. However, if the person had little or no church affiliation, it may be appropriate to have a few friends or family members share thoughts with those attending the service.

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How do I choose a burial site?

If an earth burial is chosen, a burial plot in a cemetery must be purchased. Many times a family plot exists where husbands, wives, children, brothers, and sisters can all be laid to rest.

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What type of music can be used?

Garden Chapel Funeral Home can provide help with music selections for your service. The funeral home generally has a selection of hymns and other styles of music. It is also possible for the family to provide musical selections to be played on the funeral home's system. Live music, in the form of a vocalist and/or other musician, is also an option.

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What part do flowers play during a funeral?

Those offering support will often send flowers to the funeral home. This does provide comfort to the family and close friends and adds beauty to the visitation and funeral home. The funeral home will take care of receiving and arranging the flowers.

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What are memorial contributions?

Sometimes when funeral arrangements are made, a favorite cause or charitable group may be designated to receive contributions "in memoriam." A memorial fund may also be initiated, especially if the deceased has minor children or a dependent with a disability. In these cases, the family will inform those offering support, "Memorial gifts can be made to [name of charity]."

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What do I need to bring to the funeral home?

When the funeral home is preparing for a funeral, there are several items that the family or closest friends need to provide. It helps if these items can be taken to the funeral home for the arrangements conference:

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