Choosing the right Funeral Home – for you
Organising a funeral isn’t something people do on a regular basis. So it’s little wonder that you may feel a little nervous and uncertain. Even a simple funeral is a significant event.
So how do you choose the right funeral home for you?
Type of funeral
The first thing is to ask yourself what kind of funeral service do you want? The typical funeral service, like those in the past, had the coffin present, a person leading the service, others sharing and perhaps a cuppa afterwards. This is a very basic outline of what we would call a traditional funeral.
People still want this type of funeral. Most funeral homes are catered to provide this service. It is the type of service that they are geared up to provide. To the extent that many have their own chapel and kitchen facilities. Or they can set up in churches, conference rooms, etc.
If this is what you are wanting, who do you go with? Often it is the recommendation of people who have used the services of a particular home before. Or it is simply an ad you came across. Or the one that most people know or have heard about. For you, you may have no idea of the differences between homes. Are they basically all the same anyway? Maybe that’s a blog for another time.
The best thing to do is to visit a few rest homes. Get a feel of the place and the people and see if you are comfortable working with them. Be open and say you are “shopping around” so you aren’t talked into the first place you go to. You don’t need to rush! You can pop into most funeral homes without an appointment to have a chat.
Make sure you are happy with your decision and if you have reservations you can change your mind. Because a funeral is a very emotional and vulnerable time and it is important you feel comfortable and reassured by the people you select.
Simple Funerals
More people are choosing a simple funeral, like a direct cremation with no service. This is a limited service and funeral homes will offer a slight variation of costs and services around this. So again, it does pay to do a little research – beyond their advertisements. You need to be aware that even though they have one low price, if there are some extra things you may like to add, that cost will rise.
Know exactly what a simple funeral will cover, and importantly, what it doesn’t cover. Again, because a funeral is not something you do often, it is easy to do things that you either didn’t want to do or don’t need to do.
Keep in mind that simple is not always easy with some places – so with your conversations / research, discuss exactly what you are wanting and compare what they say with other places. You may even find that the lowest price isn’t the best option.
SDF started because I wanted to focus on offering only low-cost simple funerals. What I found was that people were more appreciative with how I worked with them than simply the price. Having only this particular service means don’t worry about more complicated funerals or needing to sell more services to cover overheads.
I have had people come to me and after discussing their needs they have decided to go elsewhere. I have absolutely no problem with that. I won’t promise something I can’t provide. But I will discuss other options that families often find very helpful.
Hopefully choosing a funeral home is not something you will need to do often. But if there comes a time when you do, remember…
- Decide what kind of funeral you want
- Compare different funeral homes
- Be aware of costs to services
- Talk to people who may have used a funeral home recently
- Be comfortable with the people at the funeral home
- You have the final say
