When counseling grieving families, every once in a while you come up against a brick wall. Family members can’t agree on the wording for the obituary or which cemetery to use or how much to spend on the arrangements. Whatever the problem, the result is that the funeral planning screeches to a halt. When families [...]
Among the New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and stop procrastinating, should be a promise to ourselves to understand why we do the things we do. Since a large portion of our lives consists of habits, going the route of least resistance, and doing what is expected, this new year can be our opportunity to [...]
Guiding a family to select the right casket is both a science and an art. Psychological factors that the grieving family brings into the picture along with your responsibilities as a business owner definitely create a unique dance between emotions and good business sense. Like any other business, being a funeral director has a bottom [...]
The selection of the casket is one of the first things grieving families think about when they are considering burial. Somehow this takes precedence because it is how most people believe they can preserve the memory of their loved one. Knowing that the deceased is safe in a secure casket provides a sense of final [...]
Although a sense of loneliness is a natural product of the loss of a loved one, everyone assumes that a funeral director must also by default have a lonely job. Those funeral directors who try to do everything themselves often find themselves overwhelmed and very much alone. Especially if they have two or more funerals [...]
In the process of trying to be sensitive to your grieving family, it is possible to be overrun by them. This is not something they do intentionally. Their world has been turned upside down, so in self-preservation, they try to deal only with the crisis and not “sweat the small stuff.” As a result, they [...]
Whether there was no will, or the deceased didn’t bother to include his (or her) wishes for his own funeral, the grieving family has the same dilemma: what kind of funeral to have. This is not something most of them want to deal with right now. It was bad enough losing their loved one. Now, [...]
Memorial funeral programs are programs created for a funeral service which are intended to provide information and comfort about the deceased to those attending the service. Funeral programs may also be given to those who could not attend the funeral service, as a way of providing comfort despite the fact that they were unable to [...]
Funeral arrangements must often be made during a time of confusion, sorrow and grief. This can make decision regarding the arrangements for a funeral overwhelming and difficult for many people. You may find that you are feeling ill-prepared for these decisions or that you cannot possibly begin to decide upon them. However, the process of [...]
In the past, funeral services tended to be standardized ceremonies which rarely attempted to reflect or memorialize the deceased's life and memory. While there is nothing particularly wrong with the typical standardized ceremony, many people find them too generic to leave a lasting impression on the memory of the deceased. For this reason, people are [...]
