Dying matters, and for those left behind, it’s not only the grieving process that must be considered, but the practical funeral arrangements too.
Over the next few weeks the Wilts and Glos Standard is kindly allowing us, as local funeral directors, to answer questions we get asked the most around funerals and arrangements, to help you make an important, inevitable part of life easier to understand and deal with.
The most important thing to remember is that funerals can be whatever you want them to be, from a traditional church service with meaningful hymns and bible readings to a wild and wonderful woodland burial service, a bit of both – or something else entirely. Even funerals have had to adapt to changing consumer demands and we’ve had requests for all sorts. However you want to say goodbye and celebrate a life, it will be OK with us.
A family dealing with an expected, or unexpected, death can hand all arrangements over to a trusted funeral director who can take care of everything following the registration of the death. We can assist with notifying the DHSS and pensions agency, liaise with hospitals, doctors, the church or crematorium and deal with all funeral arrangements, including catering for a post burial celebration, however detailed or straightforward you want them to be.
Legally, the registration of death must be done within five working days, although there is flexibility depending on circumstances. If it’s a natural death, the doctor will issue a medical cause of death certificate for you to take to your local registrar of births, deaths and marriages. You will exchange the handwritten certificate for a printed one called a certified copy of the entry into the register, more usually known as the ‘Death Certificate’.
Pass this to your chosen funeral director, and one of the first questions he (or she, we have a lovely lady funeral director at Cowley and Son), is would you prefer burial or cremation?
Personally I don’t find either very appealing but as I don’t have the secret of eternal youth, it’s one or the other.
