Parker-Jacobs Funeral Home

Funerals fill an important role for those mourning the loss of a loved one. By providing surviving family and friends with an atmosphere of care and support in which to share thoughts and feelings about death, funerals are the first step in the healing process. It is the traditional way to recognize the finality of death. Funerals are recognized rituals for the living to show their respect for the dead and to help survivors begin the grieving process.

Pick up the deceased and transport the body to the funeral home (anytime day or night); notify proper authorities, family and/or relatives; arrange and prepare death certificates; provide certified copies of death certificates for insurance and benefit processing; work with the insurance agent, Social Security or Veterans Administration to ensure necessary paperwork is filed; prepare and submit obituary to newspapers; bathe and embalm the deceased body if necessary; prepare the body for viewing including dressing and cosmetizing; assist the family with funeral arrangements and purchase of casket, urn, burial vault and cemetery plot; schedule the opening and closing of the grave with cemetery personnel; coordinate with clergy; arrange a police escort and transportation to the funeral and/or cemetery for the family; order funeral sprays and flower arrangements; provide aftercare or grief assistance to the bereaved.

The funeral home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery. Bring birth date, birthplace, father's name, mother's name, social security number, veteran's discharge or claim number, education, and marital status to complete state vital statistic requirements. Contact your clergy and decide on time and place of funeral or memorial service. The funeral home will assist in determining the number of death certificate copies needed. Make a list of immediate family, close friends and colleagues and notify each by phone. Decide on an appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made. Gather obituary information including age, place of birth, cause of death, occupation, college degrees, memberships, military service, and list of survivors. The funeral home will normally write the article and submit to newspapers.

If you request immediate assistance, yes. If the family wishes to spend a short time with the deceased to say good-bye, that's perfectly acceptable. Your funeral director will come when your time is right.

Burial in a casket is the most common method of disposing of remains in the United States, although entombment also occurs. Cremation is increasingly selected because it can be less expensive and allows for the memorial service to be held at a more convenient time in the future. A funeral service followed by cremation need not be any different from a funeral service followed by a burial. Usually, cremated remains are placed in an urn before being committed to a final resting place. The urn may be buried, placed in an indoor or outdoor mausoleum or columbarium, or interred in a special urn garden.

Viewing is a part of many cultural and ethnic traditions. Many grief specialists believe that viewing aids the grief process by helping the bereaved recognize the reality of death. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long as the process is explained and the activity is voluntary.

Embalming sanitizes and preserves the body. Embalming makes it possible to lengthen the time between death and the final disposition, allowing family members time to arrange and participate in the type of service most comforting to them.

Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial.

When compared to other major life events like births and weddings, funerals are not expensive. A funeral home is a 24-hour, labor-intensive business, with extensive facilities (viewing rooms, chapels, limousines, hearses, etc.), these expenses must be factored into the cost of a funeral. The cost includes not only merchandise like caskets, but the services of a funeral director in making arrangements; filing appropriate forms; dealing with doctors, ministers, florists, newspapers and others; and seeing to all necessary details.

It really depends entirely on how you wish to commemorate a life. One of the advantages of cremation is that it provides you with increased flexibility when you make your funeral and cemetery arrangements. You might choose to have a funeral service before the cremation; a memorial service at the time of cremation or after the cremation with the urn present; or a committal service at the final disposition of cremated remains.

The cremains can be interred in a cemetery plot (earth burial), retained by a family member usually in an urn, scattered on private property, or at a place that was significant to the deceased. Today, there are many different types of memorial options from which to choose. A memorial serves as a tribute to a life lived and provides a focal point for remembrance, as well as a record for future generations.

Cremation refers to the process of transforming the body into bone fragments using heat. Any metal objects that may have been included with the body are then removed and the remaining fragments are crushed into ash. Today, many people from various backgrounds are choosing cremation as a more economic and convenient option to a traditional burial.