Tips for Planning a Funeral: What to Keep in Mind During the Worst of Times

Though it may not be the cheeriest topic, at one point or another in life, everyone has to deal with the death of a loved one. For those instances when you are the closest person to the deceased, there are many things you have to keep in mind during one of the worst times of your life, planning a funeral. If you're unable to think straight, here's a list of what will generally happen during the planning of a funeral.

When someone dies, a physician is the only person who can legally declare a person dead and fill out a death certificate. The body must then be removed quickly (usually within several hours) before decomposition begins. Just how this happens will depend on where the person died, whether in a hospital, at a nursing home, in the family home, in a public place or while traveling.

In a hospital, the on-duty or family physician will pronounce the person dead and fill out the death certificate. The funeral home of choice is contacted and the body is taken to the hospital morgue. At a nursing home, the same will happen if a physician is available; if not, the body is taken to the local hospital first. At home, a physician or the police will be called, and the body will either be picked up directly by the funeral home or taken to the morgue first to determine the cause of death, if it was unexpected. In a public place, the police should be called, then the body will be taken to a hospital before being picked up by the funeral home.

The next step is to determine what kind of funeral to have, whether it be a burial or cremation. Or, if desired by the deceased before their death, the body could be donated to medical science. This decision rests on both the wishes of the deceased and the desires of the survivors. To find a funeral home, first ask family or friends for advice; if they can't help, find a funeral home in the Yellow Pages. Cost of funerals range from a few hundred dollars for the most simplest funerals up to thousands of dollars for the most lavish.