General Information: What To Do When Death Occurs
When a death occurs there are many decisions that your family will be asked to make. This section of our site is meant to help you prepare for your conference with your funeral director.
Scheduling an appointment – Generally, our funeral directors will contact the next of kin shortly after we receive notification of the death. We will ask if there are any immediate questions and set up an arrangement conference time at our facility, where we will arrange the services you desire.
During the arrangement conference, we will discuss several aspects of the service, visitation and interment. We will also gather information for the death certificate and social security forms, and choose the appropriate merchandise.
Things to Bring
In preparation for making funeral arrangements, we ask you review the following and bring those items that are applicable.
Vital Statistic Information
We use this information for legal documents such as death certificate and social security forms. You can complete the at-need form online and email it to us or print it and bring it to the arrangement conference with you.
Clothing
If you are choosing to have services that would include a viewing, please bring the clothing (including undergarments) that you would like your loved one to wear.
Photographs
If you desire to have a photo included with the obituary and memorial folder, please bring a picture of your loved one. Ideally, the photo should be at least 3X5 and in focus. If there are other people in the photograph, that’s alright, we have cropping capabilities.
Many families choose to have photographs displayed at the visitation and funeral service. We will provide you with a photo display board for this purpose.
Other families choose to have a Video Tribute shown during visitation. A video tribute can contain up to 50 photographs and a soundtrack to capture the memories of the life that was lived.Thirty photographs are optimum.
The Obituary
You can complete the obituary form online and email it to us or print and complete it and bring it to the arrangement conference with you. We will place the obituary in newspapers selected by the family. Locally, the Dickinson County News is a weekly newspaper, and the obituary will be in print after the funeral service. The obituary will, however, be available online on our website as soon as the obituary is approved by the family. It is important to remember that each newspaper has it's own policy and fee structure.
Military Discharge papers, if applicable
Some Things To Think About
To be able to fulfill your wishes to plan a meaningful service for your loved one, we will discuss many details.
- Where you would like to have the service
- Who will officiate or lead the service
- Music – Are there musical selections that you would like to include to make the service more meaningful? Do you wish to have live musicians or pre-recorded music
- Pallbearers and/or Honorary Pallbearers
- Family participation in the service (delivering an Eulogy, musicians, etc.)
- Favorite scripture passages, poems or verses to be included in the service
