Category: funeral home

When thinking about funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, you may think that you don’t want any kind of service after you die. You may tell your family that you don’t want a service. You may say something like, “just take me to the cemetery and bury me.”

However, while you may not personally care about or even want any kind of service after you die, there are a few things you might want to think about in terms of why funeral services matter.

First of all, you’ll be dead. You won’t know whether a service of any kind is held for you or not. So, prohibiting your family from having some kind of service to pay tribute to your life and to stop to acknowledge your death – and their loss – is a limitation you are putting on them from the grave, so to speak. And they may not be happy about it.

The second thing you’ll want to consider is that a service – whether it’s a funeral service, a graveside service, or a memorial service – after you die is for those people – family, friends, and acquaintances – who survive you. The service honors your memory, but it’s not really for you.

Funeral services have a very practical and necessary purpose that you may not be aware of, but that you probably don’t want to deprive your family of. The funeral process, from death to making arrangements to having a service to burial, spans several days. This time gives your loved ones a chance to accept the reality of your death, surrounded by support and sympathy of friends and extended family.

The funeral process, in essence, creates a safe landing for your loved ones as they adjust to losing you and the prospect of living without you and with the void that your death has created in their lives.

The funeral service is the centerpiece of the funeral process. It is a service that’s designed for three things: comfort for your loved ones, collective mourning for all those who attend, and acknowledgement that you lived, your life mattered, and you will be missed.

Funeral services also give a judgment-free zone where people, including your loved ones, can grieve. Out of funeral services come important and lasting items that can both evoke good memories and guide your loved ones through the grieving process.

One of these items might be a memorial website, where people from all over who knew you, but might not be able to attend your funeral service in person, can offer their condolences to your loved ones and share memories of their relationship with you. Memorial websites are also a place where photos and other reminders of you can be posted so that your loved ones have access to them long after the funeral process is over.

Another item that is included in the funeral service is the Order of Service, which includes your photo, your date of birth and date of death, and the details about your funeral service and graveside service.

Most funeral services include readings, such as poetry, prose, and Bible scriptures. These are read by people who were important in your life. Funerals also may include eulogies given by close friends or family members. Funeral services also usually have a spiritual comfort section and music (performed live or recorded). The Order of Service lists each part and who is doing it, and it is a permanent reminder for both your loved ones and all those who attend of you and your life.

If you want to know more about funeral services at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.

After funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, if you have funeral insurance, your family will be able to use that policy toward payment of final expenses. Funeral insurance is easy to purchase, since the policies do not require a health examination as part of the approval process. Some policies are guaranteed-acceptance, which means you won’t be required to answer any health questions at all.

Although the death benefits of funeral insurance policies are moderate, they offer a very affordable way for everyone to have some or all of their final expenses covered. This can give you and your family peace of mind after you die.

While you can buy funeral insurance at any age, the targeted age group for funeral insurance policies is between 50 and 85. Death benefits usually range between $5,000 and $25,000 (the higher the death benefit, the higher the monthly premium will be). Death benefits are paid to the beneficiary listed on the policy. That person will then be responsible for putting that money toward your final expenses.

While you can purchase standalone funeral insurance policies, some insurance companies may allow you to convert a portion of an existing insurance policy that you have with them into a funeral insurance policy. This is most typically done when you have multiple policies with an insurance company, and one of those covers the purchase price of your home.

After you’ve been paying off the purchase price of your home for several years, you may not need the full amount the policy covers. Under the policy conversion plan, you can take the extra that is no longer needed and convert that to a different kind of insurance policy, including a funeral insurance policy.

Not all insurance companies offer this option, so be sure to check with your insurance agent to see if your insurance company does. This is an easy way to get a funeral insurance policy in place with very little hassle.

Because funeral insurance is a whole life insurance policy, it has no term – or end – to it (which means that premiums won’t go up in predetermined increments of time) and it is in effect for as long as you live. Most funeral insurance policies are considered paid in full when the policy holder reaches 100 years of age.

There are two types of funeral insurance plans: standard and preneed.

A standard funeral insurance plan is a whole life policy that is paid out to the beneficiary you name after you die to help pay for final expenses. Your beneficiary is free to work with the funeral home of their choice and they can choose whether to apply the death benefit toward any of the expenses you owe when you die, including medical bills, legal bills, credit card debt, or mortgage loans, auto loans, or personal loans.

A preneed funeral insurance plan differs from a standard funeral insurance plan because the death benefit is paid directly to the funeral home you choose instead of to a beneficiary. Preneed funeral insurance policies pay out shortly after your death.

When purchasing a funeral insurance policy, the best type of premium you can get is a leveled premium, which is locked in for life as soon as you purchase the policy, so you never need to worry about premiums increasing as you get older.

If you want to know more about funeral insurance policies at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.

A part of funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL is embalming. While this process is designed to delay the natural decomposition of a body after death, it is so much more than just a scientifically-based part of the funeral process. Embalming extends care to a loved one even after they have died.

If you are having a viewing or the funeral will be an open casket funeral, then embalming is a necessary part of the preparation for these ceremonies.

When a person dies, the first thing that happens is that funeral home staff removes the body from where death occurred and transports it back to the funeral home, where it will be bathed and disinfected to both ensure the safety of funeral home staff and to show honor and dignity to the deceased. The body will then be stored at extremely cold temperatures to inhibit decomposition.

During your meeting with the funeral home director to make arrangements for the funeral, you will be asked how you want your loved one’s body to be prepared. You can choose to have the body prepared and embalmed, dressed and stored at very cold temperatures for cremation, prepared for whole body donation, or prepared to be transported to another funeral home where funeral services and burial will take place.

While you don’t have to choose to have your loved one embalmed, if you want to having a viewing or visitation and you want your loved one’s casket open or closed during the funeral service. If you want a visitation or a viewing, then your loved one’s body will be embalmed (the funeral home director will explain this to you).

Next, you will need to decide what your loved one will wear and what accessories – such as glasses, tie tacks, and wedding rings – you want them to wear. You can either bring these to the funeral home with you when you make the funeral arrangements or you can bring them after you have met with the funeral director. The accessories can be returned to you after the funeral service if you wish, or you can leave them on your loved one for burial.

Because only the upper half of your loved one will be displayed in the casket, you do not have to bring shoes or socks. However, you may, for sentimental reasons, to provide socks if your loved one always had cold feet. It’s just a little touch to show that you care as much about them in death as you did in life.

Embalming includes replacing bodily fluids with a preservation solution that will arrest the natural decomposition of the body. It also includes dressing the body, cutting fingernails, shaving (for men), applying natural-tone makeup to make your loved one look as close as possible to the way they did when they were alive, and hair styling.

Embalming has a long history that dates back to the ancient Egyptians. The royalty and rich who were buried in the storied pyramids of Egypt were embalmed to preserve their bodies and then wrapped in shrouds to further delay decomposition. Embalming became popular among European scientists during the 19th century when they wanted to preserve cadavers to do anatomical research. And in the United States, embalming became a standard funeral practice during the Civil War.

If you want to know more about embalming at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.

After funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, you will start cleaning out your deceased loved one’s things and you will very likely find some of their unused medications. All the medications should be disposed of. Many people, as they near the end of life, are on comfort-care medications, which can include medications like morphine and other opioid medications, as well as sedatives or anti-anxiety medications. These are dangerous to leave just lying around, but you may not be aware of ways to safely get rid of them.

Keeping unneeded prescription medications is a bad practice for everyone. However, when a loved one dies, there may be medications that can be dangerous or, if taken, could lead to addiction. It’s imperative to get rid of these medications as quickly as possible.

Accidental overdoses, especially in small children, are a real possibility, simply because young children are curious about everything. Most of the prescription medications that elderly people take are dispensed in bottles that have easy-to-open lids, which means that they will be easy for small children to open as well.

About 90% of accidental drug overdoses in children under the age of five occurred because they took medication they found while they were not supervised. Many medications are colored, and young children may think they are candy. But taking these medications could lead to serious injury or death.

Prescription medications can also be a gateway for heroin or fentanyl use. Many dying people are on very powerful pain medications to make them comfortable during the dying process. Some of these are likely opioid drugs. Morphine is a very common opioid drug given in the last few days of life.

Although teenagers are the most likely to try these prescription medications, the reality is that the road to addiction could start for anyone at any age if they decide to try these medications. Researchers who looked at data compiled from 2007 to 2011 found that people who’d taken painkillers when they were not experiencing pain were 19 times more likely to move into heroin use.

Improperly disposing of prescription medications, such as flushing them down the toilet, presents many dangers to the water supply. These medications can be ingested by fish, which when ingested by humans, can cause endocrine disruption.

There are several ways you can properly dispose of unused prescription medications.

One way is to drop them off at a pharmacy drop-off box. Both Walgreens and CVS have these boxes available in many of their stores. The medications will then be properly disposed of by waste disposal companies.

Most prescription medications have instructions for safe disposal. If you don’t find this, mix the medications in cat litter, used coffee grounds, or dirt and place them in a sealed plastic bag and throw them in the trash. Be sure to remove all personal information from the bottles before disposing of them.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has a program called the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which occurs in April and October. The DEA will set up temporary collection locations in grocery stores, community centers, pharmacies, and Boys and Girls Clubs where unused prescriptions can be dropped off.

If your loved one was in home hospice care when they died, the hospice agency will take care of safely disposing of the medications they supplied, including the comfort care medications.

If you want to know more about safe medication disposal at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.

When attending funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, you may be surprised to see the deceased not wearing a suit and tie or a nice dress. Funeral attire for those who die before us has changed in the last couple of decades, and now people are being buried in clothes that people are used to seeing them in.

Attire for the deceased has become much less formal. The reasoning behind this is actually pretty straightforward. If people never dressed up much in real life, and the goal of a viewing is to have the deceased person look in death as they looked in life, as much as is possible, then why would they dress up in something they would have never worn when they were alive?

It is now common for men who have died to be buried in sports coats and slacks, with a polo shirt, a team jersey, or even their favorite denim or plaid shirt. Women who have died are now more commonly being buried in pantsuits and skirts, blouses, and blazers. Some women, before they died, expressed a desire to be buried in their wedding gowns, and that is now a growing fashion trend for the deceased.

However, while the funeral home has no restrictions on what a deceased person can be dressed in for the viewing and burial, there are external restrictions that may dictate what kind of clothing the deceased can be dressed in.

For example, when Buddhists died, one of the restrictions on the clothes that the deceased person is wearing is that all buttons and zippers must have been removed. Buddhists believe that the soul of the deceased can escape through buttons and zippers, and to make sure the soul stays with the body, these items are removed from the deceased’s clothing.

In Jewish funeral tradition, deceased people are dress in a plain white linen or muslin shroud. This is considered to be a person’s purist state.

However, if there no cultural or religious restrictions on what the deceased person should be dressed in, the best way to choose their final attire is to dress them in something that is familiar to other people or that will remind people of something special about them.

Some families choose small items of clothing, such as a favorite hat or flip-flops or a college or professional sports team jersey, as part of the attire that their deceased loved one wears. They may also place items that compliment the attire in the casket with their loved one. It’s not unusual to see someone who loved to fish to be buried with their favorite fishing hat and one of their fishing rods or someone who loved to golf buried in clothes that they’d wear to the golf course and one of their golf clubs.

It is becoming more common for funerals to be themed. This means that not only does the deceased get dressed in a certain way, but so do the mourners who attend their funeral. Sports is probably the most commonly-used theme at modern funerals. The deceased will be dressed with a sports jersey and mourners will be asked to wear something to the funeral service that has that team’s logo on it.

If you want to know more about funeral attire at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.