Category: funeral home

Some of the funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL will be for people who died from some kind of addiction. Whether the addiction is to drugs, to alcohol, to food, to risky activities, etc., it most likely took a life sooner rather than later.

Despite the fact that the obituaries of many older people say death was unexpected, the reality is that we do expect people to die when they begin to get up in years. However, it’s always a shock when younger people die.

When younger people die as the result of accidents, their deaths are both sudden and unexpected and the shock hits hard. However, when people died as a result of addiction, although we feel shock, we have to acknowledge that the expectation was always hovering in the background. It was never a matter of if, but a matter of when.

That being said, coping with addiction-related deaths is just as hard, if not harder in some ways, as coping with any other death of someone we love and care about.

Addiction-related deaths have more baggage left behind for the people who are grieving their loved one. Those are the things that we have to navigate through in addition to the normal emotional upheaval of grief and loss.

One thing that almost everyone who loses a loved one as a result of addiction has to deal with is guilt. Head knowledge about addiction goes out the window when we’re grieving, and we have to wrestle with the idea that “if we had just [fill in the blank] more,” we could have saved our loved one from addiction and from death.

Nothing is further from the truth, but guilt can be a hard thing to work through to return to that knowledge that our loved one’s addiction was not only bigger than they were, but it was also bigger than we were.

Another hard part of coping with an addiction-related death is children. Perhaps our loved one was a parent. Perhaps they were a beloved aunt or uncle. Maybe they were a grandparent. Maybe they were an older brother or sister.

When children are left behind after addiction-related deaths, two things must be addressed.

One of those things is explaining the death to the children in an age-appropriate way that doesn’t overload them emotionally or give them more information than they’re ready to handle. That can be a very hard line to walk successfully for family members of the loved one who died.

The other thing that must be addressed with children in regard to addiction-related deaths is self-blame. Self-blame is common in children, especially when their parents have died as a result of addiction. They come to see themselves as the reason why their parents were addicted and, therefore, why they died. It’s important to get professional counseling, if needed, to take this burden of the shoulders of children.

Another very slippery slope in coping with an addiction-related death is whether to explain the cause of death to the outside world of coworkers, teachers, friends who aren’t close to your family, and others whom you and your family know, but not well.

Many people are now choosing to tell the stories of how their loved one’s addiction killed them, hoping that it will remove the stigma and shame. Others decide to keep the cause of death private. Either choice is okay, and we don’t have to feel obligated to divulge more than we are comfortable with.

If you want to know more about grief resources 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.

Before and after funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, there are many things that need to be done after the death of a loved one. Having a checklist ready will help you get the things accomplished that have to be done right away and long-term. Don’t be hesitant to get your family to help take care of some of these things where legal authority is not an issue.

The first thing that needs to happen after your loved one has died is that they need to be officially pronounced dead. This begins the process of the creation of a certified death certificate (completed jointly by a medical professional and the funeral director), which you’ll need to make life insurance claims, handle financial accounts, and settle the estate.

You should get at least 20 copies of the certified death certificate once it’s completed. The funeral director will take care of completing the death certificate and getting the number of certified copies that you specify.

If your loved died in the hospital, someone on the medical staff there will do the pronouncement of death and mark the time of death. If your loved one was in hospice care at home, then you will need to contact the hospice agency. A hospice medical professional will come and do the pronouncement and mark the time of death.

The next thing you’ll need to do is notify people of your loved one’s death. These first notifications will be to people who need to know. These may include immediate family members who are not present when your loved one died, close friends of your loved one and/or your family, your loved one’s primary care provider, and your loved one’s pastor.

If your loved one was still working, be sure to contact their employer’s Human Resources to notify them of the death and to ask them to cancel any upcoming scheduled events. You may not be in any shape to ask about outstanding pay and benefits that your loved one is entitled to at this point, but be sure to make a note to contact the employer within the next couple of days to inquire about these.

If your loved one has pets or children, you’ll need to ensure that they are all in a safe and comfortable environment immediately following the death.

Most people with children have some sort of legal guardianship documents in place – whether they are aunts, uncles, grandparents, or godparents – in case of death, but the people named in these documents may live elsewhere, so the children will need a safe, temporary home.

If your loved one was in the hospital, the staff will ask you what funeral home should be notified to transport your loved one from the hospital. Once you give them that information, they will contact the funeral home for transport.

If your loved one was in hospice care at home, the hospice medical professional will get the funeral home information from you and arrange for them to come and pick your loved one up.

The next thing will be to make funeral arrangements (usually within 24 hours after the death). The funeral director will guide you through the process and help you as you make decision about the service and the burial.

If you want to know more about funerals 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, one of the responsibilities of the executor is to make sure any life insurance claims and filed and paid to the estate. You might not realize it, but life insurance companies are supposed to regularly check the Social Security database for deaths that are reported and match them up with clients and policies.

However, most life insurance companies don’t do this consistently or regularly, so it’s not prudent to wait on them to send a payout on a life insurance claim. However, in some cases, life insurance companies are more vigilant, but they run into a snag trying to send the payout because the address they have on file for the beneficiary is decades old and the beneficiary no longer lives there.

So, it’s best to be proactive about getting life insurance claims filed to receive the payout as quickly as possible.

The first thing you’ll need to do in this process is to find the life insurance policy. Presumably, it should be with the deceased’s other important papers, like the will or trust. The deceased may have kept these in a bank safety deposit box or a fireproof home safe. If you’re unable to locate the original life insurance policy, look for an annual billing statement, which will have the life insurance company’s name and contact information, the policy number, and the value of the life insurance payout. This might be a printed statement or it might be an online statement. If you can’t find a printed statement, then you should have a digital will that has the life insurance login information, so you can get a statement online by logging into the deceased’s account.

There may several life insurance policies for the deceased, including their places of employment, so it’s prudent to check with all employers by contacting their Human Resources department to find out if there are any life insurance policies in effect.

If you can’t find any life insurance policy information anywhere, your next step is to contact the the state’s unclaimed property office. You should contact the office in the state where the deceased lived. They can let you know if any unclaimed life insurance money in the deceased’s name was turned over to them. You can find each state’s unclaimed property office by following a link on the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrator’s website.

An important fact to remember is that no money is considered unclaimed until one years has elapsed without activity or contact with the life insurance policy holder, so it will take you more than a year to settle this part of the estate if you can’t find life insurance policy information easily.

Once you have the life insurance policy information, you will contact the life insurance company and they will instruct you how to file a claim. You will need a certified copy of the death certificate and you will have to complete forms for the company. They will then pay the claim.

Most life insurance policy payouts are exempt from taxes. However, if a life insurance policy is one that accrues interest, you will be responsible for paying taxes on the interest income.

If you want to know more about life 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.

Before death and funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, often end-of-life care is required. This is known as comfort care. Comfort care is fully covered by Medicare and may be fully or partially covered by other types of health insurance. If you don’t have Medicare, check with your insurance provided to see what kind of comfort care coverage your policy offers.

Palliative care is one kind of comfort care. Palliative care is provided in the home to people who have chronic and severe illnesses and medical conditions that are being treated, but that require continual medical supervision and support. You can receive palliative care indefinitely or until you decide you no longer want treatment for your illness or medical condition.

Palliative care is an excellent option for people with severe medical conditions like congestive heart failure, cancer, or late-stage dementia where getting to medical facilities for checkups and other assistive therapies is prohibitive.

Palliative care generally includes one visit by a nurse each week to check on the medical condition of the patient. The nurse will take vital signs, do medical assessments based on the input of the patient and/or caregiver, draw bloodwork, if needed, and communicate medication recommendations to the patient’s primary care physician. The nurse can also request the primary care physician to do orders for medical equipment like hospital beds, walkers, and oxygen concentrators (these are safer and easier to use than oxygen tanks) to be delivered to the home.

Palliative care also includes the services of occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, and aides. If a patient has had a stroke, for example, each type of therapist can help adapt the home and improve the patient’s ability to move and talk. Therapists may come to the home once or twice a week. Aides are available, usually twice a week, to help with the personal grooming needs the patient has.

Palliative care is comprehensive care that is provided in the home as long as illnesses or medical conditions are being actively treated.

Once a patient decides they no longer want to have their chronic and severe illness or medical condition treated, then comfort care is provided in the form of hospice care. It’s important to understand that there comes a time in every severe illness or medical condition where treatments become ineffective or they take so much out of the person that the quality of life is greatly diminished. This is not giving up. Instead, it’s an acceptance of the reality of approaching death.

Hospice care admission is based on a single severe illness or medical condition. For example, if a person has terminal cancer and decides they no want treatment for it, then they will be admitted to hospice care for cancer. The hospice care admission is done by a nurse who visits the home. The nurse will ensure that medications for the illness the patient is admitted under are delivered to the home and that medical equipment needed is ordered and delivered. The nurse will also make sure that a comfort care kit (which is used during the dying process) is delivered to the home within 24 hours of admission to hospice care.

Other people who may visit the home during hospice care are chaplains, social workers, and aides.

In general, hospice care is on-call medical care, where hospice care is called in when the medical condition of the patient changes or worsens. Hospice care nurses will visit frequently during the last couple of days before the patient dies. They will be the first phone call the caregiver and/or family makes after death occurs.

If you want to know more about visitations 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.

Part of funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL may include visitations. If you knew the person who died or you knew one of their family members, you should make every effort to attend the funeral visitation, whether you plan to stay for the funeral service or not. Funeral visitations are included in the funeral process because they offer family and friends an opportunity to pay their last respects to the deceased, to give condolences to the deceased’s family, and to offer them comfort, support, and encouragement.

A funeral visitation is the most personal part of the funeral process other than the reception or meal that may optionally be held after the funeral service or burial, because it enables friends and family to talk with the grieving family and share memories and provide emotional support. Funeral visitations are most often held at the funeral home, but it could be held in a church or another place.

If you knew the deceased or are close to the family, it would be considered rude not to attend the visitation, unless the family has requested a private funeral visitation that they limit to a select group of people who are invited. Even if you are not a guest for the private visitation, plan to allot some time to visit with the family within a short period after the funeral.

Some funeral visitations included a viewing, with the casket open and the body of the deceased present. This is becoming less common in some parts of the country, but it is still very traditional in southern states. If you have young children you’d rather not see the open casket, then you can ask the funeral director, who is usually at the entrance of the chapel greeting guests, if there is some place out of the room where the children can sit while you go in (spouses will generally take turns going in so that the children are not unattended).

Don’t get to funeral visitations before the time they are supposed to start. Before the visitation hours begin, the family of the deceased usually spends some time alone with the deceased. This can be very emotional and the family should have privacy to grieve openly and collect themselves emotionally before the visitation begins.

Funeral visitations have the family of the deceased at the front of the chapel, standing beside the casket, and greeting the line of mourners. Don’t spend too much time with the family, because other people are waiting to speak with them as well. Sometimes one person will just keep talking and a family member may miss people they should speak to as they pass through. Make sure to say something to every family member.

Once you’ve gone through the visitation, move toward the back of the room and find a seat. It’s okay to greet other people you know at the visitation, but keep your conversations low-key and short.

When looking for a seat, go to the furthest row back that has empty seats and get a seat nearest the inside part of the row away from the center aisle. As the chapel or sanctuary gets full, if people having to climb over other people to find a seat, it becomes disruptive and is considered disrespectful.

Once you’ve sat down, you may talk very quietly with people nearby, but once the funeral service is about to start, all conversations should be stopped.

If you want to know more about visitations 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.