Talking with Your Family about Cremation

Preplanning cremations is one of our cremation services. If you’ve decided that you want to be cremated after you die, then you should consider preplanning your funeral cremation with our funeral home.

To start the preplanning process, you can decide what kind of cremation you want. Many people choose a direct cremation with a memorial service held sometime after the cremation. Other people want a funeral service before they are cremated. The funeral home can accommodate whichever option you decide works best for you and your family.

After you’ve chosen the type of cremation you want, then you should think about the kind of memorial or funeral service you want.

Be specific. If you want a certain person to officiate the service, confirm with them that they would be willing and available. If you want a certain kind of format for your service, then outline the format you want.

Typically, most services will include eulogies or storytelling, readings (prose, poetry, and scriptures), and music. You can decide who you want to give eulogies, who you want to read, and what music you want played.

You may want a video tribute as part of your service. If you do, then let the funeral director know that. If the video has music and photos, you can provide the photos and the song selections to the funeral director and they can create a tribute video for your service.

You may also want memorial tables that capture the parts of your life that are important to you and that you’re passionate about. Describe what kinds of things you envision being placed on those tables.

If you are a military veteran, you may want military honors at your funeral or memorial service. The funeral director will work with the local Department of Veterans Affairs or a local veteran’s organization to ensure that military honors are presented.

Be sure to take your military discharge papers (Form DD-214) to the funeral home for your cremation preplanning meeting, as well as your Social Security card, birth certificate, and marriage certificate (or divorce decree, if applicable).

You have the opportunity to write your own obituary as well. While the funeral director can – and will, if you prefer – write the obituary, many people are choosing to write their own obituaries, so that they can tell the story of their lives in their own words.

You don’t have to have this written when you have your cremation preplanning meeting, but make sure you get it to the funeral director as soon as you’ve written it. All they should have to do is add the date of your death.

Finally, you can decide what you want done with your cremation remains or you can let your family decide. If, for example, you want your cremation remains buried in a cemetery or have an ash scattering service, the funeral director can help you pick out an urn that designed for burial.

Once you’ve had your cremation preplanning meeting with the funeral home, you need to do one more thing. You need to sit down and talk with your family about your plans.

If you’ve written everything down – and this is the best way to preplan a cremation – then give your written instructions to your family and let them know that the funeral home has them on file. Tell your family why you’ve chosen to arrange a cremation and what you want done for services and for final disposition.

This conversation lets your family know that you don’t want them to be burdened with having to do this after you die.

Since cremation preplanning is among the cremation services we offer, you can depend on our compassionate and experienced team at Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home to help you every step of the way.