After cremation services for your loved one in Washington Township, MI, there are many important documents that you will need to take care of your loved one’s final affairs. You may not know what all the documents are and you may not know where to find them (if you’re preplanning your own cremation services, be sure to leave instructions on where your important documents are located).

One of the groups of documents that you will need after your loved one’s cremation services are records of their assets. Here are some examples:

• Financial account statements – These will include all bank accounts, retirement accounts, investment or brokerage accounts, and annuities. If possible, you should try to obtain statements for three or four months before your loved one’s death.
• Life insurance policies – While many people buy life insurance policies on their own, they also may have smaller life insurance policies through their employers. Be sure to check with the HR department of your loved one’s place of employment (if they were still working when they died) to see what benefits they were entitled to.
• Designated beneficiaries – Life insurance policies, payable on death accounts, retirement accounts, and transfer on death accounts have beneficiaries to whom the money is paid or transferred directly. You will need to make sure you know who the designated beneficiaries are on each of these accounts.
• Deeds for property – These include homes, buildings, and land. You do not need the original deeds, but you do need a good copy of them.
• Titles for vehicles, boats, motorcycles, campers, and RVs – To legally transfer the titles of these, you will need to have the original copies for each of them that your loved one owned.
• Stock and bond certificates – If your loved one had stock and bond certificates, you will need the original certificates to legally transfer them to someone else.

If your loved one own or co-owned a business, you will need the following documents:

• Partnership, corporate, or LLC documents – These documents include copies of organizational (corporate charter or articles of organization and minutes) documents, operating agreements, partnership agreements, or shareholder agreements, minutes of meetings where business decisions were made, and original LLC or stock certificates to transfer legal title.
• Account statements – You need at least three months of bank statements, retirement account statements, and brokerage statements.
• Contracts – These include any loans, leases, and employment agreements.
• Business licenses – You will need both local and state licenses.
• Income tax returns – You should have federal and state income tax returns for the past three years.

Other important documents you will need to have include:

• Death certificates – The funeral home will complete these and have them available to you after cremation services.
• Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements – These documents should also include any amendments that were made to the original agreements.
• Personal loans – These will include mortgages, credit lines, and promissory notes.
• Personal debts or liabilities – These will include utility bills, medical bills, and credit card bills.
• Will or revocable living trust – These estate documents should include any codicils (made to the original will) or amendments (made to the revocable living trust).
• Personal income tax returns – You should have state and federal income tax returns for the past three years.

All of these documents, if their applicable in your loved one’s situation, will be needed to settle the estate of your loved one. Make sure you know where they are and how to obtain them before cremation services for your loved one.

For information about cremation services in Washington Township, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you.

It is common after cremation services in Shelby Charter Township, MI to hold funeral receptions where food, drinks, and stories are shared about loved ones. Storytelling is one of the great traditions that humans have of passing along information throughout time.

Many of the classic epics and books that are available now in written form were once part of a vibrant oral tradition. The Illiad and The Odyssey, written in poem format by Homer in the 8th century BC, are two of the oldest examples of storytelling.

The stories we tell help us define ourselves. They help us to connect with each other. And, in the case of stories that are told during a funeral reception, they help us begin to start the healing process after the death of someone we love.

The stories we tell at funeral receptions focus on fond memories, funny memories, a meaningful life, the impact our loved one had on other people. They are a comforting and supportive way to say farewell to someone we love.

So, how can you naturally evoke storytelling about your loved one at the funeral reception?

One way to encourage storytelling at your loved one’s funeral reception is to provide photo collages of them that highlight certain aspects of their lives.

For example, if your loved one was an ardent supporter of the sports teams from the college where they graduated or they had a favorite professional sports team that they closely followed, then a photo college of them in their team’s gear or attending games will naturally encourage people to say, “I remember when…”

Your loved one may have served in the military and may have won several honors and medals during their service. A photo collage of them during their military tour (or career) along with some of the accolades they received is sure to spark conversations from people who served with them or from people who may not know about their military service.

Another way to encourage people at the funeral reception to share their stories and memories of your loved one is by the food you serve at the funeral reception. You can share some of your loved one’s favorite dishes and explain why they were favorites.

Perhaps your loved one had a favorite comfort food that they wanted when they were sick, or when they had a rough day. Maybe your loved one had a special dessert that they wanted each year for their birthday. Serving these foods lets you tell the stories behind them and give insights about your loved one.

If your loved one had passions and hobbies that sustained them throughout their life, you can create a display of them doing what they loved or some of the things that they created. Not only will this elicit stories from you and your family, but it will also spark conversations among the others at the funeral reception about their memories of your loved one following their passions or enjoying their hobbies.

One of the common ways that storytelling is done at funeral receptions is by asking people who attend to share their memories of your loved one. You will have people at the funeral reception who may have known your loved one all their lives and who shared close friendships with them during their life. Perhaps college friends will be there or colleagues who worked with them throughout the years.

Hearing the stories each of the groups of people tell about your loved one will be very comforting and healing for you and your family.

For information about cremation services in Shelby Charter Township, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home is here to assist you.

Some of the cremation services in Chesterfield Township, MI may be for people that you have worked with. You have had friends and family members who have died, so you are familiar with how to pay tribute to and honor their memories.

However, when you have a coworker die, you may be unsure about what appropriate ways to honor them are. It’s not uncommon for someone in the office to pass a sympathy card around the office for everybody to sign. Occasionally, you will be asked to make a donation so the office can send flowers to the funeral home.

Many people from the office may attend the cremation services, regardless of how well they knew their coworker.

But you may have known the coworker very well because you worked closely together, or you developed a friendship over the year. You believe you should do more for your coworker than what the office. So, how do you do that?

Many offices tend to push to move past an employee’s death. After the sympathy card is sent, the flowers are sent to the funeral home, and employees have attended cremation services, your office may simply act as though your coworker was never there.

This is a reflection of Western society’s relationship with death, but it can negatively affect the whole office’s morale, because it can imply that employees are expendable, and they don’t really matter to the company.

You can do something about this by leading the office, as a whole, to do something meaningful to remember your coworker who died.

You could organize a special memorial service for your coworker. Planning a lunch where everyone in office brings a dish is a great way to get everyone together to remember and share stories about your coworker. To include your deceased coworker’s immediate family in your office’s tribute lunch, you could invite them to come for the lunch as well.

Another way that you could honor your coworker is to ask if you can plant a memory tree for them in a place where other employees gather during breaks or for lunch when it’s nice outdoors.

You can create a memory board in a break room or cafeteria to honor your deceased coworker. You might ask your coworker’s immediate family if they’d be willing to participate by donating photos and other mementos that highlight what they loved about your coworker.

You could keep the memory board up in the breakroom or cafeteria for a short period of time (two to four weeks is common), and then have everything on the memory board turned into a printed photo book. You can ask everyone to sign it and then present it to your deceased coworker’s immediate family.

You could approach your company about creating a scholarship in your deceased coworker’s name. Companies often like to these kinds of things because it shows that they are charitable.

The scholarship doesn’t have to be for a large amount of money, but it should go to someone in need in the community. This might be a local non-profit group that your deceased coworker supported (a local animal shelter, a homeless shelter, a food bank, etc.) or some other institution or social issue that was important to your deceased coworker.

If, for whatever reason, your coworker needs help with medical expenses or funeral expenses, you could ask your company if you can solicit other employees to contribute money that can be given to your coworker’s immediate family to help them out financially.

For information about cremation services in Chesterfield Township, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you.

Cremations are one of the cremation services offered in Washington Township, MI. Some of these cremations will be for people who were very much loved by many, but who took their own lives.

Family members and friends have lost a loved one to suicide frequently wrestle with intense guilt, grief, and regret that they could not prevent the death their loved one. They also struggle with feelings of shame over how their loved one died, and this can leave them isolated in coping with their bereavement.

Over 100 Americans commit suicide every day. Suicide is ranked as the 10th most common cause of all the deaths that happen in the United States. Suicide is the third most common cause of death among young people (ages 15-24). For people aged 25-44, suicide is the fourth most common cause of death.

Some people who commit suicide have a long history of fighting with chronic and severe depression or other mental illnesses. Other people who commit suicide finally succeed after numerous previous threats or attempts to commit suicide.

Every suicide is followed too many questions and too few answers for the families and friends of those who have committed suicide.

However, some people who commit suicide do so without a history of deep depressions, mental illnesses, suicide threats, and suicide attempts. Those, perhaps, are the suicides that are most perplexing for their family members and friends.

When loved ones commit suicide with no warning, their family members and friends often have almost identical stories about the previous days, weeks, and months of their time with their loved one. Their loved ones who have committed suicide seemed relaxed, normal, and even optimistic or happy prior to their deaths.

However, it is really not uncommon for people who commit suicide to give any overt signs that they are thinking about committing suicide or they are planning how to commit suicide. It seems almost unfathomable that someone could keep such a life-altering decision hidden underneath a façade of being fine and being upbeat about life.

Although there are no hard and fast answers about how this could be, there are some common characteristics that come into play with all suicides.

One of these characteristics is the stigma that is attached to suicide. If a loved one let anyone know that they were thinking about or planning to kill themselves, they would automatically be seen as crazy or selfish.

Another reason why a loved one would talk about committing suicide is that they realize how painful (although that pain is diminished compared to their own pain) their death will be to those they leave behind. By simply being quiet about what they are thinking and planning, many people who commit suicide believe they are decreasing the amount of pain for their friends and loved ones.

Another reason why people may hide their plans to commit suicide is because they believe they will be stopped if others find out. People who commit suicide are suffering from intense emotional pain, and they may not be able to bear the thought of having to live any longer.

Although every suicide and the reasons behind it is unique, there are some common situations that may increase the risk of suicide.

These can include a significant life loss, a serious life crisis, a loss of social support, a chronic or terminal illness, or the suicides of family members and friends.

If you’ve lost a loved one to suicide, please consider grief counseling for you and your family. While you may never know all the whys about your loved one’s suicide, grief counseling can help you work through your own feelings about it.

For information about cremation services in Washington Township, MI, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you.