Why a Funeral Home’s General Price List is So Important

When you need to plan a funeral service or a cremation service, you’ll want to reach out to a funeral home in Shelby Charter Township, MI. The funeral director and other licensed staff at the death care services provider will offer all the help you need to arrange the body disposition.

One of the things they’ll provide you with is a general price list that lays out what they offer and what they charge. What follows are some of the reasons why this document is so important.

Budget

One reason why a price list is so important is that it will easily allow you to budget. Whether your budget is big or small, you can use the price list to figure out how much you can afford. The various cremation, funeral, and memorial service packages will be listed. Just as importantly, the costs for these options will be clearly laid out. So you and your family will be able to refer to this document throughout the planning process. And this will help to keep you on budget.

Options

Another reason a price list is so important is that it will show you your options. This is especially important if you and your family are not sure exactly what you want to plan. Even if you’ve all decided to go with a specific body disposition type, such as a funeral and burial, you’ll still need to select a certain final service package within that body disposition type. When you consult the price list, you’ll see your options. You’ll be able to see what each final service package offers, and this will make it easier to choose the right option for you and your family.

Transparency

Yet another reason you’ll want to make use of the price list is that it encourages pricing transparency. You’ll be able to see for yourself what body disposition options are available and what they all cost. You’ll feel more comfortable planning when you know exactly what things cost. If you wish to personalize something, ask the funeral director about any extra costs. A reputable funeral home will always be upfront and transparent so that there are no surprises.

Do you need to find a funeral home serving Shelby Charter Township, MI families? If so, you can count on us to help you with your final services planning. Whether you want to discuss memorials, traditional and contemporary funerals, cremations, caskets or urns, vaults, cremation jewelry, veteran’s discounts, or more, we can help. You can find our general price list on our website by going to https://www.lee-ellenafuneralhome.com/. Our licensed industry professionals are here to help you plan and to answer any questions you may have. We offer a range of personalized services to suit your family’s wishes and needs. Don’t hesitate to reach out for the professional help you need. You can call anytime to speak with our funeral director. You can also stop by our office to talk to someone in person. Either way. you’ll get the help you need. We’re here to assist in any way we can.

Top Reasons to Plan a Memorial Service

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Are you planning a final service with a funeral home in Chesterfield Township, MI? Whether you arrange a funeral service or a cremation service, you can give your loved one a respectable final send-off. After the body disposition, you might wish to hold a memorial service. In case you were wondering about the reasons to hold a memorial service, here’s a look at some of them.

Your Loved One Had Asked for One

If your deceased loved had requested that a memorial be held after their body disposition, you will want to honor their request as best you can. It will be a way to honor them and a way to comfort you and the other members of your family. People tend to be a bit more relaxed at a memorial service than at a funeral service or cremation service. One reason for this is that there’s more time between a death in the family and a memorial than between a death in the family and a cremation or funeral. That extra time can make a huge difference.

Closure

Another reason a memorial is important is that it can provide closure for you, family, and friends of the deceased. It takes some people quite some time to deal with the passing of a loved one. And it can be harder for some to accept the reality of what has happened. But the time between the death of a loved one and the memorial service might be enough to allow the truth to sink in. The service will give people the opportunity to come to terms with their new reality.

Honor the Deceased

A memorial service is also a way to honor the memory of the deceased. It’s a time to remember what they mean to you, what set them apart from others, how they contributed to their community, their successes, their hopes and dreams, and more. Take the time to focus on the positive. This is not to say that there won’t be sadness and tears – but it is to say that the goal should also be to focus primarily on the positive. You can select people to share a few words about their relationships with the deceased. Make sure you choose not only family members, but also people who were friends with the deceased. By the time the memorial service is over, attendees should leave feeling encouraged and empowered to live purpose-filled lives.

Do you need to find a funeral home serving Chesterfield Township, MI residents? If so, give us a call to find out how we can help you. Whether you want to discuss cremations, memorials, traditional and contemporary funerals, caskets or urns, vaults, cremation jewelry, veteran’s discounts, or more, we can help. Our licensed industry professionals are here to support you through this difficult time. We offer a range of personalized services to suit your family’s wishes and needs. We’ll explain the final service planning process, answer your questions, and help you make the decisions you need to make. For the help you need, call to speak with our funeral director. You can also stop by to talk to someone in person. We’re here to assist in any way we can.

How to Find the Right Cremation Urn

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It might be tempting to think that if you’ve seen one urn, you’ve seen them all. But that would be inaccurate. When the time comes to plan a cremation service in Chesterfield Township, MI, you’ll notice that there are different kinds of urns. So choosing one won’t be as easy as you might think. Here are some tips to help you find the right urn for your loved one’s ashes.

Budget

You are going to want to figure out how much you want to spend on an urn. If you do not wish to pay any more than is required, you will wish to find a low-cost urn. Other people want to buy a really nice urn and are willing to pay more in order to do so. Whatever situation you find yourself in, you can take a look at a funeral home’s price list to discover what urns they have and what they charge for them. This can help you to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Purpose

Are you going to bury the urn? Are you going to scatter the ashes? Is the plan to keep the ashes at home in an urn? In other words, what do you plan to do with the ashes? Your answer to that basic question will help you decide what type of urn to purchase. The funeral director will be able to recommend some urns based on what you wish to do with the ashes. If you want to bury the ashes, for instance, the funeral director will be able to suggest urns best suited for burial.

Material

Cremation urns are created from various materials. Did your deceased loved one have a preference for getting the best of the best or did they prefer to be pretty much low-key in their approach? You can look through the selection of urns at the funeral home to find something that the deceased would have loved. The material type will impact the price since, of course, some materials are more valuable than others are. When you tell the funeral director your budget, they will be able to help you choose something appropriate.

Customization

You can get customized urns if you’d like something extra special for your loved one’s ashes. You can find urns that have a special shape, a unique design, a personalized inscription, and more. Did your deceased loved one have a hobby, enjoy sports, enjoy different themes? It’s possible to get an urn that’s as unique as was your relative. Customization will cost you extra, but that added cost can be well worth it if you insist on getting a personalized cremation urn.

When the time comes to arrange a cremation service in Chesterfield Township, MI, you’ll need to choose an urn for your loved one’s ashes. The aforementioned steps will help you decide what type of urn to get. If you have any more questions, we’ll be honored to answer them. Give us a call to ask questions about cremation urns or to ask questions about our final services options. We can help with memorials, cremations, traditional and contemporary funerals, caskets or urns, vaults, cremation jewelry, veteran’s discounts, and other resources such as grief counseling. Our licensed industry professionals are here to support you through this difficult time. Call us by phone or visit us in person for the assistance you require.

Why Should You Consider a Cremation with a Service?

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Many families are choosing to plan cremation services in Shelby Charter Township, MI. Funeral services used to be the more popular of the two body disposition types. But this trend has reversed, and statistics show that cremation will continue to get more and more common.

When most people think about cremation services, they tend to believe that choosing to go this route means choosing to forego a funeral service or some other ceremony. But this is not the case. It’s possible to combine a cremation service with a funeral service or a memorial service. Consider the following reasons why you should consider a cremation with a service.

Bring Family Together

It is true that some families are fine with a simple cremation. They might not want a formal ceremony in a church, chapel, or someplace else. But most families appreciate having a service component that brings people together. People live busy lives, and families are often spread out across vast geographies. It’s often the case that families only come together for holidays, for weddings, and for funerals or cremations. You can plan a cremation and add a traditional or contemporary funeral service. If you don’t want to add a funeral service, you can add a memorial service that is usually more laid back than a funeral service. This choice is yours. The funeral director at a reputable funeral home will be able to help you choose the right option.

Keep with Tradition

Are you part of a family that usually plans funerals after loved ones have passed away? Do some family members want to plan a cremation while others prefer to stick with tradition? If you plan a cremation with a service, you can honor loved ones who want to stick with tradition while also honoring loved ones who want to plan a cremation. In other words, you can do both.

Your Loved One Might Have Wanted it

Another reason to plan a cremation with a service is if your deceased loved one had, more or less, requested it. Perhaps they had spoken of wanting to be cremated when the time came and had also spoken of wanting a ceremony of some type as a final send-off. Arranging a cremation with a service will honor your deceased loved one’s wishes and will bless your family.

Do you have any questions about planning a cremation with a service? Your best bet is to reach out to a reputable funeral service and cremation service provider in Shelby Charter Township, MI. We’re here to help you arrange an honorable final send-off to someone near and dear to you. We can help with memorials, cremations, traditional and contemporary funerals, caskets or urns, vaults, cremation jewelry, veteran’s discounts, and other resources such as grief counseling. Our licensed industry professionals are here to support you through this difficult time. We can answer your questions or set up a final service planning consultation. Let us know how we can help. Call us by phone or visit us in person for the assistance you require.

Helping a Loved One Who is Dying

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Before cremation services at funeral homes in Chesterfield Township, MI, your loved one may be diagnosed with a terminal illness or they may have reached the end of treatment options for a chronic disease. You want to help them, but you may not know what you can do that is beneficial.

People are different, and the way that people react to the news that they have a terminal illness or there is no more treatment for a chronic disease is different for every person. Some people will take the news stoically and they will immediately begin to prepare for death. Other people will rage against the dying of the light.

You can help a loved one who is dying by following their lead. If they do not want to talk about death, then you do not talk about it. If they do want to talk about death, then let them guide the conversation.

Another way that you can help a loved one who is dying is to support them. If someone has a terminal illness and they are fighting the diagnosis by exhausting every kind of treatment they can find, sometimes causing more harm than good and making dying much harder, you should not tell them they are wrong, or it is hopeless.

Even if it is obvious that nothing is going to change the fact that your loved one is going to die, they may be clinging to hope that something will change that outcome. You can support them by supporting their hope and encouraging them not to give up hope, even if you know there is nothing that can reverse their disease process.

You can also support your loved one by listening to their fears and concerns. Even the most stoic people will talk about the things in the dying process that concern them, even if death itself does not concern them.

One thing that most dying people wrestle with is getting weaker and becoming more dependent on other people for their most basic needs. You may hear your loved one express regret that they cannot do more for themselves. Your loved one may say they hate being a burden on anyone else.

Instead of dismissing this, you can show support for your loved one by asking them what they would like to be able to do for themselves. You may find that you and other people are doing things for them that they could do and want to do for themselves. This is an opportunity for you to let them be more involved in their care and feel less dependent and burdensome on others.

You can also support your loved one by asking them what things matter most to them with their illness. Your loved one may have a bucket list item that they want to do (and are able to do) before they die. They may want to see certain people before they die. They may want to take care of specific things before they die.

If you can find a way to make sure your loved one has what matters most to them, then you are helping them to be more peaceful as death approaches. One of the hardest things that dying people have to deal with is regrets and things that they feel are not finished or are undone.

There are many things you can do to help a dying loved one. As long as you put them and their needs first, they will guide you and help you help them.

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

Preplanning Cremations | Funeral Homes

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When you are preplanning cremations at funeral homes in New Baltimore, MI, you may be unfamiliar with what happens during cremation. Put simply, the body is cremated, and the cremation remains are returned to family members. Cremation remains can be buried in the ground, placed into a columbarium (a building or room with slots where funeral urns are stored), retained by the family in an urn, or scattered somewhere.

By preplanning your cremation, you can determine exactly how you want your cremation to be. In most cases, when people are cremated services to honor their memory are conducted before the cremation or after the cremation.

If you want your service to be held before the cremation, then the process will be very similar to the process for a service that is held before a burial. You can choose to have a viewing and/or visitation, which will be followed by a funeral service or a graveside service.

This happens within a week or so after you have died. If you choose this option for your cremation, then you will probably have to choose to be embalmed. Embalming keeps the body from deteriorating quickly. Included in the embalming process are bathing, dressing, and grooming.

You can choose what kind of service you want to have. The funeral home can accommodate any format service and their staff can help make sure that any customized requests you have for the service are included.

Cremation will then take place after the service and your cremation remains will be returned to your family.

You can also choose to have a service held after you are cremated. Many people who are cremated like this option because it has more flexibility. It can be held at any time after the cremation, so a convenient time that works for most people can be chosen.

You have the choice of where and how you want your memorial service to be. It might be a casual format where your friends and family share stories and memories about you or it might be a gathering for an activity that you and your family and friends all enjoyed doing together. The options are endless.

One of the benefits of preplanning your cremation is that you get to decide what you want done with your cremation remains. They can be buried in a cemetery, stored in a columbarium, kept in an urn by the family, or scattered at one of your favorite places.

When you are preplanning your cremation, you can also choose how you want your cremation remains to be returned to your family. The funeral home has a wide selection of urns and other types of containers that you can choose from. Most of these can be customized in various ways.

You should make sure to write down everything you want for your cremation and give the funeral home a written copy with your instructions. The goal is to cover all aspects of your cremation – the funeral director will guide you through this process – so that your family does not have to do anything in the way of planning when you die.

Once you’ve preplanned your cremation with the funeral home, be sure to record everything and keep your instructions with your important papers (include burial/funeral policy information, if you have a policy). Be sure to talk with your family in detail about your cremation plans, so that they know what you want and so that they know you have talked with the funeral home.

For more information about cremations at funeral homes in New Baltimore, MI, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home can help.

Sending Thank You Notes After Cremation Services

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After cremation services offered in Chesterfield Township, MI, the funeral home will have thank you notes available that you can use to thank every person who helped you out during your loved one’s cremation services.

While handwritten communication is practically non-existent today, people who receive a handwritten thank you note from you for the help and support they provided will cherish it and will realize that you are grateful for them.

So, who should you send thank you notes to after cremation services for your loved one?

One of the most common funeral rituals in America is for people to bring food to a person’s home after their loved one dies. This is a tangible way to show care, concern, and support, and it meets an immediate need that you (and any immediate family who may be with you) forget about, don’t feel like, or simply don’t have the energy to make happen.

Additionally, if you have a reception after your loved one’s cremation services, it will most likely be put together by friends or members of your church congregation or other community groups that you are a part of. There will be several people who make sure there are food and drinks there for everyone who attends.

And, even in the first few weeks after your loved one’s cremation services, you may have friends or coworkers organize a meal train (where food is delivered by different people a few times a week) to make sure you’ve got good nutrition as you go through the process of wrapping up your loved one’s final affairs and start to try to move forward in a life that no longer has them in it.

So, you should send thank you notes to people who provide food to you and your family at any point before, during, or after your loved one’s cremation services. This may seem daunting, but you can spread the work out among immediate family members so that you don’t have to do them all yourself.

Before, during, or after your loved one’s cremation services, you had people either offer to do things for you or who spontaneously did things for you. These kinds of things might have been to take care of the yard, to help with housecleaning, to pick up groceries or prescriptions, or to take your vehicle in for service.

What people did for you helped you out tremendously. Each one of these people should receive a handwritten thank you note that expresses your generosity for their time, effort, and willingness to help you after your loved one’s death.

It will always surprise you that some people decide to give financial assistance after someone dies. Someone may have personally given you cash or a check or they may have contributed money to a memorial fund to help pay funeral expenses or to provide support for orphaned children.

However you received the financial help (even if it was electronically through a service like PayPal or Venmo or a wire transfers), you should send a handwritten thank you note to each person who gave you a financial donation.

When you and your family members write the thank you note, they should be personalized for each person you’re sending them to. Document what they did or gave you, how it helped you, and how much you appreciated it.

To successfully keep up with all the people you should thank after your loved one’s cremation services, assign someone in your family to keep an updated list of people who are helping you and what you’re doing to help them. This will ensure that you don’t forget anyone.

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

History of Burials in America | Funeral Homes

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Burials are a well-known part of funerals in Chesterfield, but the American history of burials is quite interesting as you review how burials have evolved from the earliest colonists to modern times.

The practice of burying our dead has been around for centuries. When the first colonists arrived in North America, they followed the practice of Native Americans, who set aside portions of land as burial grounds.

Burial grounds were considered to be sacred ground, but graves were usually not marked. The dead were usually just wrapped up in something and laid in a hollowed-out portion of the specially designated land.

When the Puritans buried their dead, a simple ceremony was held. After the body of the deceased was wrapped, a bell was rung to call locals to the burial grounds (which were usually located in the center of towns). The deceased was buried without any grave marker after a prayer was read.

There was a practical reason for all of this. The Puritans were surrounded by Native American tribes. By keeping their burial land in the middle of town and leaving the graves unmarked, it was impossible for their neighbors on every side to know how many of the colonists had died.

Their fear was that their town would be attacked if Native Americans saw the village numbers quickly dwindling because of a high death rate.

Another reason why Puritan burials were done without much fanfare is because, theologically they believed that as soon as someone died, their soul was already in Paradise, so the body was just a empty vessel that no longer served any useful purpose.

However, as more people were born and arrived to the colonies, and as death rates stabilized from earlier days, burial grounds quickly reached capacity. Not only did the decaying dead emit noxious odors, but they also attracted wild animals and humans in search of precious objects they could steal off the remains.

By the end of the 17^th century, some of the wealthier American colonists began to establish private burial grounds for their families. They marked the spot of each grave with a marker so that each of their deceased family members could have their own burial place.

Much of colonial America at that point consisted of farmers. Farmers began to bury their dead in designated places on their farms. While most churches in the colonies did not have graveyards, Catholic churches began to build their own so that their parishioners could be buried on church grounds.

The 1700’s saw the beginning of cemeteries and graveyards. Although cemeteries were not actually built – and named – until the late 1800’s, Americans began to organized burial grounds and marked the burial places of their dead with monuments.

Churches also began to designate a portion of their land as graveyards, where their members could be buried after they died. The use of headstones and monuments to mark graves became widespread during this century as well.

In the late 19^th century, the modern cemetery was born. These were public burial spaces that were designed to be inviting so that families could – and would want to – come and spend time visiting their loved ones.

So, when you choose a cemetery or graveyard for your loved one’s burial, you have a better understanding of how these came to be and why they serve such a useful purpose for those who remain after a loved one dies.

For more information about burials and funerals in Chesterfield, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral is here to assist you.

Basics of Funeral Planning | Funeral Homes

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Planning funerals at funeral homes in New Baltimore Michigan is often something that people face doing for the first time when their loved ones die. You may be having to plan a funeral for your loved one who has died, and you are not sure how to get started.

Here are some basics that will help you.

Before you go to the funeral home, check your loved one’s important papers to see if they preplanned their funeral with the funeral home or to see if they left written instructions that detailed the kind of funeral they wanted.

Doing this can save you a lot of time and legwork, because if your loved one has prearranged their funeral with the funeral home or they have left written funeral instructions, then most of the hard work of planning a funeral has already been done.

You will usually go to the funeral home with 24 hours of your loved one’s death. The funeral home will let you know when you should be there to meet with the funeral director to make the arrangements for your loved one’s funerals.

This meeting is a critical part of the funeral planning process, as everything pertaining to your loved one’s funeral will be addressed. Therefore, there are a few documents that you should bring with you, as well as some other items.

The documents you will need to bring are your loved one’s:

Birth certificate
Social Security card
Marriage certificate
Divorce decree (if applicable)

If your loved one was a military veteran and you want burial in a national or state cemetery and/or military funeral honors as part of their funeral, then you should bring their military discharge papers (Form DD-214), so the funeral director can make a copy of them.

The funeral director will work with the local Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinator all military-related funeral services.

You will also need to take the clothes that your loved one will be wearing when they are buried or cremated to the funeral home when you meet with the funeral director. You will not need to bring shoes, since they are not need for either a cremation or a burial. If you are having a viewing for your loved one, their feet will be covered by the casket lid.

At this meeting with the funeral director, you will also either bring an obituary you or your loved one has written, or you will provide the information you want included in your loved one’s obituary to the funeral director. If you want a picture of your loved one included in the obituary, you should also bring that with you.

The meeting with the funeral director will cover any service details for your loved one. The funeral director can give you guidance on the typical format of funeral services and memorial services. However, you are free to customize any part of the service to your specifications or to your loved one’s wishes.

One of the things you will decide about the service is who will participate in it. If your loved one specified people they wanted to be a part of the service, then you should notify them to make sure they are willing and available. If they did not, then you can choose and notify the people you have chosen.

If your loved one is being cremated, you will be able to choose the urn that you want their cremation remains placed in. If loved one is being buried, you can specify which cemetery they should be buried in. The funeral director will handle all the details.

For more information about funeral planning at funeral homes in New Baltimore Michigan our compassionate and experienced staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home can help.

Funeral Planning Mistakes to Avoid

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People who are planning funerals at funeral homes in Chesterfield Township, MI are often running on empty physically, emotionally, and mentally. Because of that, they can easily make mistakes when they undertake funeral planning.

One mistake that people commonly make is not asking any or enough questions when they are making funeral arrangements. Grief over the death of your loved one will feel overwhelming, especially in the days just after they have died. This sense of being submerged can take precedence over everything else that you have to do to prepare for your loved one’s funeral.

This is normal. It’s a sense of shock and numbness that is generated by brain chemicals in times of distress to help us simply endure them and get through them. While it can protect you from falling apart, it can also mute your awareness about everything else that’s happening.

Because of that, you will have the tendency to go on auto pilot through the funeral planning process without asking any or many questions about the specific arrangements you would like to have for your loved one.

That’s why you should take another family member or a close, trusted friend with you when you go to the funeral home to make funeral arrangements. This will give you another set of eyes and ears to make sure that the right questions are asked and answered.

If your loved one left written instructions for the kind of funeral they wished to have, then you’re one step ahead of the game. But, you still will need to make some decisions about how to best execute those wishes.

Having another family member or a friend you trust with you will help you, because they can offer suggestions about various parts of the funeral arrangements and they can ask the funeral director for guidance and advice in areas that are unfamiliar or that require special services or customization.

Your funeral director is well aware that you are essentially in a haze when you’re making funeral arrangements for your loved one. Most people are. Your funeral director will empathetically and kindly lead you through each step of the process, will coordinate the majority of the arrangements (so you don’t have to), and is always available if requests or questions come up during the process.

Another common funeral mistake that you can avoid is not having an adequate support system in place after your loved one’s funeral. There is a maxim that says “A funeral is not a day in a lifetime; it’s a lifetime in a day.”

In Western culture, there is a tendency to belief that grief over the death of a loved one fits into a limited (and very short) period of time, and that once the funeral is over, that’s the end of sadness and grief, and you should just get back to normal life as if nothing ever happened.

The problem with this belief is that something very traumatic happened when your loved one died. It is a trauma that you will live with in some shape or form the rest of your life. Grief doesn’t have rigid start and stop points.

While you may have not choice but to go back to work or school immediately after your loved one dies, your grief will still be palpable and profound.

That is why you need to have a support system in place that is able to help you process your grief, get through the rollercoaster of emotions that grief brings, and help you take care of day to day life (shopping, cooking, yard maintenance, car maintenance, etc.) when you are not able to.

For expert help in avoiding funeral planning mistakes at funeral homes in Chesterfield Township, MI, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home can help.

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