While it’s never easy to think about your eventual passing, preplanning your funeral at a funeral home in Dublin, CA is one of the best things you can do for your family, and for yourself. After all, losing a loved one is hard enough without having to plan, execute and pay for a funeral service.

Preplanning for your funeral can help both you and your loved ones in many different ways. The benefits of preplanning a funeral include:

1. Creating a Meaningful Service: Memorial and funeral services are an important part of the grieving process, but your loved ones might miss out on the important benefits if they are too busy planning the event. Preplan so they don’t have to.
2. Maintaining Self-Reliance: Taking charge of your memorial and funeral services allows you to maintain control and independence when you might otherwise lose them. This is good for your mental health at the end of your life and gives you more self-reliance.
3. Easing Your Family’s Burden: Let your family know exactly what you want for your funeral so they don’t have to guess what to do after you’re gone, or spend time making painful decisions when they should be grieving with loved ones.
4. Making Sure Your Wishes Are Met: Make sure you get the exact funeral or memorial service you want by taking care of the details and clearly laying them out for your friends and family. This way they won’t be able to argue or disagree.
5. Financial Responsibility: You can plan for how to cover the funeral costs in advance to make it easier for your family’s bank accounts and stress levels. Look into funeral insurance or funeral trusts to help ensure financial ease for your cremation and service.

These are just a few of the ways preplanning your funeral can help both you and your family.

But how do you go about preplanning a funeral? The first step is to simply start making some choices. Think about what you want for your funeral, and be prepared to make choices such as:

• Choose what to do with your remains, from burial and scattering to more non-traditional methods of body disposal like a biodegradable urn or water internment.
• Pick out your service theme, like military, religious, or non-traditional.
• Choose the funeral home.
• Detail memorial or funeral specifications like preferred music, desired readings, special decorations and video displays.
• Choose your final resting place. There are a ton of options, but the main ones include: a family plot or mausoleum, columbarium, or cremation urn.

Preplanning your funeral isn’t as hard or overwhelming as you would think once you get started, and it can only help you and your loved ones after your death. Deer Creek Funeral Service, a Dublin, CA funeral home, is here to help if you do need more assistance with preplanning. We have years of experience with preplanning and would be happy to help you however we can. Please stop by and visit us today for more information.

Death is and always will be hard, but the difficulty is often compounded by the difficulties that come with arranging a funeral at a funeral home in San Leandro, CA. Learn more about this process of arranging a funeral so you can be better prepared when faced the loss of a loved one.

There are eight main steps that everyone must follow after death to arrange a funeral:

1. Report the Death – If the death is at a hospital, nursing home, or hospice, the officials there will know what to do and will make the report for you. If you are at home, or have no other options, call 911.
2. Prepare to Work with a Funeral Director – You will need the assistance of a funeral director to complete the death certificate, transport and store the body. Take note if the deceased made pre-arrangements for his or her funeral or cremation and be prepared to relay these wishes to the director.
3. Choose the Service – There are several service options you need to be prepared to choose from such as funerals, in which the service is held before the body is cremated or buried and the body is present, or memorials, in which the service is help after the body is buried or cremated and therefore not present.
4. Make Cemetery Arrangements – If you choose to inter the remains after the funeral or cremation, you will need to make cemetery arrangements. Decide where the burial will take place, and if necessary, purchase a plot. If you’re unsure where to start, your funeral director or cremation assistant will most likely be affiliated with a cemetery and can help you find a plot. You could also check with your church, synagogue or other place of worship for further guidance.
5. Plan the Funeral Service – Feel free to get creative when making memorial or funeral service arrangements to make the service personal and meaningful. Flowers, music, pre or post service events and other special touches help make the service personal for you and the deceased.
6. Make Body Transportation Arrangements – You will need to make arrangements for the body to be transported from the place of death to the funeral home, and also to the cemetery if you choose burial, as well as inform the family and write a death notice.
7. Make the Death Announcement – Personally inform all close family, friends and loved ones of the death, ideally over the phone or in person. If you’re nervous, take the time to write a script to help you make key points. Don’t forget to write and release a death notice to notify the rest of the friends, coworkers, associates etc.
8. Stay Organized – You should make a list of what you need to accomplish before the service to help you stay organized and not forget anything important. This list could include your attire, personal items or collecting photos.

Looking for more guidance on arranging funerals? Deer Creek Funeral Service, a San Leandro, CA funeral home, is here to help. Stop by and visit us or give us a call today.

As intense or scary as the job of serving as a pallbearer seems, it’s not as overwhelming as you might think. A pallbearer is someone that helps carry or officially escorts a casket during a funeral or service at a funeral home in Oakland, CA.

Their duties traditionally consist exclusively of carrying the remains from the hearse to the church or funeral home before the service, and then back into the hearse after the service. If the remains are to be buried or inurned, the pallbearers also carry them from the hearse to the final resting place. If you were you asked to be a pallbearer for someone’s funeral, here’s everything you need to know about pallbearers in order to prepare you for the task:

1. Can You Have Pallbearers at a Cremation? While pallbearers are traditionally used when the body is buried in a casket, people can choose to have pallbearers carry the casket at a funeral before a cremation. They can also carry or walk alongside the urn before or after a memorial service.
2. How Heavy is a Casket? Caskets can weigh as little as 60 pounds up to 400 pounds or more depending on the type of casket and the size of the remains inside. For example, pine caskets generally weigh about 150 pounds, while mahogany can weigh up to 250. Metal caskets, on the other hand, can weigh between 160 to 200 pounds depending on the kind of metal and the metal gauge.
3. What Should Pallbearers Wear? Its best for pallbearers to dress conservatively, ideally in a dark suit and tie, dress, or pantsuit. However, be sure to wear clothing that is comfortable enough for you to move and lift in. Don’t forget to wear flat or low-heeled shoes so you don’t trip while carrying the casket.
4. Who Can be a Pallbearer? Pallbearers can be anyone the bereaved or deceased choose. However, they are usually close family or friends like siblings, older children or grandchildren, colleagues, or friends. And yes, women can be pallbearers even though it doesn’t happen very often.
5. How Many Pallbearers are There? While there can be as many or as few as desired, there are traditionally six to eight pallbearers. If there are six, three stand on each side of the casket. If there are eight, the extra two stand on the front and back.
6. What Is an Honorary Pallbearer? An honorary pallbearer is someone who will not actually carry the casket but is still recognized in some way. This title is usually used for older friends or relatives who might not be able to physically carry the casket. Sometimes people even choose to have deceased friends or family members as honorary pallbearers, as they don’t have to carry the casket or even be physically present to have the honor.

Do you have more questions about pallbearers or Oakland, CA funeral homes? Deer Creek Funeral Service is here to answer them. Call or visit us today to learn more about what we can do for you in your time of loss.