Planning a Personalized Funeral

• Write a letter to the person who has died and express all of the feelings you ever wanted to say, but were afraid to or just never got around to expressing. Seal the letter in an envelope and place it in the casket. Your written thoughts will go with your loved one to his or her final resting place.
• Bring in the favorite song of the person who has died on compact disc or cassette and your Funeral Director will play it for you during the visitation and/or funeral service.
• Request from your Funeral Director that helium balloons be ordered to release after the grave site service. Everyone can be given one and some brief words can be said before releasing them in the air.
• Bring in photographs spanning the life of the person who has died and your Funeral Director will incorporate them into a memory board to be present at the visitation and funeral service. These can be photos with family, friends at work, fishing or hunting, golfing, knitting, baking, serious and comical. No photo is in bad taste when it depicts the life of the one you are commemorating.
• If your loved one had a hobby of building things or was involved in the arts, crafts or photography, bring some of their works in to be displayed at the funeral home.
• If you have favorite scripture readings, let them know what they are and your Funeral Director will see to it that they are incorporated into the service.
• If your loved one composed poetry or essays, let your Funeral Director have a copy. Your Funeral Director will reproduce several copies so that people might take it with them from the funeral home or perhaps they could be recited as a part of the remembering ritual of the funeral.
• Have a personal friend or family member read the poetry or favourite scripture passage.
• If the person who died was not a regular church attendee, consider having the funeral in a favorite place that perhaps reflected their lifestyle like a favorite park, the marina if he or she was a boater, a basketball court, or center ice. The possibilities are numerous.
• In the Catholic church during the presentation of gifts, family members may elect to bring them forward themselves for presentation to the priest. Even the youngest grandchild are honored to act in this capacity.
• What may seem very hard to do at the time, but is cherished for years after the funeral, is when family members close the casket instead of the funeral staff. As our mothers always tucked us in at night as children, closing her casket is the last time they can tuck her in. It is a very tender moment for the family to say their last good bye to the physical body.
• Eulogize the person who has died during the funeral or visitation. Oftentimes the clergy person did not know the person who has died and since the funeral is intended to recognize a life that has been lived, it is important to recognize that life in a personal way. Who better can do that than someone who knew the person who died on a personal basis.
• Place cherished items in the casket like pictures of the grandchildren and other family members, a photo of the family pet, a favorite golf club, a pool stick, a well worn baseball cap, or a religious item. Your Funeral Director welcomes all of them as your way of saying good bye.
• If a husband always drove his wife everywhere or a wife drove her husband to his appointments, consider having the spouse drive the hearse to the cemetery or at least ride in the hearse with our staff member. It is a very personal way of accompanying your loved one to their final resting place.
• In processing to the cemetery, consider a favorite place your loved one liked to go, like their favorite park, or the beach, or a favorite restaurant, or maybe they were happiest at home. Your Funeral Director will arrange to have the procession pass by this favorite place.