Making Good Decisions While Grieving

Some people avoid the topic of death with every breath they take. Some cannot accept the notion that one day, they too will leave this world behind. For these folks, pre-arranged funeral arrangements are something to ignore, but not for you. You are not like that. You are thinking and planning ahead, and to some degree, you accept that death is inevitable. Still, if you find shopping for your own casket or deciding which gravestone to use a little unnerving, here are three comforting facts about planning your own funeral. 

YOU Get to Choose

Having the final say in everything literally is how this goes. If you do not want anyone else deciding what to do with your body, how to celebrate your life or remember you in death, or even where your final resting place will be, then making your own final arrangements is right for you. YOU get to choose, and you get full control over every aspect of your own funeral before the day ever arrives. Nobody else can change that except you, and that would require you coming back from the dead (which you are not likely to do). 

You Can Spend as Much or as Little as You Want

There is a "potter's field" in most major cities where bodies are buried in plain wood coffins in unmarked graves. This practice was established for the people who could not pay for funeral expenses because they were impoverished or without families, etc. You could spend that little, or you could spend extravagantly on your final purchases. Everything in between is fair game too. Many funeral homes also have financing plans that allow you to pick whatever you like and then pay on it a little each month until your casket, your services, your burial plot or your urn for ashes, etc. are all paid in full.

You Can Make Special Requests or Stipulations 

If there is something you want specifically carried out during your funerary services or afterward, you can stipulate that in your contract for funerary arrangements. If it falls within the scope of services and customized services that a funeral home can and is willing to provide, then you can request it. Your funeral home director will ask you if there is anything in particular you want to happen (e.g., you want to buried with your favorite and most expensive item, you want to be dressed or made up in a specific way, etc.). Then the director will write that into your service contract.

For more information, reach out to a funeral home such as Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home.