How to Make Your Funeral Arrangements Now
Planning funerals at funeral homes in Camillus, NY is something everyone should do now. While accepting mortality and the certainty of death may be briefly unsettling for you, if you make your funeral arrangements now, then you can live the rest of your life to the fullest, knowing that you have the end of it taken care of.
So, how do you go about making your funeral arrangements now?
Before you make arrangements for what happens after you die, you first need to make arrangements for the end of your life.
One thing that you need to make sure that you have is a health care directive. This health care directive will include several documents and a list of instructions that specify your wishes for your health care at the end of your life.
One of these documents that you need to have is a health care proxy (also known as a medical power of attorney). In this document, you will designate someone whom you trust to make medical decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself. This health care proxy covers everything from surgery that requires general anesthesia to dementia to an unresponsive state.
Another document you will need is a living will. A living will lets you designate the level of medical intervention you want if you are dying. You can choose to have every possible medical means employed to extend or save your life or you can choose to have no medical intervention done to extend or save your life (instead comfort care will be administered to ensure that your pain and suffering is minimal) if you are dying.
You will also need to draw up a will or a living trust to designate someone who will oversee the distribution of your property and other assets and who will take care of all the other details of settling your estate. A will or living trust will also include very specific instructions for how and to whom your property and financial assets are to be distributed among the beneficiaries you name in it.
Having all of these done now will actually be a great comfort and benefit to your family. It can eliminate a lot of the discord and disharmony that can ensue within families when these decisions are not made ahead of time.
Next, you’ll want to make arrangements for your funeral. You will want to pick a cemetery for burial and make arrangements for a funeral plot (if you’re a military veteran, you are entitled to free burial in a national cemetery with a free grave maker, which your funeral director can arrange after your death).
Next you want to meet with your funeral director and discuss the details of your funeral. You should have something in writing to give your funeral director so they can have it on file when you die and your family comes in to discuss your funeral.
You can pick out your casket during this meeting. You can let your funeral director know what kind of services you want for your funeral (including military honors, if you are a military veteran).
Be sure to bring your birth certificate, your marriage certificate (or divorce decree, if applicable), your Social Security card, and a copy of your military discharge orders (Form DD-214) if you’re a military veteran.
Once you’ve done all these things, you should sit down and talk with your family about them, so that they know what you’ve decided and so that they know you’ve taken care of this so they don’t have to.
For more information about making funeral arrangements at funeral homes in Camillus, NY, our compassionate and experienced team at Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home, Inc. is here to help you.
