A funeral or memorial service is an opportunity to honour the person who died, to pay respects and to say farewell in a way that captures the essence of the person and celebrates their life. Organising a funeral, however, is not easy and there are lots of moving pieces that need careful thought and arranging.
Fortunately, Living Hope Funerals are experienced in organising all kinds of funeral services and will gently guide you through the process.
What to do when someone dies
Contact Living Hope Funerals on 1800 177 166 and we will return your call as soon as we can. We will explain what to do next and get things underway. Our team will come and collect your loved one and take care of them.
If the person died at home, their doctor needs to be called to issue a cause of death certificate. If you can’t reach the doctor, call the police or paramedics who will issue an interim certificate. If the person died in hospital or aged care home, the staff will take care of this for you.
Organising the funeral
We will contact you a day or two after we have collected your loved one, or you can call us when you are ready, to arrange a time to start planning how you wish to celebrate and remember your loved one. You can come to our offices, or we are very happy to come to you.
- Decide on the venue
We can help you arrange a service at many different kinds of venues including churches, chapels, memorial parks, homes and outdoor areas. Once decide where, we can help organise it.
- Create the service
You might wish to have a memorial service and a cremation service, or memorial and a graveside burial service. You might instead wish to have a church service and say your farewells as the hearse leaves for the memorial park or cemetery.
Whatever you choose, we can help you create a bespoke service that uniquely celebrates and remembers the life of your loved one, providing a safe and respectful event for you to say farewell. We’ll explain the various options, and ask about your loved one’s wishes for cremation or burial, their favourite music, readings and talk about eulogies, as well as other aspects of the service.
We will give you time to think and, because we are very flexible, changes can be made. We will also give you an itemised quote, so you know the cost as we go along. Please note, Living Hope Funerals never asks for payment up front. We wait for about a week after the funeral before we issue an invoice.
In the lead up to the funeral
Once the service has been arranged there are some things you might wish to do…
- Send Invitations
We can craft messages for you to send out to friends and family about the details of the funeral service. We can also help you with death notices in local newspapers or on social media.
- Write Eulogies
We can help you write a heartfelt tribute to your loved one and give you tips on presenting at a funeral. We have several articles on this, under ‘Resources’ on our website.
- Gather photos and make a video
It is a lovely part of the funeral service to watch a five-minute video slideshow of photographs. We can help you put that together and play it on the day. We will also arrange for video live streaming for mourners who cannot attend, and for the family to be able to watch in the months after the service. If it has been recorded, we will also give you a memory stick with the entire service downloaded on it.
- Organise a wake
A family gathering in a more informal setting, sometimes called a celebration of life or a wake, is a good way to reminisce and reflect on your loved one, while supporting each other. We can help arrange the venue for this and organise catering.
On the day
This will look different depending on the culture, religion and wishes of each family, but there are some common things that can be included:
- Viewing A special, private moment to pay respects and say goodbye at the coffin, which may be open or closed.
- Pallbearing Members of the family or friends may wish to accompany the coffin to and from the service. Living Hope Funeral will guide you in that process.
After the funeral
We’ll take care of legal or administrative tasks, including registering your loved one’s death and obtaining their death certificate on your behalf.
We are here to help you through the whole process of organising and conducting the service to best celebrate your loved one and say your farewells. Contact us today and let us help you honour your loved one.
A funeral or memorial service is an opportunity to honour the person who died, to pay respects and to say farewell in a way that captures the essence of the person and celebrates their life. Organising a funeral, however, is not easy and there are lots of moving pieces that need careful thought and arranging.
Fortunately, Living Hope Funerals are experienced in organising all kinds of funeral services and will gently guide you through the process.