Immense Importance of Funeral Directors to The Bereaved Families
When a person dies, it is a very painful situation for his/her family members and close friends. They feel the grief even more while arranging for the funeral of the deceased. Hence, many hospitals refer to the names of efficient funeral directors for these bereaved people, to arrange the funeral service and provide them with emotional support at this difficult time.
Various important functions are smoothly carried out by these trained professionals, which is a great relief to grieved people.
Prime Job Roles Played By Professional Funeral Directors
- The foremost job of a funeral director is to collect the body of the deceased from the hospital or home, wherever that person had breathed his/her last. All funeral directors speak to the bereaved families to know the last wish of the dead person, and they will try to fulfill such wishes with all necessary arrangements. They may seek help from other concerned people to fulfill the wishes of their clients.
- They arrange for the transportation of the body to the chosen crematorium or to a chapel where the close people of the deceased can pay their last respect to that person. Normally, a funeral director keeps good relations with all the churches and graveyards of that region, which make their jobs faster and easier.
- The funeral director helps a bereaved family in fulfilling all the legal documentation processes for obtaining the death certificate from a valid authority before proceeding to the funeral home. He may also inform the local newspapers or other electronic and digital media about this death, as per the wishes of his clients. It is very difficult to arrange a funeral for a celebrity because you need to manage the crowd during the funeral ceremony. In this case, you can contact some reliable funeral directors and they can arrange the same in a peaceful way.
- After registering the death, it is essential to notify the chosen cemetery or churchyard about the preferred time for cremation. The proper rapport of funeral directors with these authorities helps them in getting the required time slot for the funeral very easily. They also pay all the funeral fees and other related expenses at that time, which are later added to their fees.
- The dead body and the transportation for carrying it to the crematorium need to be decked with white flowers. Thus, a funeral director keeps in touch with florists, to get a ready supply of required flowers at any time. As many people want to pay floral tributes to the deceased, he will arrange for all these bouquets that can be placed over the coffin.
- He may also guide the bereaved family to decide who will be leading the funeral procession and the last funeral service, as per their choices. Different people express their own desires regarding the choice of coffins or caskets for placing the dead body, as per their budgets. Funeral directors help people in making all these necessary arrangements after discussing all the details with the bereaved families or friends of the deceased.
- A funeral director is expected to provide mental support to the grieved people even after the funeral rites are over. He will guide them till the end of all necessary funeral acts, acting more like a sympathetic friend than a hardcore professional person. If anyone wants to hold a memorial service in the local church or at a park, funeral directors make all arrangements, including music and caterers for making that service memorable and peaceful.
People need to complete a 2-years or 4-year course in Mortuary Science for being trained as funeral directors. They are taught management skills, accounting, client services, and embalming procedures, apart from pathology, anatomy, and physiology during their course. Then they undergo a 1-year apprenticeship for gaining practical knowledge of this work.
I like that you mentioned how a funeral director is expected to prove mental support to the grieved people even after the funeral rights are over. I was watching a video yesterday about how funerals are arranged and I saw how useful the services of funeral directors are. I heard funeral directors could even organize Asian funerals, which sounds pretty interesting.