Funeral & Cremation Planning

Funerals, Cremations, Burials, Entombment, Urns, Caskets, Vaults, Embalming, Visitation, Church, Memorial Services, Monuments, Graveside Services.

Whew, we just threw a lot of words at you.  You may have arranged a funeral for someone in your family before, or you are tasked with a making a funeral arrangement for the first time.  What you read at the opening of this paragraph are some of the terms we will need to discuss with you.  Either you are planning for the future - for yourself, a spouse, a friend or someone else important to you OR a death has taken place and it is now your job to arrange services for them - even if you feel you may not be the person for that job. The New Rochelle Funeral Home will help you make sense of it all.  When discussing funerals, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

The End:  Just The Beginning

The demise of someone is not something most people discuss, or even acknowledge.  Life is something that happens while you are making plans.  You are reading this either out of curiosity, for the future need of a funeral home, or for the immediate need of a Funeral Director.  To start, there should be some concepts already familiar to you:  Will there be or has there been a death at home?  If so, is a home Hospice provider involved?  Is the death in a Hospital, Geriatric Care or Long Term Care Facility or Nursing Home?  If an unexplained, or accidental death has taken place, is the Medical Examiner or Coroner involved?  We felt when designing our website this paragraph be included as so many of our clients call us and say "Ok, now what?"   

What are we going to do?

• Earth Burial or Above-Ground Mausoleum Entombment in a Cemetery,   and if so, is there a burial space available, or does one need to be selected at a local cemetery?
• Cremation - the process by which the dead human body is exposed to intense heat and flame for a period of time, reducing it to bone fragments.  Following the cremation, what will be done with the ashes, or cremains as the funeral industry prefers to refer to them:  Will they be interred in a cemetery plot, scattered in a favorite place such as the beach, or a park, or returned to someone for safe keeping?

Where? When? How?

• Will there be a period of visitation?  This is for welcoming your circle - friends, relatives - distant or not, to celebrate the life of the deceased. 
• Where will the service take place? In the Funeral Home's facility? A House of Worship? At the graveside in a cemetery? The reception area of a Crematory? Or perhaps a combination of the above?
• Will the body of the person be present? - either in a casket, coffin or suitable container? Will it be open or closed for viewing the deceased - or just their ashes (cremains)? Maybe you desire neither but want a comfortable, neutral facility to reflect and welcome your family and friends following a loss.  
• Will religion or spirituality play a part? Do you require clergy or lifestyle representation?  Do your religious or spiritual obligations or customs or those of the deceased require special handling of the body, or that the services be rendered within a specific time period following the death in which a funeral service should occur.

Cost

"Funerals are expensive.", "Those Funeral Directors sure have some racket.", "When I go, I want to be cremated, that's the cheap way out.", "I'm donating my body to science to avoid the undertaker!"  As Funeral Professionals, we hear some of these comments made in the public setting from the media, in our office meeting clients, by our personal family and friends, and when we arrange services for a death in our own family.  The fact of the matter is this:  You, the consumer, are very much in control of it's own destiny - spend as much, or as little as you want on a funeral or cremation service purchase.  As the Funeral Home, we do as we are told - we provide the planning, logistics, and execution of a service based on your commands.  We may offer suggestions based on our prior experiences serving the community to ensure you receive what you ask of us, but in the end, "the buck stops with you".  The details of the service arrangement made will determine the final cost of the service provided. Prices will be adjusted accordingly based on the services we provide that you select (or don't): preparing the body - embalming, dressing, cosmetic application and hairdressing, transportation of the deceased - sometimes to and from a distance location, providing of funeral related items such as caskets and burial vaults,  or printed material, the use of our facilities, convenience items such as a limousine for family members, and  fees set by cemeteries for the opening and closing of a burial space or mausoleum entombment or crematory for its function.  New Rochelle Funeral Home believes in transparency to the funeral consumer.  Please click here to see examples of the types of services arranged with us, and their costs.

In Closing

We told you at the onset there would be a lot of information to digest. We hope this made it a little easier for you and we enjoy servicing the well informed, educated funeral consumer.  The New Rochelle Funeral Home thanks you in advance for reviewing our material and we hope you give us the opportunity to help.  Nothing makes a community business feel good about itself more than when the community patronizes it.  We work hard to build and maintain our reputation.  You may see some of our competitors use phrases like "Family Owned and Operated", or "Our Family Serving Yours".  You may also encounter some Funeral Homes operated by a nationwide network of Mortuaries with its own set of slogans, logos, and other forms of creative marketing as well.  At the New Rochelle Funeral Home, we would rather let our actions speak louder than our words.  A good reputation is earned through maintaining standards, and adhering to values - not thru sales slogans or fancy artwork.