Funeral Director Duties
We’re going to touch on each of those duties to give you a better idea of what the profession is all about.
Helping Families Cope With Loss
Possibly the most important duty a funeral director has is to help an emotional family make good decisions about the funeral services and burial of their lost loved one. Understand that a funeral director has likely had these difficult conversations hundreds of times, and is equipped to listen to the family, find out their needs and help them make choices they’ll be comfortable with years from now. They have to provide comfort and compassion for grieving families, while also maintaining their business’ interests.
Manages the Funeral Home
This includes making all the funeral arrangements, including the burial or cremation, upkeep of the cemetery and grounds, and handling other employees, so that they offer a respectful and beautiful destination for your lost family member or friend.
Funeral Directors also handle locations, times and logistics of all funerals, which could include the decorations for the funeral, and arranging for flowers.
Preparation of the Body
Whether there will be a burial, cremation, open-casket funeral or anything else, a funeral director prepares the remains of a body, or oversees it, as well as the transportation of the body.
This preparation of the body includes embalming and making sure all religious wishes of the family are observed. Embalming is both a sanitary and a cosmetic process that prepares the body for the funeral, and for burial or cremation.
Submit Legal Documents
Another often overlooked duty for a funeral director is that they handle all the paperwork involved with a deceased person, which includes submitting the right documents to state officials in order to get a formal death certificate. This might also include paperwork that helps families deal with insurance claims or veteran’s benefits.
Assisting with Obituaries
A difficult endeavor after a loved one’s death is knowing how to write an obituary, and understanding what should and should not go in there. Funeral directors help family members in writing obituaries and submitting them to local newspapers.
Helping Many People Pre-Plan Their Funerals
This is another one of the overlooked duties of a funeral director, but it’s also one that they welcome as a much more pleasant experience for everyone involved.
By helping people pre-plan their own funerals, they’re usually not talking to grieving families, but instead, someone that is trying to make their family’s time of grief much less painful after they die.
Preplanning a funeral is a smart way to help others understand how to celebrate your life after your death, and it’s a great gift to families to not have to make very difficult decisions while in mourning. Funeral directors are happy to help with such an exercise.
The funeral director at The Gardens of Boca Raton Cemetery & Funeral Services in South Florida will happily discuss what funeral directors do. Whether you’re looking for assistance with the funeral of a loved one, or you’re ready to preplan your own funeral, call us at (561) 989-9190 for assistance.
