Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By Alvin Cruise

to the actual handling of the deceased's corpse.

There are four essential tasks of a funeral director, they are: (a) transporting the corpse to the mortuary; (b) anointing and readying the body for the ceremony; (c) arranging for the services for people to pay their last respects to the deceased and; (d) the final act of cremation or burial according to the customs of the family.

These duties encompass a wide variety of tasks, which include arrangement of hearse for transporting the deceased, deciding the venue and time for memorial service and also publishing obituaries in the local media as well as the newspapers. In addition, the funeral directors also have to ensure that the flowers and decorations are in place. Besides this, they have to prepare the body for the ceremony by bathing and embalming it and arrange conveyance for the relatives gathering for the service.

Besides these jobs, a funeral director also handles the necessary paperwork that are a part of the official formalities that follow a person's death. He helps the family secure a death certificate. He also shoulders the responsibility of settling insurance claims for the family as well as helping them take advantage of schemes like veteran's burial support. He also helps in clearing pension and annuity money, if any, of the deceased to the dependants of the deceased and helps the family with estimates of the costs of the whole funeral service.

In addition, a funeral director has to liaise with a wide range of people so that he can perform his tasks in a proper way. He has to interact with physicians, priests, casket makers and florists, all with equal ease.

Lastly, it is essential for funeral directors to give some extra time and provide comfort and relief to the bereaved family of the departed, in order to help them tide over their sorrow. Though a few funeral directors ignore this task, it is an important aspect in a profession like this.

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