Frequent Questions with Answers
Who are funeral directors and what do they do?
A funeral director is one who is legally licensed to walk a family through the process of planning, paying for and executing a funeral event. Their job is a licensed one to safeguard the consumer from being taken advantage of, or of overspending. A family, while in their personal state of grief, may be a bit fuzzy in regards to all that is happening. Ethical funeral providers and funeral directors gladly abide by the regulations and rules because it safeguards them as well as the families they serve.
Funeral directors have been educated in mortuary science and have college degrees with classes that usually include grief related physiology courses. Funeral directors are required to take many continuing education courses, periodic reviews and uphold any licensing requirements. You can always check with the Illinois Department of Regulation for a current license status on a funeral director. This State department also handles complaints
What type of service should I have?
This is quite a loaded question as there are no "rules" and families can choose the type of service for themselves. To best decide, a family might want to discuss preferences, way before a death occurs, leaving the emotional stress of an immediate need out of the equation. Most families who have these discussions ahead of time, spend less funds purposely and leave those family members left behind with a bit of calm rather than chaos. These are the most common types of funeral events:
- A Full Traditional Funeral
- A Contemporary Gathering
- A Graveside Service-
- A Memorial Ceremony-
- A Family-led event-
- A Direct Cremation with no ceremony -
Where can I get a financial assistance for a funeral?
The best financial help for taking care of a death is to pre-plan, because unfortunately, death is inevitable. Whether you choose to have life insurance, or a prepaid funeral plan, these financial tools will relieve the majority of the stress that occurs when there is a death in the family. For indigent persons, the State sometimes has extra funds...but it's best not to count on that. Many people today say they want to "donate their bodies" to science. But, that is not a sure thing as the science facility may have too many at the time, and then some other arrangement must be made quickly. "Donations" run about as much as a direct cremation with no ceremony, so keep that in mind.
You can do "crowd funding" similar to GoFundMe or a Facebook event. But as a rule, unless there is a " tragic story" to go with it, not too many donations generally are given for this.
Can I personalize a funeral?
Well, it would be fairly boring and mostly a generic event if you don't! When working with funeral homes Decatur Illinois, like Tanzyus Logan, it is best to decide what you feel would be the most personal event regarding the character and personality of the person who has died. Your loved one's unique characteristics can be woven into the ceremony extensively or just a little bit, depending on how much "expression" of personalization you are wanting to achieve at the service. Our licensed funeral directors at Tanzyus Logan can walk you through many popular options.
Do we need to have an obituary notice?
No,...but an obituary notice does let the public know that someone specific has died, and we can help you with this.
For a funeral event where the public is invited to attend, an obituary locally posted somewhere is quite necessary. Many newspapers have become cost prohibitive because of the fall in newspaper subscriptions. In our area, a custom obituary in 2012 at funeral homes decatur, illinois was about $100. Today, that same obituary will run closer to $350. or more. Other website obituary services have a variety of "memorial pages" for a variety of price points. Some smaller, local publications can be reasonable. At Tanzyus Logan Funeral Service and Care our Online Memorial webpages are free to the families we serve.
What is included in an obituary notice?
An obituary should include enough information to have the public be able to recognize a relationship "connection", but general enough that the family is safeguarded from identification theft.
What happens if the death occurs in the middle of the night or on the weekend?
At Tanzyus Logan, Our Funeral Directors are on call 24/7 and are the ones who arrive at all death calls. Its currently the law. If a death occurs at home, usually a call to the local coroner is first, but then, the funeral provider you have chosen will send one of their funeral directors out and remove the body. Currently in the state of Illinois, a non-licensed "owner" or other non-licensed staff person of a funeral-type business, is not legally qualified as one who can remove/transport a dead body.
Where can I find a funeral checklist?
This can be an extensive list depending on how prepared you are before a death occurs.
What is considered proper etiquette at a funeral? What should I wear to a funeral?
A good funeral director allows the family being served to decide the "feeling" of the service they want. General etiquette "rules" for the various types of funerals can be found on our Resource pages.
A lot of funerals today can be quite casual compared to years past. Most families are grateful to get the encouragement from extended family and friends, and are not as picky to what those people are wearing....within reason, of course.