What To Look For When You Hire A Funeral Director

Planning a memorial service and making arrangements involves time, money, and concentration—during bereavement, you may be short on all of these resources. When you lose someone you love, the last thing you want to do is make a series of difficult financial decisions. A funeral director is trained to relieve some of your stress and help you, with care, during this time - to handle a sensitive and delicate matter like the funeral of your loved one, you need the right kind of person. You don’t want to be taken advantage of in any way during your mourning period. Which traits should you seek out when you’re hiring a funeral director?

An empathetic personality.

A funeral director can help you with a range of important and time-sensitive tasks. First, they can help fill out a death certificate when a loved one passes away. If you decide to arrange a cremation and you need to select an urn, the funeral director can schedule this service and help you pick an appropriate container. They can also help you write and publish an obituary. The deceased may have pre-planned what events and decorations they’d like at their service; a funeral director can help carry out these wishes. Finally, a funeral director can assist with arranging the memorial service itself, including the music to be played and flower preferences. These choices are not ones that you want to make with an uncaring person. You need an understanding and empathetic funeral director to help guide you through these difficult choices. 

Reliability.

When you lose a friend or family member, you need assistance from someone who is understanding of your grief. A funeral director has a very important job: helping you commemorate the life of a loved one. For all inquiries, you need to be able to reach them at important hours. Your time is valuable, and planning a suitable memorial service is at the top of your mind after the passing of a loved one. If you remember a special song that you’d like to be played or want to make a last-minute change to an obituary, you need a funeral director who answers the phone when you call. 

Someone who has your best interests at heart.

We never forget the people that we love, which makes it so hard to let them go. In a state of grief, it’s difficult to think clearly. Symptoms of bereavement include depression, nausea, headaches, and a lack of appetite. When you’re going through a loss, you’re not in a state of mind to make financial decisions. It’s best to hire a funeral director who is understanding of what you’re going through and is willing to help you to the best of their ability—not someone who will pressure you into expensive purchases. When you’re choosing who to hire, look for someone who is respectful of your budget and wishes. 

Self-care is incredibly important when you lose someone you love. By hiring a funeral director, you’ll have more time to take care of yourself when you’re arranging a memorial service. At Alterna Cremation, our funeral director, Ashley Newton, is prepared to support you in your time of need. We offer a cremating service in Winnipeg; it’s a simple alternative to the complex services that funeral homes traditionally offer.