Aug. 24, 2019

It’s a funny thing: Thanks to the Internet, we have greater access than ever before to different professional services and vendors. Anything you need done, you can outsource—and Google will help you. And yet, increasingly, we love the DIY lifestyle—doing things ourselves, perhaps with the guidance of a YouTube tutorial.

But some things are still best left to the pros. Conducting a funeral service is one of them. Can you do a funeral service without a funeral director? Perhaps. Should you? Perhaps not.

First things first: In most states, it is not legally required that you have a funeral director on hand to bury the dead. More likely than not, your family can handle it without professional assistance and not incur any legal consequences, though you will want to confirm this before you actually try it.

With that said, most families will quickly find that the work of the funeral director is far too much to handle on a DIY basis, especially during a season of bereavement. Just think about all the arrangements that must be made—flowers, potential catering and music, and the actual burial or cremation processes themselves. Then think of the exceedingly short span of time in which those arrangements must be made.

Factor in the legal dimensions of burying the dead and you start to realize just how big a job the funeral director has.

And yes, perhaps it is a job you can do on your own—but generally speaking, you’re not going to want to. A funeral director is an expert planner who can assist in alleviating the stress and grief that you are feeling during this time—and they have the resources and connections that will help you focus on remembering and memorializing your loved one.

If you would like a FREE funeral decisions planning guide please email me at: mruth@longviewfh.com

12700 Southeast Raytown Road | 816-761-6272
longviewfuneralhome.com