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Author Archives: Michael Bernardo

Planning Your Services With Funeral Homes—For You And Your Family

There are lots of reasons to plan your own final services in advance. If you are thinking about contacting one of the funeral homes in Tukwila, WA to do just that, you might have your own reasons in mind. Whatever they are, it’s a good idea to remember both yourself and your family when you make the plans. Here a few ways it will benefit both sides of that group.

No More Guessing

When you think about the end of your life, which no one really likes to do, you might wonder what your family will do to honor you. Will they cremate you? Will they give you a traditional burial? You’ll never know…unless you set the services up yourself. Your family, on the other hand, might wonder what you would have wanted. If you don’t’ tell them, they would have to guess at that if you passed on without letting them in. When you make your own final plans, you don’t have to guess at what your family would do, and they don’t have to guess at what you would have wanted.

Lower Service Costs

It’s always nice to pay less instead of more. If you could get a car ten years from now (or more) at today’s prices, wouldn’t that be grand? They’ll cost a lot more in the future, you can guarantee that. The same is true about final services. When you plan now, you can also pay now. You get to pay today’s prices and those prices stick, even if your funeral is forty years from now when prices are much higher. That saves you a lot of money and it saves your loved one’s the burdens of paying for anything at all. It’s nice to leave them more money in the future instead of having to spend it on services.

Peace Of Mind

Once your plans are in place, you can have peace of mind. You know what’s going to happen when you pass on and you know your family understands what you want. That can also give your family peace of mind, both now and later. Now, they understand what you want and later, when you pass on, they put the plans into action with ease, knowing it’s what you asked to have done.

There are lots of reasons why planning your own final services with funeral homes in Tukwila, WA in advance is in your best interest—and in the best interests of your family members. If you are starting to head down that path, contact the professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory and we can help you with the specifics. We know that it’s hard to think about your own death, but we’re here to give you the information you need to make the best possible decisions for your future, no matter how far into the future you might need these plans. We’ll keep them safe until then and your family will have them in place and ready.

Reducing Cremation Service Planning Stress

If you have to plan cremation services in Tukwila, WA for a loved one who passed on, there’s no doubt about it—it’s going to be stressful. But while you are grieving, you need to cut back on stress, not heighten it. There are things you can do to relieve yourself of as much stress as you can so you can get the plans in place and still grieve yourself in a healthy manner. Here are a few options to consider:

Keep It Simple With Packages

Cremation services don’t have to be complicated to plan. When you visit with the funeral home, they will show you various package options for the services you need. You only have to purchase a package deal and that will give you everything you have to have for a cremation. You can leave it there and everything is taken care of in a simple manner. While you have the choice to add whatever you’d like, to reduce stress, sometimes it’s best to go with a package and leave it at that.

Ask Others To Help

If you do want to get more involved and add things to a package, like a memorial service, a unique urn, and other such things, you shouldn’t have to take on all of the plans yourself. Instead, you might want to ask other people to help you, so you don’t have to shoulder as many of the burdens on your own. You could ask someone to organize a memorial display while someone else takes care of the reception and so on. You are surrounded by people who love you and who loved your loved one. They can help you with those things and you don’t have to do it all alone.

Spread It Out

Once direct cremation is complete, you don’t have a timeline on the rest of the services you might want to have. While some people might want to go ahead with a memorial right away, others prefer to wait longer to get something really special set up. You can spread things out, so you don’t have to rush to plan the memorial service. Let the death settle in a bit and get used to the idea before you move ahead. You can take your time in honoring your loved one, so you are able to get something together that is really special for them and your whole family.

When you are working on cremation services in Tukwila, WA for a family member, it can be stressful. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory are here to relieve you of as many burdens as possible. IF you need help, call us. Once you make decisions on certain things, we will implement the plans for you so you can spend more time with your family. While we won’t make choices for you, we will help you decide with options and information so you can feel good about what you want to do moving forward. We’re here to give you the compassion and support you need.

Writing To Heal Your Grief

It’s always hard to lose a loved one and right now, when there’s a pandemic raging across the country, some of the things you might normally do aren’t possible or, at least aren’t smart. If you have cremation services in Bellevue, WA for a loved one, you might feel like you need an outlet to help you through with your grief. If you have always gravitated toward writing, it might be a good way to get some of your emotions out. Here are some of the things that writing can help you do as you go through grief and attempt to heal.

Provide You An Avenue To Think And Feel

You might not feel comfortable talking to just anyone about what you are thinking and feeling and that’s okay. If you are into writing, perhaps in a journal, you can vent your emotions there. No one will judge you and you will get some of your thoughts out. You might be able to work out some of the emotions as you process them onto paper, as well.

Tap Into The Subconscious

There are some things that you might be feeling that you don’t even know about until you start writing and venting to the journal you are creating. Your subconscious could come alive and it could help you process certain things that you never would have gotten to had you been speaking out loud. You may uncover some meaning in the experience you are going through, which could help you recover in a whole new way.

Help You Make Sense Of Loss

While there’s nothing that’s ever going to feel right about losing someone, you might be able to make sense of your pain as you bring some order and even a little structure to the grief and pain you are feeling. You can organize your thoughts with no judgment and no explaining. You know what you mean and getting it out can be very good for you.

Re-Reading Can Help

Go back and read what you wrote every now and then and you might see how much you are progressing in your grieving path. It might help you see your emotions more clearly and have sympathy for yourself as you move ahead, however slowly that needs to happen.

There are lots of ways to help yourself get through cremation services in Bellevue, WA and the grieving process that needs to take place around it. If you feel comfortable talking to others, perhaps a grief group is your best option. If you like one on one advice, counselors could help. If you more enjoy the written word, you could work out quite a bit on your own with a journal and a pen. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory want to remind you that no two people grieve or recover in the same way. Take your grief one day at a time and approach it however you see fit since you are the one going through it.

Dealing With Loss During A Pandemic

While a lot of things have shut down and changed over the past few months, one thing that hasn’t changed is that life sometimes ends. You know every life is finite, but you have to face it when someone in your family passes on. When you contact funeral homes in Bellevue, WA, you might find that there are certain restrictions in place for everyone’s safety. While many restrictions have relaxed, you still want to deal with the loss in the safest and most respectful manner for everyone. Here are a few ways to deal with loss during this pandemic.

Consider Outdoor Services

While the weather is still nice, you could consider having services for your loved one outside. Most people are more comfortable gathering in a group when they are outside and not closed in with the air everyone is breathing. You are more able to space out chairs and people in general and it is a safer way to gather.

Keep Services Small

Even if you’d like to have services open to the public, that might not feel right to you right now, either, given the situation of the pandemic. Instead of going all out, you could just keep the services on the small side with family and friends who were close to your loved one. The community can find other ways to honor them as you keep everyone as safe as you can.

Put Off Services

While you can’t put off a funeral or burial, you can delay memorial services if you’d like when you go for direct cremation. Cremation will take the timeline pressure off and you can have the services whenever you’d like. Since we don’t know exactly when this whole thing will be over, it can be hard to say when you will want to have the services in the future.

Remember Life

While it’s easy to deal on the death of a loved one and all the hard, negative things going on around you, one of the best things you can do during this hard situation is to remember life. Gather with friends and talk about fond memories of your loved one to honor them. Remind yourself of the people around you who are still here and love you. They make life worth living. Remembering the good points will help you get through the harder times you are facing now.

There are plenty of funeral homes in Bellevue, WA that are ready and willing to help you through these tough situations. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory will help you organize and carry out any details you decide upon for your loved one. We also offer grief resources after the services are complete if you need some extra help moving forward. You can call us for details on grief groups, counselors, or anything else you might feel is right for your particular grief. We’re here to help you through this hard time, whatever it takes, to see you through.

More Companies Are Offering Cremation Services

If you visited a funeral home several decades ago, wanting cremation services in Tukwila, WA, it’s possible that they wouldn’t have been able to help you. Most people chose traditional funerals and burial services at that time, so cremation was a lot harder to find. However, now, a lot has changes and there are more companies offering cremation services. There are also many reasons why that is the case. Here are a few:

Reason 1: People Understand Cremation Better

Today, cremation is used in about half of the cases, traditional burial taking up the other half. In part, cremation is more popular because people know more about it. It’s no longer a scary unknown, but something you can easily research and understand. With that kind of knowledge, everyone is more willing to utilize the service because they understand and accept it.

Reason 2: More People Have Attended Cremation Services

No matter what you think about cremation for yourself, more people have attended cremation services today than in past years. Friends and family members may choose cremation and that means you will attend those services. When you attend them, you get comfortable with them and you see how honorable and respectful they are. That leads you to a great possibility of choosing it for yourself.

Reason 3: More Religions Accept It

Final services are very important to most religions and there are some things that are okay and some that are not. In the past, some religions didn’t accept cremation, but today, almost all of the major religions do. People of faith feel comfortable with cremation because their religion accepts it.

Reason 4: The High Demand

Since more and more people are using cremation, the demand has grown and continues to grow. While it is used in half of the cases today, experts say that within the next few decades, it could be used up to 80% of the time. Companies are trying to fill a demand. Funeral homes that existed before want to serve as many people as they can during hard times and that means including cremation. There have also been crematories that just do cremation popping up around the country to help with the demand. When demands are high, there needs to be more people offering that type of service, and companies have risen to the occasion.

While there are plenty of places that offer cremation services in Tukwila, WA, if you are planning for a loved one, or pre-planning for yourself, you still want a company that will give you high-quality services. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory have been working with cremation for a long time and we know just what we are doing. We can offer you plenty of ideas and options so you can get the best possible services for whoever you are planning for. We want you to be able to honor that special person in your life in whatever way you see fit. If that includes cremation, we’re here to provide it.

How To Find A Funeral Home That Offers Cremation

If you have decided to plan your own final services, it’s a nice thing to do for your family members. They won’t have the burden of guessing and making those choices for you in the future. If you have decided that you’d like to be cremated, you can contact a crematory, or you can call one of the funeral homes in Tukwila, WA that offers the service. It’s nice to work with a funeral home because you can get memorial services and other details taken care of with the same company, if you please. How can you find a funeral home that offers cremation? Here are a few ways:

Ask Family Members Or Friends

Even if you haven’t worked with a funeral home on final services yet, you know people who have. If you have a friend or family member who has made cremation plans, either for themselves or someone who passed on, you can ask them who they used. It’s always nice to get a recommendation from someone you trust for a company that did a good job on their plans. You are more likely to trust them as well as you move ahead with your own plans.

Look Up Funeral Home Websites

If you search for funeral homes that do cremation services online, you will come up with a list of options in your area. You can look at their websites, ensure that they do offer cremation, and then take things from there. Once you know which funeral homes offer the service, you can start to read over the other options they have and look into reviews of that company on other websites, so you get a full idea of what they are like.

Contact Your Church For Options

If you belong to a local church, you know they are connected to funeral homes in the area as some people like to have their services in the church instead of in the funeral home. Churches know the local funeral homes well and they might be able to suggest a funeral home they have worked with in the past and that has done cremation services. They can also help you coordinate services if you want to have some of the memorial in the church.

There are plenty of ways to find out which funeral homes in Tukwila, WA offer cremation and Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory is one such funeral home. We are here to help you with your pre-plans whenever you are ready to move forward with them. If you aren’t sure exactly what you want for every detail, that’s okay. We have options for you to consider and we can even come up with unique ideas and choices that could direct you down a path to making your services truly memorable and just right for your personality. Give us a call when you are ready to get into some details and then, take your time in making the decisions before you put them into writing.

Choosing Cremation Services As A Group

If someone in your family passes on, it’s possible that you might have to make plans for their final services on your own. It’s also possible that it will be more of a group effort. If you have siblings, for example, and you need to make decisions together for a parent, that’s one situation that might call for a group choice. Do you want cremation services in Bellevue, WA? Here are a few ways to come to a consensus as a group.

Analyze The Budget Situation

When you sit down with your siblings to make plans, one of the first things you might want to do is figure out what your budget looks like for the final service. Perhaps your parent left funds for it or maybe you have to pool your money to cover expenses yourself. Find out what the money area looks like so you know what options you have to choose between. It’s possible that if finding is on the low side, cremation will be the better option and you’ll lean that direction no matter what.

Consider What The Deceased Would Want

IT’s always nice to talk about your loved one with your family members and try to decide as a group what you think they would have wanted. While all of you knew them well, perhaps they mentioned attending a cremation service to one sibling and that person can share what they said with everyone else. IF they attended a service for a friend and thought it was nice, that can make all of you feel more comfortable with going that direction for them,

Think About The Resting Place

Allow everyone to offer ideas about where they think your loved one should go for their final resting place. If all of the siblings want to stay close to the parent, but you all live in different parts of the state or country, cremation is a good option. Cremated remains can be split into smaller urns so everyone can keep a piece, spread the ashes in a suitable location, or do something else. If everyone agrees on burial in a certain cemetery, then that’s perhaps the way to go. Cremation opens up the options so if it’s hard to decide, several people can do what they want if you go with that method.

There are other tips to helping a group decide on cremation services in Bellevue, WA and the options that come along with it. If you need help with the process, or a list of things you need to decide, contact the professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory. We’ll help you however we can. You will want to keep in mind that your loved open would want you and your siblings to work nicely together, compromising where you need to. The last thing they would want would be to cause any strife among you. When a parent passes on, it’s important for the siblings to support one another as best they can as a family should.

Working With Local Funeral Home Providers

When you have to work with funeral homes in Bellevue, WA, there are a variety of companies from which to choose. But there are going to be two main types of funeral businesses in the area: locally owned and operated and chain funeral homes. As long as you go with an experienced business, you can get the results you need. But it’s always a good idea to go local when you can. Here are a few reasons why.

Working With Neighbors

When you work with a company of any kind that has local owners, you are basically working with your neighbors. They might not live on your street, but they do live in your community and they know that word of mouth is the best (and can be the worst) advertisement. They will do their best work for you because they know you, or because you live in the area and they are members of your community. You might run into the professionals out at the store or see them in other locations. You are much more likely to get the personal attention you need.

Support The Community

You live where you do for a reason and it’s always nice to be able to keep your money in the community, when you can. By getting your help from a locally owned and operated funeral home, the money you spend on the final services you have to have will stay in the community. The businessowner will turn around and use the money they make right there in the community as well and you are all able to support one another.

An Understanding Of The Area

People who live and work in this area understand it. They know where the best cemeteries are, they know what kind of services the area prefers, and they know what the people around here are like. They aren’t trying to sell generic services, but rather services that are completely suited to each family that comes to them for help. Since they understand the area better, they are able to make better recommendations and come up with better ideas for personal and unique services that might suit your needs.

Always There

Chain business sometimes come and go through the area, but local businesses are likely here to stay. You know that if you have to use a funeral home this year, that same funeral home will be here in several more years when you need help again. You can count on their help each and every time you need it.

If you are looking for funeral homes in Bellevue, WA the professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory are here to help. We have a long history in the area and we’re happy to share that with you if you’d like to hear more about it. Our main goal is to ensure that you are able to get the services you need for your loved one so you can honor their memory however you see fit.

What To Ask As A Cremation Service First Timer

While cremation services in Tukwila, WA are highly popular today and used in around 50% of the cases, that means the other half of the time, people use traditional burial. It’s quite possible that you have never attended or organized a cremation service at this point. If you are tasked with a loved one’s final services, or you want to arrange your own services in advance, you may have questions to ask a cremation provider. Here are some of the questions you might want to throw out there.

How Does Cremation Work?

If you’re really a beginning at cremation, you should ask how the cremation process itself works. You might think that the body is burned with flames and that might turn you away from the idea, but that’s not really how things operate. Rather, the body is exposed to extreme heat, which turns it into an ash-like substance. There is no burning at all. Having a cremation provider describe things to you in detail can help you better understand how it all works.

Can I See The Crematory?

Not only might you want to know how cremation works, but you may want to see the facilities yourself. If you see them and have a description of how things operate, it will give you a better understanding. Plus, seeing the facilities will help you understand that the funeral home runs a clean facility that is up to your standards. You should always be able to get a tour when you ask.

What Does Cremation Cost?

Funeral homes are completely transparent with their prices. They will give you a list of packages and prices so you know exactly what the prices include. You’ll be able to see that the packages include everything you need, including the transportation of the deceased to the crematory, their care, the actual cremation, and a simple container for their remains. You, of course, are free to add to that whatever you’d like in order to make the services personal and unique.

What Are Good Reasons To Cremate?

You may still be going back and forth between cremation and traditional services and that’s just fine. The funeral home can talk to you about reasons people go with cremation and you can see if any of them fit your situation. They might tell you that people often use it because it costs less, which is very much the case. They might also tell you that families appreciate the versatile choices in services and final resting places, among other reasons.

IF you are looking into cremation services in Tukwila, WA, keep in mind that it is a permanent process. Once a body is cremated, it cannot be undone. That being said, it’s important to be sure you want cremation before you move forward. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory can answer any questions you have so you can move ahead with confidence one way or the other for yourself as part of a pre-plan or for a loved one.

Funeral Homes Help Outside Of Immediate Needs

Most of the time, people contact funeral homes in Tukwila, WA when a loved one passes away and they need final service help right away. That’s a common time to think of the professionals at funeral homes. They are experts at helping people in times of need. However, there are other times when funeral homes might be able to help you with certain things. They are always happy to answer questions and direct you in the right manner, even if they can’t help. Here are a few instances in which funeral homes could help, even if you don’t have an immediate need for a final service when someone in your family has passed away.

Pre-Arrangements

While funeral homes can certainly help you arrange final services when a loved one passes on, they can also help you arrange final services for yourself in advance. It’s a nice idea to think about what you want for yourself and lay those plans out so your loved ones don’t have to worry about making plans someday when you pass on. They can just call the funeral home and whatever plans you have in order can begin. It can give you peace of mind as well, knowing that what you want to have happen will happen.

Grief Resources

Funeral homes are always there to help people who are grieving. Whether you used a specific funeral home in town or not, you can call them later and ask for grief resources. They always have a list of grief groups that meet in the area and one might sound just right for your needs. They will also have referrals for counselors if you’d like to talk to someone one on one. They always have pamphlets available as well and they can even give you some recommended websites on various topics.

Community Events

Funeral homes with local owners often like to be involved in the community. If you have an event going on in the area and you need sponsors, it’s possible the funeral home will want to take part. You can at least call and inform them of the event and what sponsorships are like. They can contact you later if they are interested. They also know many community members and work with them on final services. They might run into someone who owns another business in town who might be interested as well so it’s always good to keep them informed either way.

These are a few reasons to contact funeral homes in Tukwila, WA even if you don’t have an immediate need for final services right away. The professionals at Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory are here to help you with a variety of needs. Even if you aren’t sure whether or not we can help with your questions, give us a call and we’ll do our best. We can always give you advice as to where you might find what you need if we aren’t able to help you get answers right away.

Call now: 1-206-722-1100