The Types of Services Offered by Funeral Homes

While you’re planning a funeral service in Roanoke, VA, you may not aware of the full range of funeral services that the funeral home can provide to you, your family, and your deceased loved one. Funeral homes take care of all arrangements related to funerals and they do many things behind the scenes to take the burden of the details of death and funerals off of grieving families. 

Funeral homes provide services like arranging funerals, providing resources to the bereaved family before, during, and after the funeral service, and making sure that the funeral includes exactly what you and your deceased loved one wanted. Some of the specific services that the funeral home provides are: 

• Visitation/Viewing – The funeral home will arrange everything, including embalming, placement in casket, and arranging flowers for a viewing or visitation. Viewings and visitations offer mourners a chance to offer their support, comfort, and condolences to the grieving family and to pay their final respects to the deceased. 
• Funeral service – The funeral home will meet with you and your family to get specific information about what you want included in the funeral service. They will get detailed information about people who will participate in the funeral service, about the order of the funeral service, and about any special requirements they need to provide for the funeral service. The funeral director will oversee every aspect of the service to ensure it goes smoothly. 
• Memorial service – If you choose to have a memorial service for your deceased loved one, the funeral home will work to make sure that the memorial service includes everything that you and your deceased loved one wanted. They will make any arrangements that need to be made, if the memorial service is not being held at the funeral home. 
• Graveside service – Some families choose to have only a short and simple service at the cemetery where their loved one will be buried. The funeral home will make arrangements with the cemetery to make sure the gravesite is ready before the family arrives. They will organize and lead the funeral procession to the gravesite, and they will ensure that any special requests for the graveside service – such as music – are accommodated. 

Another service that funeral homes provide is cremation and inurnment. You will be able to choose urns as part of making funeral arrangements and the funeral home will make sure your loved one’s cremation remains are put into the urns before they are presented to you (you can choose to have your loved one’s cremation remains split between several urns if each family member wants to keep a portion of them). 

Funeral homes also take care of getting all the permits and authorizations required for funerals. These may include cremation authorizations and burial permits. They will also take care of getting death certificates for your loved one. 

Funeral homes will also notify Social Security of your loved one’s death (this notification will cover regular Social Security benefits and Social Security Disability benefits). If your loved one was a military veteran who was under care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the funeral home will notify them as well. 

Military veterans are entitled to funeral honors, so if you request them (you’ll need to provide the funeral home director with a copy of their DD-214), the funeral home will make arrangements to have these included as part of the funeral or memorial service for your loved one. These can include the presentation of the American flag to a family member (additional flags can be requested, but only one is presented during the service), a 21-gun salute, and the playing of “Taps.” 

For additional information about each type of funeral service offered in Roanoke, VA, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory can assist you.