Direct funeral’s

[Seasider2017]

ive been thinking lately about buying my funeral upfront, as I feel this would take a lot of stress from whom was left to sort it and also cheaper.

Im thinking direct funeral as I don’t have any friends and my sister are all older than me
im now 65. Even if they outlive me I don’t think at if them would be driving in the next 5-10 years so would be difficult to get to Crem.
If my partner is still here, he & my ds can attend if they so wish(to be discussed) or ashes will be delivered to address.

my question if you have done this are

what if the company you choose goes out of business ? Is monies lost ?

Is there anything in particular that I need to make sure I do

DH and I had/have prepaid Direct Cremation. Sadly he died in July and I had nothing to do with the cremation. Some of the family were a bit put out but it was DH’s choice, I donated some of the saved to money to charity he supported.

I don't think anyone can attend a direct funeral, it's either all or nothing. Just paid nearly £5000 for the most basic funeral we could have which we could attend.

Don't know about if company goes out of business. I've had a few relatives who had direct cremations. The company tells you when they will be cremated but you won't know where it happens. No mourners attend, it being Direct. It can take some time before it happens, same with the relative receiving the ashes. It took a few weeks. We had private memory days for our relatives with family in our homes. I'd choose a direct for myself too. It's become more common now. Standard funerals are so expensive.

My mum had what's called an attended direct funeral. The funeral is at the convenience of the funeral directors (usually first thing in the morning), they tell you the time and you can turn up at the crematorium when the hearse arrives. Ours gave us 10 minutes alone at the podium with the coffin where we said goodbye and laid home-made bouquets of flowers from mum's garden on the coffin. We played her favourite songs on my dd's phone. They then asked us to depart and meet outside where the wreaths get laid. There was only 6 of us and it was brilliant. I couldn't bear the thought of her being all alone and this way was perfect. It cost about 2k. Not all funeral directors do attended direct funerals so it's worth looking around if this is something you'd want.

I had a direct cremation for my mum. We just then arranged a 'funeral/memorial' when the ashes arrived back. She saw a body as just a shell so didn't mind not knowing where she was going or people being there.

All pre-paid funeral plans have to be carefully regulated now and there are very strict criteria, so your money should be safe.

The cremation will take place early morning. I'm a funeral arranger and ours go to the crematorium at 7:30 am as the crematorium do the direct cremations early. The funeral director will usually use a local crematorium offering the lowest cost for a direct cremation, to keep costs down.

Make sure you tell a family member that you have a plan in place. Often the application allows you to nominate a representative who will be formally notified that you have a plan. You don't get to choose much when it's a direct cremation but you can specify what you want to happen to your ashes afterwards.

We had a direct cremation for my SIL. She wasn't at all religious so had previously said she didn't want anything too formal. She lived in Cornwall but all the family are in the SE so the logistics and cost of bringing her back up to London on top of even basic funeral costs would be difficult. Equally having everyone go down to Cornwall necessitating overnight stays etc wasn't something we felt we could ask people to do.

on the day of the cremation DH and I went out to lunch and remembered her in our own way (she was his sister). A few days later we had a memorial afternoon tea at a hotel to which family and friends were invited which was lovely.

She had stipulated that she wanted her ashes to be put with those of her late partner. We arranged for that and accompanied by some family members we had the ashes buried in accordance with her wishes after which we all went and had a gloriously boozy lunch.

DH said that he felt extremely comforted by how it all went. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't cause some raised eyebrows amongst family and friends, but once DH explained his reasons for doing the majority of people said that it was completely the right decision and some said it was something they would consider themselves.