Dealing with the death of a loved one

[DungunGirl]

Hi there

My grandma passed away last night and neither my mum nor myself know what happens next.

How long before we can organise a funeral? What are the procedures....basically, what do we do and where do we start?

Help!

You can start organsing the funeral straight away. Is she in the funeral home now? They will help you. Go in and talk to them.

I'm so sorry about your Gran.

Sorry about your grandma. There's useful information on the directgov website

What to do when someone dies checklist

and

What to do after a death

Hi ShinyAndNew

Thanks. She is still in the hospitals care as far as I know...

Thanks Professor....that is all really helpful. Will have to start getting everything together.

If she's been formally identified and there is no need for a post mortem then you can arrange for funeral directors to collect her body from the hospital mortuary (technically you don't need to use funeral directors and could do this yourself, but that's extremely unusual).

The hospital should give you a medical certificate showing the cause of death (you need this to register the death). If you plan to have your grandma's body cremated then I believe you still need two doctors to sign the certificate rather than one, so check with the hospital about that. They will also be able to tell you how to register the death (as will the funeral director).