For funeral or memorial services with cremations in College Park, MD, the Bible can be incorporated because there are many encouraging, hope-filled, and comforting words that can bring solace and relief to grieving families. (All scriptures quoted here are from the New King James Version.)

One Bible scripture that is frequently read at a funeral or memorial services is Revelation 21:3-4. It reads, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.'”

Psalm 23 is often included in funeral or memorial services: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (A wonderful version of this in song is the hymn by Isaac Watts, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” which was sung during the 9/11 memorial service in Washington, DC.)

Understanding that death is one of the seasons of life and there’s a time when it comes, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is frequently read during funeral or memorial services. It reads, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

A very encouraging and hopeful scripture is John 5:28, which are the words of Jesus Christ, is: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice.”

If you’d like more information about services and cremations in College Park, MD, you can talk with our expert staff at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. We can help you plan a memorial on a budget. You can drop by our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can contact us today at (301) 937-1707.

With Adelphi, MD cremations, visitations and funeral services may be a part of the funeral plans before cremations are done. With some visitations, the casket is in the funeral parlor, but it remains closed throughout both the visitation and the funeral. However, with many visitations, the casket is open, with the deceased lying inside in repose.

Why would a casket be closed during the visitation and the funeral service? There are actually a couple of common reasons.

One reason may be that the family simply cannot handle seeing their loved one dead. They want their last memories of them to be when they were alive and living full, vibrant lives. They don’t want the view of death to be the last memory of their loved one that is etched into their minds.

Another reason why a casket might be closed is because the deceased is in no shape to be seen. Death could have been caused by a disease that literally caused the deceased to waste away. A horrible accident could have so disfigured the diseased that it would be unbearable for anyone to see them in that condition. The deceased could have been a victim of a violent crime that left them mangled. Or the deceased may have taken their own life using a very violent method, such as a gun.

However, if the casket is open during the visitation, should it stay open during the funeral service? There’s not a right or wrong answer to this question, but many people have strong feelings about it on side or the other.

Often times, the funeral director won’t ask if the family wants the casket open or closed during the funeral service. Instead, they will follow the general protocol of their funeral homes, unless requested to do otherwise.

If the casket is closed after the visitation, the funeral director will take the family into a private room while the casket is being closed. After the casket is closed, the funeral director will bring the family back into the funeral parlor where the service is being held.

This can actually be hard on the family because as the family walks out of the room, they know that’s their last goodbye to their loved one. They’re on view for all the mourners to see, so they may want to take their time to say goodbye in a different way, but instead they have only a second or two to walk by the casket as stoically as possible.

As the family’s sitting in the private room, they know what’s going on in the funeral parlor. That’s emotionally tough to sit there and wait, knowing what’s happening 10 or 15 feet away. And walking back in to see the casket closed is also very hard to deal with emotionally.

However, some people believe this is the right thing to do before the funeral service starts and they can be quite aghast when they attend a funeral service where the casket stays open during the service.

An open casket during the service prevents that awkward interruptive period of time where the family leaves and then the family comes back. An open casket during the funeral service also gives the family an opportunity to say goodbye in a way that isn’t rushed or so final. Since the casket isn’t closed until the family leaves the funeral home, they don’t have to deal with that jarring experience in person.

If you’d like to learn more about Adelphi, MD cremations, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can visit our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.

After Greenbelt, MD cremations, the intense part of grieving begins. As the shock and numbness from your loved one’s death wears off, people leave, and everybody else gets back to their own lives, you are left to take of the business that accompanies the end of a life and to deal with the reality of your loved one’s death and absence.

This can be a very isolating experience and it can seem, at times, that you are all alone in the grieving process. As you go through memories, whether it’s cleaning out closets, dressers, and desks or it’s going through old letters and pictures, or it’s simply passing by something your loved one wore or a present your loved one gave you, grief intensifies. You realize life is never going to be the same again.

Sharing photos of your love one online can be a very therapeutic act. While you may not know everyone in person that you’re connected to through social media, relationships on some level have been developed and cultivated. So you can share the photos and your thoughts and feelings and get comfort and support. All of this can decrease some of the depressing feelings of being all alone and that nobody else cares. It can also take away some of the feeling of being isolated in your grief.

What sharing photos on social media does psychologically is to allow you to reflect on the emotions that you are experiencing and to feel more connected to the memories of your loved one. It also invites people to share their memories of your loved one, if they knew them, and to offer solace if they didn’t know them.

It may take you a while to decide to share photos online. People deal with death and grief in very different ways. Some people just bare their souls right away and other people grieve more privately. Some people avoid anything that reminds them of their loved one for a period of time after death, because the reminder of loss is too painful for them to bear. Other people dig deep into everything about their loved one because it gives them a sense of comfort.

Whether you wait to share photos of your loved one online and share your memories of them and your feelings about their death or you start sharing photos right away and dig up every memory of your loved one you can possibly find is a personal choice.

Nobody’s in a position to know how you feel and what you’re going through except you. You don’t have to explain yourself to anybody. There is always a group of people in everyone’s life who will not be happy with certain choices. They may feel they have the right to criticize, judge, and, sadly, condemn, what they don’t understand or don’t agree with.

You’ll experience some hurtful things from other people during the grieving process. Even though they don’t mean to be intentionally hurtful, some people will cause you even more pain. With time and distance – and you’ll find yourself disconnecting from hurtful people, which is healthy – you will be able to see things more clearly and to forgive them, even if they’re no longer a part of your life.

If you’d like more information about grief resources after Greenbelt, MD cremations, you can talk with our expert staff at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can drop by our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can contact us today at (301) 937-1707.

After cremations in Beltsville, MD, families of the deceased are faced with many tasks to wrap up the lives of loved ones who have died. If your family doesn’t have what they need to complete these tasks, life will be even more difficult for them than it is already with you gone.

There are several things that you need to have ready when you die.

One of those things is a legal document that is, at the very least, signed and dated by you that tells how you want your assets and your personal belongings distributed. There are several legal instruments that accomplish this for you to choose from.

The simplest of these is a will, which appoints an executor to carry out your wishes. You can either have an attorney draw the will up, or you can create it yourself using software or online websites for making wills. If an attorney does the will, they will take care of getting it witnessed and notarized, which makes the will less likely to be contested. If you create the will yourself, it’s legally-binding as long as you sign and date it, but you should have it witnessed and notarized if you’re able. There are notary services that can this, and if you have accounts at a bank, they will often provide this service at no cost.

Irrevocable and revocable trusts are the other two legal instruments to distribute assets and personal belongings.

Revocable trusts set up stipulations that cover both becoming mentally incapacitated – such as with dementia – and death. If you create a revocable trust (you will set it up with an asset of either cash or property) and you change your mind about beneficiaries, you can change the trust. Revocable trusts are not subject to probate.

Irrevocable trusts cannot be changed once they are set up. Even if you change your mind about beneficiaries down the road or you want to remove assets, you are not able to do so once an irrevocable trust is set up and funded.

The other things you need to have in place before you die are your digital assets. Whoever you want to handle finances needs to have your online banking login information (this does not mean they, while you’re living, have access to your money, unless you add them to the accounts).

You also need to document all online account information for credit cards, for investments, for shopping sites, and for pharmacies. After you die, credit cards will need to be cancelled, investments will need to be managed, shopping site accounts will need to be deleted, and auto-refill prescriptions at pharmacies will need to be stopped.

Additionally, access will be needed for the sites you use for digital device – smartphone, tablet, etc. – service if that plan needs to be cancelled after your death.

All email account information, social media account information, and other digital information also needs to be documented. You may have email accounts that are linked to financial and asset accounts that your family will need access to. Social media accounts might or might not be cancelled, depending on what your family decides to do with the accounts, but access will be needed. If you have your own website or blog or you self-publish books on a service like Amazon, your family will need to be able to access those accounts and decide whether to keep them active or to delete them.

If you’d like to about being prepared to die before cremations in Beltsville, MD, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can visit our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.