What Funeral Directors Do

Funeral directors arrange all cremation services offered in Burtonsville, MD. We often don’t think about all the things that funeral directors do when we’re dealing with the death of a loved one, but the services they provide make the whole funeral process so much easier to bear and deal with.

Our lives start to intersect with funeral directors after a loved one dies because one of their responsibilities to provide transportation for people who have died from the place where they died to the funeral home. In the very early history of funeral homes, transportation was done using ambulances or hearses. This let neighbors all around that someone had died. Now, with more attention to discretion and privacy, transportation is provided primarily using unmarked minivans. However, hearses are still used when the casket is being transported from the funeral home to the cemetery.

Funeral directors also set up a meeting with the deceased’s family to make funeral arrangements. Most of the time, this meeting happens within a day or two after the death of a loved one.

At the meeting to make funeral arrangements, funeral directors a lot of questions about what the deceased and/or the family wants for the funeral. They make sure that every need of the family is met during the funeral process. If the deceased is being cremated, the funeral director will find out if the family would like to have a funeral service before cremation or a memorial service after cremation.

If the family wants a funeral service before cremation, the funeral director will help them plan every detail of the funeral service.

Most of the time, families have someone in mind already that they want to oversee the funeral service. This may be a clergy member, a close friend, or even another family member (anyone can oversee a funeral service).

However, if the family does not have anyone, the funeral director will oversee it. The funeral director guides the family through the order of the funeral service, including any readings, eulogies, and music they choose. The funeral director will then make sure that the service happens exactly as the family wants.

If the family wants the funeral service livestreamed or digitally recorded, the funeral director will provide these services as well.

If the deceased is cremated, the funeral director oversees the cremation process. They’ll make sure the deceased is accurately identified and tagged before cremation begins.

If the deceased is being buried, the funeral director will make all the burial arrangements with the cemetery, and will make sure that the grave is opened before burial and closed after burial. In addition, they will make sure gravestones or grave markers are ordered and placed in the cemetery after burial.

There is a ton of paperwork associated with funerals. Funeral directors handle all of it, including getting certified death certificates, getting burial and cremation permits, writing obituaries, if the deceased or the deceased’s family doesn’t have one written, and getting them published either online or in newspapers.

Funeral directors also supervise the embalming of the deceased. This procedure includes ensuring that the deceased looks as much as possible like they did when they were alive, ensuring that the body is cleaned and dressed in the clothing provided by the family and ensuring that hair styling and manicuring is done.

If you want more information about cremation services offered in Burtonsville, MD, 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.