It may sound strange to say that talking about my death made me feel alive, but isn't that what you feel after knowing you did something great for the people you love? Let me explain.
I went to Newhard Bartholomew Funeral Homes the other day to pre-plan my funeral. Not because I am dying, I hope, but because I am young and healthy and getting a paycheck every week.
What it is pre-planning? It’s the process of picking out the funeral you want, learning the costs of each option, and then setting up a payment plan to pay for what you want over a number of years. A process which makes the whole process of a funeral more affordable, and allows the person who pre-planned the peace of mind of knowing you can pay for it.
Was it hard to sit in a funeral home in my 30s and decide whether I wanted a metal or wood casket, church or no church service, and scout locations of where I would like to be buried around Northwest Indiana? Of course, it’s only natural to feel that way; death is a hard thing to think about.
But then I imagined if I suddenly passed away and there was my family in a funeral home, grieving, and now having to decide what, exactly, my wishes for a funeral would have been. And then having to wonder if they could afford all of it.
And that’s why pre-planning a funeral is such a positive experience in the end, you’re doing something for yourself by getting the funeral you want, and also taking a tremendous burden off your loved ones and family members.
“Could you imagine sitting down after your wife had just died?” My Pre-Planning Consultant, Alice Kyle, asked me. “And now you’re sitting down with the Funeral Director and you have all those emotions running around. Doing it now, while you’re still alive, doesn’t have the same emotion as when a death occurs.”
Emotions which can lead to decisions that can affect your family, financially.
“When you make funeral decisions after someone has passed, there can often times be overspending,” Kyle added. “There’s guilt that if you don’t get the nicest thing that you didn’t make the right choice by them.”
And that’s really the whole point of pre-planning: eliminating that pressure off your family while also planning the funeral you want. Plus, you get to pay for the funeral you want in payments you can afford.
“We break the process down into pieces,” said Kyle. “And we are very flexible. Let’s say we determine a total payment for the entire funeral and you can’t afford to pay that much right now. Well, then we could start with just the casket and work towards paying that off. Then move onto the next piece.”
In my experience, it was comforting to have my bill broken down into sections, and having someone as knowledgeable as Alice presenting me with financial options that would fit any budget, no matter how large or small. It felt good in the end, actually, to see that I could actually do this. That I could afford the funeral I wanted, and to learn how much good it would do for my family to have them walk into Newhard Bartholomew Funeral Home and hear the words: “Don’t worry, it’s all taken care off.”
Because the words “don’t worry” are probably the two most comforting words any family could hear during that time.
