| What is a funeral? |
| A funeral is a time when friends and family gather to celebrate a life and mourn the loss of a loved one. The funeral is the starting point of the recovery process and the first step toward healing. |
|
| What type of funeral service should I have? |
| A funeral service can be open to the public, private for family only or accessible by invitation only. You can choose burial or cremation, a large service or a small one. And you can follow the liturgy of the religion of your choice. Our funeral directors are trained to provide you with support and guidance to help you plan a funeral that reflects your needs and desires. |
|
| Can I personalize my funeral service? |
| You most certainly can. Each funeral should reflect the life of the deceased – and no two people are the same. We encourage you to let us know exactly how you want yourself or your loved one to be remembered and we will do our best to create a ceremony that will truly celebrate your life. |
|
| Why should we have a public viewing? |
| While not every tradition encourages a public viewing, we believe that it serves a purpose. Making a viewing part of your funeral service provides closure to all in attendance, especially the bereaved. Studies show that viewing the body helps the bereaved recognize the reality of death and can help in the grieving process. |
|
| What does a funeral director do? |
| Our funeral directors are here to help you, any time of any day. It is our job to care for you at one of the most difficult times of your life. We work with you to plan the memorial. We carry out all wishes during the funeral and in the disposition of the body. We promise to guide you in the right direction when planning the funeral and help you before, during and after the service. |
|
| What should I do if a death occurs in the middle of the night or on the weekend? |
| Call us. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you need immediate assistance, one of our funeral directors will be there. |
|
| What should I do if a death occurs while away from home? |
| Our funeral directors can help you no matter where a death has occurred. We’ll take care of everything from bringing your loved one back home to helping you arrange the service. |
|
| I have a prepaid trust account for my funeral arrangements, but I have heard so much about the Purple Shield plan that I think I would rather have my money in there. Can there be a transfer? |
| That is a very good question which is frequently asked. Currently, the only way to make that transfer is to cancel the original contract and have the money in trust refunded and then re-invested with Purple Shield. However, as soon as you do that, tax has to be paid on the interest earned since it wasn’t cancelled to pay for an actual funeral service. There are talks in progress with respect to this very issue and we are hoping to hear soon that there will be a tax-free method of making a transfer from trust to Purple Shield. In the mean time, our advice is to leave the trust accounts alone for now and check back with us occasionally for updates which will be posted on this website. |
|
| I like the fact that you can web-cast funeral services on your site, but do you do them in real-time? |
Thank you for your question. There are three reasons why we don't do web-casts in real-time:
1. Real-time web-casting, or streaming, is a lot more costly than delayed web-casting;
2. When capturing a funeral service for web-casting that is being held in a church, streaming becomes very difficult as no church sanctuary in our area is equipped with an internet connection; and
3. The main reason for web-casting is to allow family or friends in other parts of the country or world the opportunity to view the service at their convenience without having to be concerned about time zones or scheduling conflicts. |
|
| If I want to set up my funeral now, do I have to pay for it now? |
When pre-planning your funeral, you actually have three options:
1. Pre-plan without pre-paying: in this case you would record your wishes and we would keep those on file for future reference with no money being set aside.
2. Pre-pay without pre-planning: some people want to leave the decision-making to their family members but want to ensure there is money set aside to cover the expenses.
3. Pre-plan with pre-payment: This is for those who wish to set out exactly what they want for funeral goods and services and have the money available to cover the expenses.
How you pre-plan your funeral is a very personal choice. I suggest you check the Pre-Planning page link to the left of this page as well as the FamilySide/Purple Shield web site (found on the Links) page for more detailed information. |
|
| Do you have a crematorium on site? |
| No, we do not. Considering that there are several crematoria in this geographical area and the financial investment required to establish one, we have determined that it is much more economical for the consumer for us to use an existing facility. We generally use one in Yorkton as it is very handy to Melville, keeping the transportation expense to a minimum |
|
| Do you use any of the caskets made here in Melville? |
Yes, we certainly do. In fact, all of the hardwood and some of the cloth-covered caskets that we offer are locally manufactured, and we use them almost exclusively for several reasons. First of all, the quality of their product is as good as you will find from any other manufacturer. Secondly, because they are local, there are no shipping charges built into the cost (other caskets come from Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the U.S. - as you can imagine, a good portion of the end price is shipping). Finally, because we can have a casket within hours, or even minutes, of ordering it, we can arrange for customized features to suit the needs of the family - this is not an option with caskets shipped from a distance. To see their products, you can go to our Catalogue of Products page, or visit their web site (you will find a link on our Links page). Although you didn't ask this, we have been asked in the past if we are part owners of the manufacturing company. The answer to that is "no" - we have no financial connection to the company in any way. |
|
| We've heard that a lot of funeral homes are now owned by big outfits with head offices down east or in the U.S. - do you own your funeral home? |
| Thank you for asking that. We are a family-owned funeral home with no connection to any of the large funeral 'conglomerates'. There is currently one Ontario-based funeral corporation and one owned by a Texas-based company. There are funeral homes in Saskatchewan owned by each of those companies, so if local ownership is an important consideration in your choice of funeral home, it would be wise to find out the ownership status of your local establishment(s) in advance of need. |
|
