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BEREAVEMENT GUIDE


How to arrange a funeral


When you’re coping with the death of someone you care for, arranging their funeral can seem overwhelming. Knowing exactly what you have to do, and what will happen, may help to make it easier. Here is Farewell Magazine’s 10 point guide to everything you need to know.


1. NOTIFY FRIENDS AND FAMILY You should notify close friends and family straightaway, as some of them may wish to visit the deceased to say goodbye. However, you may want to wait until funeral arrangements have been made before you contact everyone else. Once certain arrangements are in place - venue, date, time, gathering afterwards - you can invite friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours to attend and ask for any contributions to the ceremony. You may find that you get easily muddled, so it’s helpful to keep a checklist of who you have already contacted.


2. DEATH CERTIFICATE Every death must be certified by a doctor who


will give the family a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death to take to the local council’s Registrar’s Office to register the death. If a death happens in hospital, ward staff


will organise the death certificate and give it to the next of kin. If a death happens at home, someone should phone the family GP (or 999, if you don’t know who the GP is) so a doctor can visit to certify the death. If the death is sudden, suspicious or unusual,


a post-mortem will be needed to determine the cause of death. No family permission is needed for this and the medical certificate will be issued by the coroner after the post-mortem. 3. REGISTERING THE DEATH Remember that you cannot set the date


for the funeral until after the death has been registered and, if the death has to be reported to the coroner, this may take some time. The registration of the death is the formal


record of the death. It is done by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and you will find the address of the nearest register office in the telephone directory or online.


When someone dies at home, the death should be registered at the register office for the district where they lived. If the death took place in hospital or in a nursing home it must be registered at the office for the district in which the hospital or home is situated. Always check the opening hours of the office you wish to go to and remember that some offices have an appointments system. A death should be registered within five days,


but registration can be delayed for another nine days if the registrar is told that a medical certificate has been issued. If the death has been reported to the coroner, you cannot register it until the coroner’s investigations are finished. Remember, it is a criminal offence not to


register a death. Ideally, the death should be registered by a relative who was present at the death, or during the person’s last illness. You must take with you the medical certificate


of death, since the death cannot be registered until the registrar has seen this. If possible, you should also take the person’s NHS medical card and birth and marriage certificates. The registrar will want the following


information:-


Top left: Orange Feather by Rybson@sxc.hu. Bottom pictures left – right: The Prayer by intuitives@ sxc.hu, Tombstones 3 by zzostory@sxc.hu, Compassion by kslyesmith@sxc.hu


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Farewell Magazine


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