Planning your funeral is often a hard thing to comprehend especially whilst healthy. However, when someone unexpectedly passes away arranging a funeral in keeping with the deceased's wishes is often made more stressful when things haven't been documented.
Hoster Tully's funeral in the CBO TV Series 'Game of Thrones' serves as a reminder for the following:
- Make sure that your funeral wishes have been written down and given to someone you trust
- State what kind of ceremony you would like (religious, traditional, celebration of life etc)
- Document whether you would like to be buried, cremated, other.
- State where you would like your final resting place to be.
- Clearly articulate any other ceremonial preferences that you may have (such as songs, what people should wear etc)
- If you are an organ donor keep the relevant documentation in a safe place and tell friends where the safe place is.
- Choose someone reliable to help and assist with your funeral
Lessons Learnt from a Game of Thrones Funeral (choose someone reliable to help assist with your funeral)
There are a number of great resources that offer more advice to help ensure that you have your funeral wishes met. Although they are (arguably) not as visually engaging as this snippet from Game of Thrones (above) they do offer a lot more guidance:
- In the UK Dying Matters 'My Funeral Wishes' and The Good Funeral Guide's 'Plan your own Funeral' resources are worth a butchers.
- In the USA laws and guidelines differ slightly regarding on which state you live in. However as well as the above we recommend reading the New York's Department of Health's 'A Consumers Guide to Arranging a Funeral'.
Digital funeral guides that may be of interest