A sun has set. Someone has come face to face with the Other Side of Through.
This checklist includes tasks to do immediately after death:
- Some airlines have bereavement or compassion fares available for family members traveling for an imminent or actual death. These fares are discounted off the full price, but may not be the lowest fares available.
- If possible, the exact time of death should be recorded. Loved ones may want to spend time with the deceased. Institutions where deceased persons lived will have procedures to follow regarding death.
- Family members, hospice staff, and possibly others such as a spiritual advisor and a mortuary for funeral arrangements, should be notified.
- Several certified copies of death certificates will be needed to collect insurance and other death benefits. These copies can be obtained from mortuaries, vital statistics offices, county health departments, and online at county and state Web sites. Wills, trusts, birth, marriage and divorce certificates should be available. Social security cards, veteran papers, an obituary, and other documentation will be needed.
- Family members may want to notify newspapers about publishing death notices and obituaries announcing the time and place of funeral or memorial services.
- Arrangements with an online memorial service, often affiliated with newspapers, can ensure that those who do not attend funeral or memorial services in person will have the opportunity to participate online.
- Contact should be made with insurance companies, unions, fraternal organizations, government offices, banks, credit unions, credit card companies, and real estate agencies to change titles if necessary.
- Employee benefits from all previous employers should be investigated.
- Arrangements for child care and out-of-town guests must be considered.
- In the midst of all this activity, family members and friends should also consider their own feelings about death and the person who has died. The occasion that they may have been expecting while the loved one was ill has finally come. A life has been lived.
Information above is from Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes.
Frances Shani Parker, Author
Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.
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