Frequently Asked Questions

These fill an essential role for those mourning the loss of a loved one, providing surviving family and friends with an atmosphere of care and support to share thoughts and feelings about death. Funerals, Memorial Services, and Celebrations of Life is the first step in the healing process. These are the traditional ways to recognize the finality of death. The living recognizes these rituals to show their respect for the dead and help survivors begin the grieving process.

You can have Funerals, Memorial Services, and Celebrations of Life services, even for those choosing cremation. Planning a personalized ceremony or service will help begin the healing process. Overcoming the pain is never easy, but a meaningful funeral or tribute will help.

• Pick up the deceased and transport the body to the funeral home (anytime day or night)
• Notify proper authorities, family, and relatives
• Arrange and prepare death certificates
• Provide certified copies of death certificates for insurance and benefit processing
• Work with the insurance agent, CRA, or Veterans Affairs to ensure that necessary paperwork is filed for receipt of benefits.
• Prepare and submit an obituary to the newspapers of your choice.
• Bathe and embalm the deceased body, if necessary
• Prepare the body for viewing, including dressing and makeup.
• Assist the family with funeral arrangements and purchase of casket, urn, burial vault, and cemetery plot
• Schedule the opening and closing of the grave with cemetery personnel, if a burial is to be performed
• Coordinate with clergy if a funeral or memorial service is to be held
• Arrange a police escort and transportation to the funeral and/or cemetery for the family

Simple Wishes of the North will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery.

• Bring the following information to complete the documentation requirements:
  
  • Birth Date
  • Birthplace
  • Father's Name
  • Mother's Name
  • Social Security Number
  • Veteran's Discharge or Claim Number
  • Education
  • Marital Status
• Contact your clergy. Decide on the time and place of funeral or memorial service; Which can be done at Simple Wishes of the North.
• Simple Wishes will provide you with 12 copies of the death certificates as part of our services.
• Make a list of immediate family, close friends, and employer or business colleagues. Notify each by phone.
• Decide on appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made (church, hospice, library, charity, or school).
• Gather obituary information you want to include, such as age, place of birth, cause of death, occupation, college degrees, memberships held, military service, outstanding work, list of survivors in the immediate family. Include time and place of services.

When immediate assistance is needed, then yes, someone will come as fast as possible. If the family wishes to spend a short time with the deceased to say good-bye, that's perfectly acceptable. Our Funeral Director will come when your time is right.

Cremation is increasingly selected because it can be less expensive and allows for the memorial service to be held at a more convenient time in the future when relatives and friends can come together.

A funeral service followed by cremation need not be any different from a funeral service followed by a burial. Usually, cremated remains are placed inside an urn before being committed to a final resting place. The urn may be buried, placed in an indoor or outdoor mausoleum or columbarium, or interred in a unique urn garden that many cemeteries provide for cremated remains. The remains may also be scattered, according to provincial law.

Viewing is a part of many cultural and ethnic traditions. Many grief specialists believe that viewing aids the grief process by helping the bereaved recognize death's reality. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long as the process is explained and the activity is voluntary.

Embalming sanitizes and preserves the body. Embalming makes it possible to lengthen the time between death and the final disposition, allowing family members time to arrange and participate in the type of service most comforting to them.

When compared to other major life events like births and weddings, funerals are not expensive. A wedding costs at least three times as much, but wedding costs are rarely criticized because it is a happy event. A funeral home is a 24-hour, labour-intensive business, with extensive facilities (viewing rooms, chapels, limousines, hearses, etc.); these expenses must be factored into the cost of a funeral.

Additionally, the funeral cost includes merchandise, like caskets, and the services of a Funeral Director in making arrangements; filing appropriate forms; dealing with doctors, ministers, florists, newspapers, and others; and seeing to all the necessary details. Funeral Directors look upon their profession as a service, but it is also a business. 

It depends entirely on how you wish to commemorate a life. One of the advantages of cremation is that it provides you with increased flexibility when making your funeral and cemetery arrangements. For example, you might choose to have a funeral service before the cremation; a memorial service at the time of cremation or after the cremation with the urn present; or a committal service at the final disposition of cremated remains. Funeral or memorial services can be held in worship, a funeral home, or a crematory chapel.

With cremation, your options are numerous. The cremains can be interred in a cemetery plot, i.e., earth burial, retained by a family member, usually in an urn, scattered on private property, or at a place that was significant to the deceased. (It would always be advisable to check for local regulations regarding scattering in a public place-your Funeral Director can help you with this.)

Today, there are many different types of memorial options from which to choose. Memorialization is a time-honored tradition that has been practiced for centuries. A memorial serves as a tribute to a life lived; It provides a focal point for remembrance, as well as a record for future generations. The type of memorial you choose is a personal decision.

You might choose a ground burial for the urn. If so, you may usually choose either a bronze memorial or monument. Cremation niches in columbariums are also available at many cemeteries. They offer the beauty of a mausoleum setting with the benefits of above ground placement of remains. Many cemeteries also offer scattering gardens. This area of a cemetery offers the peacefulness of a serene garden where family and friends can come and reflect.

Suppose you wish to have your ashes scattered somewhere. In that case, it is essential to discuss your wishes to be scattered ahead of time with the person or persons who will have to do the cremation ashes scattering ceremony, as they might want to let your funeral director assist in the scattering ceremony. Funeral Directors can also help create a meaningful and personal ash scattering ceremony that they will customize to fit your family's specific desires. The services can be as formal or informal as you like. Scattering services can also be public or private. Again, it is advisable to check for local regulations regarding scattering in a public place-your Funeral Director can help you with this.

Yes — Depending upon the cemetery's policy, you may be able to save a grave space by having the cremains buried on top of your spouse's casketed remains or utilize the space provided next to him/her. Many cemeteries allow for multiple cremated remains to be interred in a single grave space.

Uncertainty about income tax issues can add to the stress experienced from the death of a spouse. It would be best if you met with your family attorney, as well as a tax advisor, as soon as possible to review your particular tax and estate circumstances. Bring a detailed list of your questions to the meeting. If you do not have an attorney or tax advisor, call the CRA at 1-800-O-CANADA to answer specific tax questions.

There are several options available, including:

• Review all insurance policies the deceased person has, including life insurance. Some life insurance policies have coverage clauses for funeral related costs.
• Talk to our Funeral Director about cremation options - these can be much less expensive depending on your choices.
• For information on additional assistance, refer to the following resources: 
• Ontario Works https://www.greatersudbury.ca/live/employment-support-and-financial-assistance/financial-assistance-ontario-works/
• For ODSP recipients that have passed, contact their local caseworker or visit this site https://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/odsp/