How to Plan a Funeral for your Grandparent

Often the burden of planning a funeral for a lost grandparent goes to your parents or an aunt or uncle, but sometimes there is simply no one else to take it on. In some cases, your parents may not be capable of dealing with their grief while making the plans and arranging for the service.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Planning a Grandparent's Funeral

1. Find out whether your grandparent already owns a funeral plot—if so, find a nearby funeral home. If not, you will have to purchase a plot.

2. Make the decision between burial and cremation and choose a casket or urn for your grandparent’s remains.

3. Contact your grandparent's church or temple to arrange a date and time for the funeral service.

4. Plan a time for the wake, viewing or any other ceremony that you want to include before the service.

5. Order the flowers for the service and gravesite, and don’t forget to order other necessities, like programs. Your funeral home should be able to help with this.

6. Contact friends and family of your grandparent, and ask for their help in reaching with friends or family you may not know. Also ask if any of them are interested in offering a reading or speaking at the service.

Tips & Warnings

• Take things one day at a time and take all the support you can get.
• If you do not already know the preferences of your grandparent, make sure you obtain a copy of the will so you can follow his or her wishes.
• You will also have to arrange for the burial itself, which means buying a grave plot, arranging things with the graveyard and buying and erecting a headstone.
• Services can be very expensive. Find out if you are entitled to insurance benefits of any kind, which will help cover the burial costs.