My aunt had prepaid her funeral and chosen her burial site (woodland burial) so all I had to do there was phone the undertakers who were wonderful. The Registrar was so nice when I went to register the death so that wasn't stressful at all. There was still all the adverts, refreshments, timings, lifts and so on to do, but I'm so glad my aunt had arranged the burial itself all in advance. She too had a white wicker coffin which was lovely. She wanted no religious service, so once the 'facilitator' had finished mumbling (he did try in fact) we all sat round with cups of tea and a wonderful buffet spread, and took it in turns to stand up and share what my aunt had meant to each of us - that bit worked wonderfully well and we learnt so much about sides of her life that we knew little about.
My mum died when I was 15 and her funeral was horrible. She was cremated and as the coffin went through the curtains towards the furnace I could see hands reaching out to take the flowers off the top. That traumatised me for quite a while.
When my dad died, my brother organised the funeral and it was a bit awful.
I think the Will is so important to have written well in advance. It's easy enough to change or modify at a later date, as we have just done. It didn't cost anything as our solicitor said all he had to do was substitute one standard passage for another on the computer.
For my own funeral, I hadn't got beyond deciding I too want a wicker coffin. A woodland burial would be nice but there's nowhere near here that does it. I think I'll be cremated and my ashes sprinkled around the woodland we have planted here.
From all the forms I've had to fill in for my aunt, I now know the information I need to have available in the Red Box along with copies of the Wills, so my boys can go straight to that.
I don't find it morbid at all, just practical and helpful to the rellies.
My aunt lived 350 miles away so clearing and selling the house has meant long trips down south. I really need to go again but I'm hoping to avoid that. I couldn't have done it all without a solicitor being the other executor, but that's going to cost a packet, as is the conveyancing and the estate agent. As far as I know, here in Scotland the solicitor does all those things, so only one bill to pay.
My aunt fortunately had thought about the death duties and had put aside enough in shares to cover that. I don't see how we can do that for our boys, but we'll try.
Topic: My goodness dying's an expensive business (Read 9858 times)
