Monthly Archives: January 2021

cremation services in North Versailles, PA

Why Are Memorials So Important?

Memorial services are an important part of the grieving process, but your loved ones might miss out on the important benefits if they are too busy planning the event.

Maintaining self-reliance is also important. Taking charge of your memorial services and cremation allows you to maintain control and independence when you might otherwise lose them.

Meaningful Memorials Funeral Service

Memorial ceremonies benefit both the living and the dead, since they honor the deceased while also providing a healthy and productive environment for the living to grieve. Cremation services provide you a lot of choice in terms of planning a personal, meaningful, and respectful tribute or service for your departed loved one. Below can help you plan a memorial service for a loved one.

  • Flexible Timing. One nice thing about cremation services as opposed to burials and funerals is that you don’t have a deadline or specific timeline.
  • Get Creative. Once you’ve chosen a day, you can start planning the specifics. There are practically zero restrictions on what services should or need to be, so feel free to get creative.
  • Get Help if Needed. While planning memorial services can be bittersweet or even exciting, they also happen during a time of loss and can bring up stressful feelings. Learn more.

What is Memorial service?

Memorial service is an important part of the healing process and can have a great impact on your ability to move forward after death. If you want to learn more about how to plan a personalized memorial that can help you heal, reach out to Patrick T. Lanigan Memorial Home and Crematory, Inc.

importance of memorials

Importance of Memorials

Memorials after cremation services in North Versailles, PA have been around for a long time for a reason. A vital part of the grief and healing process for any family going through a loss, memorials and all associated services have five main benefits:

  1. Ritual – The formal memorial service is a ritual that holds cultural and religious significance. It helps family and friends deal with loss in a safe and stabilized way while also providing an opportunity to honor the deceased and help support the family, community, and friends.
  2. Connection – Memorial services bring loved ones together. The support of family and friends is imperative to a healthy grief and healing process, and memorial services provide the chance for people to lend that support.
  3. Healing – Memorials provide the opportunity for expressing grief in a healthy and supported way, which is crucial to the healing process. Grieving openly with others who understand and are probably feeling what you are feeling is encouraged at memorials. This sharing helps you begin to heal after a loss.
  4. Honoring the Deceased – Your deceased loved one deserves respect, care, and dignity in death. The entire memorial event is a tribute and celebrates her life in a positive and healing way. By hosting a memorial, you can feel you’ve done right by the deceased by remembering her in a meaningful way.
  5. Saying Goodbye – Memorial services allow family and loved ones a chance to say their final goodbyes. This provides a small amount of closure, which can greatly help the healing. Memorial services offer a way for you to say your piece and begin to move on from death.

It’s important to remember that just having any old cremation or memorial service might not give you all of the above benefits. Hosting a meaningful ceremony makes a big difference, so when planning memorial services, you must take time to remember, reflect, and carefully choose details that will help make the service one remember.

What will make your loved one’s memorial meaningful, special and memorable?

cremation services in North Versailles, PA

Personalization. Make the service a unique and special tribute to the deceased. This is easily accomplished with just a little bit of creativity. Meaningful memorials can have lots of different aspects, from music and poems to special locations, flowers, photos, and everything in between.

As long as, the memorial is a tribute in some way to the deceased’s life and impact, anything goes. No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong if you put a little thought in. We offer North Versailles, PA cremation services with years of experience and heaps of compassion. Call or visit us today.

funeral homes in North Versailles, PA

Body Donation and Funeral Homes

Most people assume that their only two options for their bodies post-death are cremations and funeral homes in North Versailles, PA. Many other common body disposition methods, like body donation, are discounted because of misinformation that has permeated social media and the Internet.

Even though body donation is so important, many people choose to skip it because they believe common body disposition myths. To clear things up, here are common donation myths and their truths.

  • Body Donation Is Expensive – There is absolutely not cost to the donor or donor family involved in body donation. In fact, the organization that receives the body pays all related donation costs. For example, if it’s a transplant, the receiving patient’s insurance usually covers the cost. Or, if the body is being donated to a medical training facility, the facility furnishes all necessary costs.
  • I Can’t Donate Because I’m Sick– Don’t assume that a body won’t qualify as a donor because of disease or other sickness. Some diseases only affect one part of the body, making the rest totally viable. For example, someone that died of heart disease may still be able to donate his or her eyes. Let the professionals decide if your body is a prospect for donation.
  • My Remains Won’t Be Treated with Respect – Most people fear that their bodies will be disposed of in any way the organization feels after the donation is complete. This is not true. The majority of bodies donated are cremated after any procedures are completed. In fact, some medical facilities that get a lot of body donations often have a memorial service at the end of their training in recognition and respect for their donors. In many cases, the cremated remains can also be returned to the family, if they so choose.
  • Donors Don’t Get Saved – A common way of thinking is that doctors and nurses don’t work as hard to save donors, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. When you’re in a hospital or doctor’s office, the medical professionals are only focused on helping you, not some amorphous donor. Organ and tissue donation are only considered when there is no other option to save or revive the potential donor in question.

Body donation might not be for everyone, but it can be a great choice for those interested in helping others after they’re gone. If it’s right for you, body donation is an incredibly important part of modern medicine. Whether the body is used for research, transplants, or even both, it is going towards saving lives. Giving all or part of your body to help save others is noble and always appreciated. According to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), a full organ donor will either save or better the lives of 6 to 8 people, while a full tissue donor can better the lives of 50 or more people.

funeral homes in North Versailles, PA

Just reach out to Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. if you have more questions on body donation, or about North Versailles, PA funeral homes. You can stop by and visit us or give us a call. We’re happy to help however we can.

cremation services in Monroeville, PA

Burial, Cremation Services and the Environment

The two most common choices for body disposition are burial and cremation services in Edgewood, PA, but which one is good or bad for the environment? Both offer many pros and cons, so it can be hard for people to choose which one they want.

Is cremation bad for the environment?

Cremation services are not bad for the environment than a traditional burial. However, if you are committed to helping the environment in body disposition, a few small tweaks to a common Monroeville, PA cremation service can go a long way.

Why cremation is bad for the environment?

A cremation service won’t be as environmentally damaging as a full-service burial, popular cremations in most crematorium retorts require the burning of natural gas, and therefore the discharge of greenhouse gases, as well as the vaporization of different chemicals.

 

is cremation bad for the environment

One way to make the choice easier is to think about each one’s effect on the environment. A lot of people never even think about burials’ or cremation’s environmental impact, but that should have a part in your decision.

Many materials go into a burial

To begin traditional, full-service burials have a considerable negative impact on the environment. One of the biggest ones is the loss of habitat. A recent statistic from the Centre for National Burial states that 10 acres of cemetery hold almost 20,000 tons of vault concrete, 1000 tons of casket steel, and enough wood to build over 40 full-sized homes. All that material leaves little room for animal and plant life. Not to mention the loss of land that could otherwise be used to grow food or build homes.

Environmental Impact of Death make use of Cremation Services

On the other hand, cremation can be a much greener choice, depending on how you go about it as there are still some downsides to cremation in terms of the environment. Standard crematoriums burn a lot of natural gas and therefore release lots of greenhouse gases and chemical vapors that can harm the atmosphere.

Not to mention that to fully dehydrate a human body to bone and ash, a crematorium has to be fully heated to at least 1400 degrees Fahrenheit and maintain the heat for a minimum of 45 minutes. This process releases a lot of carbon dioxide and uses up a lot of fossil fuel. But, new technology and more fuel-efficient crematorium centers have greatly reduced these negative impacts.

However, there are ways you can make cremation even greener, like:

  • Remove and recycle all medical materials. Remove and recycle medical devices and parts, like pacemakers, before cremation. Burning said parts can release harmful gases and produce non-biodegradable ash.
  • Get a green cremation container. Cremation providers generally require bodies to be in a rigid, consumable, and leak-proof casket for the cremation process. Burning these caskets can give off noxious gases and fumes if you chose a bad one. When picking out your cremation casket, look for one made of non-toxic and renewable material.
  • Get a biodegradable urn. Many people chose to bury their loved one’s ashes after cremation. While urns and ashes take up less space than a full-size grave, urns slow down the decay process and may negatively impact the surrounding earth. Choose a biodegradable urn to better protect the local ground.

cremation services in Monroeville, PA

Cremation services are much better for the environment than burials, even without the above small changes. If you want to learn more, you can reach out to Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. by visiting us or giving us a call. We’d love to help you in any way we can.

funeral home needs in Monroeville, PA

Five Important Documents

Preplanning for your funeral home needs in Monroeville, PA is one way to get ready for your eventual passing. Another way is to make sure you’re organized when it comes to important documents. A good place to start is to gather and prepare these five important documents so your loved ones are not left with the difficult task all on their own after you’re gone.

  1. Healthcare Power of Attorney – A healthcare power of attorney (POA) document appoints someone to make your medical decisions for you if you ever become unable. This document is good to have in the event of any medical problems from terminal illnesses and loss of brain function to temporary unconsciousness. Choose someone you trust to be your healthcare POA. Some states require a POA to be notarized with additional witnesses, but all states require the document to be signed by all involved parties.
  2. HIPAA Release – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) stipulate that all medical records are confidential between the patient and the healthcare provider. If you want a family member to have access to your records in case you pass away or become incapacitated, you need to fill out and sign a HIPPAA Release form.
  3. Will – Your will is a document that states who will receive your assets and belongings after you pass. Wills must meet some important criteria to be valid, so it’s always a good idea to consult an attorney. Make sure your will clearly identifies itself as your personal will and clearly lists your name, date of birth, and social security number. Also be sure it names an executor to make sure your exact wishes are carried out, from cremation to dividing the assets. Don’t forget to clearly list and identify the heirs, name all your assets, from bank accounts to estates and everything in between, and designate which heir will get what percentage of each asset. Finally, make sure your will is signed by you and two or three witnesses. You can also draw up a living will in the event you become incapacitated in some way. Different than a POA or a will, a living will lets you lay out your end of life wishes in the event you become terminally ill.
  4. ICE Book of Important Documents – While an in case of emergency (ICE) book isn’t a formal document, it’s a major help for families to gain access to important documents when a loved one passes away or is incapacitated. Make one and keep it in a secure yet obvious place in the event of your death. Include documents in your ICE book like:
      • Tax returns going back 5 years
      • Bank accounts
      • Medical and dental records
      • Insurance information
      • Birth certificate
      • Social security card
      • Important passwords

funeral home needs in Monroeville, PA

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. is here to help if you have questions about these documents or want to learn about other ways you can prepare for your eventual passing. We offer expert Monroeville, PA funeral home services that can help guide you in your time of preplanning or of loss. Give us a call today.