1. Pre-planning gives you total control over your funeral
Advanced planning gives you decision making power over almost every detail at your service. You can pick and choose services exactly the way you want them. Detailing your last wishes ensures that your remains are handled as you wish them to be.

2. Pre-planning takes the guesswork and accompanying stress from your family
Most people have no idea how to get started planning a funeral, so pre-planning your burial or cremation arrangements is a tremendous opportunity to minimize the pressures on the family you leave behind. A structured preplan also can reduce (or eliminate) disputes among your family members as they will know exactly what to do.

3. Pre-planning lets your family focus on healing from their grief
Because your pre-planned funeral is already taken care of, the extra time lets your family work through their grief and loss, notify other loved ones, and write your eulogy among other things. And if your family isn’t rushed planning your arrangements, it gives them more time to plan a truly personalized memorial service to celebrate your memory.

4. Pre-planning gives you peace of mind
When all the details of your funeral are planned in advance, it can give you great peace of mind know you have created a comprehensive end-of-life plan.

5. Pre-paying your pre-planed makes financial sense
By prepaying your funeral, you lock in your services and merchandise at today’s prices, hedging against inflation.

We are experts in preplanning, and over the last 100+ years, and we have helped thousands of families pre-arrange and pre-pay their funerals so they have peace of mind knowing that that when the time comes, everything is all taken care of.

In 2003, the former budget officer, Rory Smith, repeated tried to report irregularities in the cemetery’s budget. Smith, a 20-year cemetery employee, was promptly reprimanded and suspended for insubordination as he pointed out that between $5 and $20 million dollars were being spent ineffectively as contracts were awarded to computerize the cemetery’s paper-based system but the systems were never implemented.

On April 25, 2008, Ms. Jennifer ‘Gina’ Gray, a cemetery employee hired on April 14, 2008, expressed her concerns about several issues concerning the cemetery, in particular after a family invited several journalists to attend a funeral, but were denied reasonable access by cemetery management. Shortly thereafter, she was issued a series of 12 reprimands from cemetery officials, who soon thereafter fired for “personnel issues”. While an investigation by the Defense Department’s Deputy Inspector General found her to have made a series of four protected disclosures, granting her whistleblower status, but because her supervisors did not have knowledge of the protectied disclosures, they were not related to her firing. However, the investigation discovered that there was complete lack of documentation regarding her apparent lack of performance, and that Ms. Gray was never given a performance improvement plan nor feedback on which she could follow up. As such, the investigation ordered remedy for her.

Besides the mishandling of remains, unmarked plots and missing headstones, cemetery officials apparently also knew that discarded headstones were used for erosion control a nearby riverbed, and management never replaced them. Additionally, the remains of hundreds of Civil War veterans, including black soldiers and freed slaves are still unaccounted for.

Special arrangements are prohibited by both Army regulations and federal law, yet cemetery officials apparently have been reserving choice burial grounds for powerful and well-connected service members. This fact has been confirmed by Army officials and a Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman, agrees this practices is in direct violation of the law.

Early Persians practiced cremation, which was later prohibited in the Zoroastrian period, approximately 600 BC. In Zoroastrian scripture, a body is a host for decay and fire was considered sacred. The Phoenicians practiced cremation approximately 1100 BC, burying the ashes in a trench with the urn on one side and household furnishings on the other. The Greeks practiced cremation from 3000 BC until about 1200 BC when new Christian burial practices emerge. Romans also practiced cremation, typically associated with military honors, upper class citizens, and imperial family members, but by approximately 400 AD, inhumation was more common.

Evidence of European cremation practices date to approximately 3000 BC (the Stone Age), and more and more common in the Bronze Age, as evidenced by finds of pottery urns in Western Russia. Early German people also practiced cremation, but this died out as their Anglo-Saxon descendants converted to Christianity. During the Middle Ages, cremation was forbidden by law and in some cases, punishable by death. Frequently, it was used punitively by governing bodies, particularly burning at the stake. However, during the plague, mass cremations were carried out for fear of contamination to living people.

Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, prescribe open-air cremations as the body is seen as a means of carrying the soul. This began approximately 1900 BC, based on the vedic believe that the god of fire receives sacrificial offerings on behalf of all the gods.

In 1874, the first Cremation Society was founded in England by Sir Henry Thompson, surgeon to Queen Victoria. Two crematories were built, one in England and one in Germany, and shortly thereafter one in Manchester, Glasgow, and Liverpool. Formal legislation permitting cremation in England and Wales followed with the Cremation Act of 1902. In Australia, the first crematory was built in 1901 and was in full operation until the late 1950’s. Also in 1874 the Association for Optional Cremation was founded in the Netherlands, but prohibitive laws were not removed until 1915, and cremation was not legally recognized until 1955.

At first the Roman Catholic Church was cautious about cremation because it believed the body to be an instrument with which to receive the sacraments, but in 1963 Pope Paul VI lifted the ban and later allowed Catholic priests to officiate at cremation ceremonies in 1966.

Cremation has come a long way since Mungo Lake, and currently the cremation in the state of New Hampshire hovers around 60% and nationwide, approximately 40%. In Japan and Tawain, the current cremation rate is approximately 99%.

Throughout history, flowers have been used for every stage of the life cycle, from birth to death. In death, flowers are a traditional way to honor the dead which is symbolic of the fragile, fleeting nature of life. It is thought that the natural beauty of flowers can also lessen some of the emotional burden that accompanies the visual imagery of funerals.

In the 19th century, “flower ladies” participated in funerals by carrying flowers from the funeral home to the procession, and were responsible for arranging them at the cemetery plot for the families; this task was considered to be as important as the role of the pallbearers.

Modern Funeral Flowers
Today, flowers are used at funerals for many reasons. First, they help facilitate emotional release, as it is frequently very difficult for mourning families to express their grief verbally. To send flowers is an expression of respect, sympathy, and love to the deceased.

Uses for Funeral Flowers
Funeral flowers can be used in many different ways. They can be displayed during a wake at the funeral home, and in a church or synagogue for religious services. They may also be used to decorate a grave, be sent directly to the family, or be draped over a casket.

While there are no specific flowers associated with funerals, some traditional choices include tulips, gladiolas, carnations roses, calla lilies, golden lilies, irises, and snapdragons.

Floral Arrangement Types
Some of the most commonly used funeral flowers include:
• Crosses and hearts
• Standing sprays
• Casket mounds
• Baskets
• Wreaths
• Live plants

Regardless of what flowers you select and how the arrangement is used, flowers can be a visual tribute to the relationship you had with the person and help you express your feelings of loss.

Interestingly enough, women historically played a large part in traditional death care practices. In ancient Greece, women were responsible for dressing, washing and anointing the body. In the ancient Hebrew traditions, washing and dressing the dead was considered unclean work and thus the task was delegated to women.

Colonial women were also responsible for preparing the dead for burial as it was considered to be a household task, but this tradition shifted around the time of the Civil War, when Northern soldiers were dying on Southern soil, and needed preservation in order to be sent home to be viewed by the families. Previously, Americans had no knowledge of embalming practices so this practice spread rapidly as families arranged to have their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons shipped home from the battlefields of the South.

This shift in funeral practice marked the emergence of the American funeral industry, and while the funeral industry was one of the few trades that welcomed women, it was primarily dominated by educated white men. However, during the 20th century, a Spanish nurse named Lina D. Odou studied embalming in Switzerland, and in 1899 opened an embalming school for women in the United States, graduating 10 students in her first class.

There were some setbacks to women in the American funeral industry in the 1950’s as women were generally regarded as ‘second-class citizens’ in the business world and were restricted to jobs such as homemaker, nurse or teacher, unless of course the woman was raised in a family-owned funeral home.

Like all industries, the feminist movement in the 1970’s and 1980’s had an impact on the American funeral industry, providing opportunities as women campaigned against cultural and political inequities, breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ that held back previous generations.

Today, the Funeral Science program at Milwaukee Technical College notes that nearly 75% of their students are female. At Phaneuf Funeral Homes, we are proud to have three female funeral directors and one female funeral apprentice on our staff.

Promession takes place in 7 steps:
1. The body is frozen to -18 degrees Celsius (normally this occurs between 24 to 48 hours) and then put into a sealed unit called a Promator.
2. The body is weighed to determine how much liquid nitrogen is needed to freeze the body to -196 degrees Celsius; 1kg of liquid nitrogen is required for 1kg of body weight. This process takes approximately two hours, and the liquid nitrogen evaporates into the atmosphere as nitrogen gas.
3. The frozen body is then moved onto a belt that gives off small (5mm) vibrations. This takes approximatey 60 seconds and reduces the body to particles.
4. The particles are then transferred into a vacuum chamber where water is evaporated and released into the atmosphere as steam.
5. The dry powder is then passed through electrical currents and magnets that extract any existing metals.
6. The existing residue, which is approximately a third of the original body weight, is placed into a biodegradable coffin, which can be lined with an iron net which will rust away.
7. The coffin is buried at a depth of about half a meter, and in approximately 6 to 12 months, the remains, the coffin, and the net will become part of the soil nutrients.

While the volume of remains left by promession is up to twenty times that left by cremation, heavy metals (for example, mercury from dental fillings) are filtered out instead of released into the atmosphere as pollutants so the procedure meets the requirements of the new European Union Industrial Emissions Directive, which imposes strict limits on air, soil, and water pollution.

The first ‘promatorium’ will open in Sweden and will process approximately 1,500 bodies per year and South Korea is building memorial parks to support the process as well. “This is going to be the future solution for Korea. Traditional burials as they are today may not be allowed in future, as most graveyards in the country are now running out of space… It’s really a good chance for the planet I think,” stated Wiigh-Masak at a recent funeral expo.

Currently, promession is not available in the United States, so Phaneuf Funeral Homes is unable to provide this service.

The investigation, headed by Lt. Gen Steven Whitcomb, found cemetery mismanagement, improper contracting, and an outdated, paper-based record keeping system that had been largely neglected. Said Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) in a conference call with reporters on June 24, “We are one fire, or one flood, or one spilled Starbucks coffee away from some of those records being lost or spoiled.” Additionally, many of the issues uncovered in a 1997 inspection report were never addressed by cemetery staff.

Lt. Whitcomb said that at least 211 remains were identified as potentially mislabeled or misplaced and that there could be more. He told reporters “We found nothing that was intentional, criminal intent or intended sloppiness that caused this. … But of all the things in the world, we see this as a zero defect operation.” In addition to the mishandling of remains, the investigation found several headstones in a nearby stream, 117 grave sites without headstones, 94 grave sites marked as unoccupied that had headstones, four urns that were disinterred and dumped in an area reserved for removed grave dirt, and the Army said it is still not certain it has uncovered all the mistakes.

In response to the findings of the investigation, Arlington’s superintendent, John Metzler Jr., and his deputy, Thurman Higginbotham were removed from their posts. John Metzler had been there for 19 years and his father was also superintendent at one point as well. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee said that he is “downright angry,” and is demanding that the Army check all 300,000+ grave sites for accuracy. “I am afraid that the 200 irregularities associated with the gravesites may be only a fraction of the problem,” he said, “We must be prepared that a 100% survey of the cemetery and all of its operations, … will yield a large number of problems that must be addressed.”

More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, with an average of about 30 funerals are conducted there each day. Two presidents, many generals and admirals, and men and women who served in the US military, their spouses, and children are buried there. Since 1990, burials at Arlington have increased exponentially to 100,000, while the cemetery staff has decreased from 140 to 97.

While we have not had anyone contact us directly yet, as experts in Veterans arrangements, we are happy to help New Hampshire families who have loved ones interred at Arlington cemetery by connecting them to the right resources to make sure there are no problems.

Over the years, we have found that not only are people willing to make online arrangements, in many cases, they prefer it. People patronize cremation societies for all kinds of reasons, and some appreciate the convenience of making arrangements in their own home without outside pressure. (We still make arrangements the traditional way, of course.)

Regularly, I get calls from funeral directors who see our website, our advanced ecommerce capability, and our solid social media presence, all working together in powerful symbiosis. They are overwhelmed and say they couldn’t do what we’ve done, and I explain that our site has been evolving over 15 years.

The vast majority of funeral home websites do not display price lists, so it would be a significant undertaking to enable ecommerce. It is critical to adopt the mindset that the website is an extension of the arrangement office: everything provided in the office should be online. Once the directors have this mindset, they don’t fear that their competition can see their prices. In all truth, the competition already knows your prices, so if you can’t maintain transparency in your pricing and you are unable to explain it to your customers, you have a serious problem. When I think of my online activity, if I am shopping and I see ‘call for pricing’, it makes me suspicious and I am uncomfortable with this lack of transparency. Online consumers shopping for funeral or cremation services are no different than any other.

More and more of our business is becoming technologically embedded and automated and we are excited about this convergence. For example, we have a new funeral home software package which replaced ten stand-alone programs. Now that everything is in one place, transactions are much smoother and quicker, functioning efficiently with less staff and significantly reducing the potential for human error.

We recently hired a director of social media and business development, who, in addition to traditional marketing, maintains our website, social media presence, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. With the power of the internet, people are searching for terms like ‘low cost cremation’ and ‘green burials’ and it is critical that we maintain a presence there. I am asked frequently why we have a social media presence, and one example that came up the other day was that we had an estate attorney present a seminar on preplanning. Shortly before the seminar, we posted on Facebook and Twitter that we had a few seats available and sure enough, some of our followers called us to sign up. Had we not been using social media, we would have missed these folks.

The main points of the bill are to:
- Require providers of funeral goods and services to provide accurate prices to consumers before the transaction
- Require providers to ‘unbundle’ services so that consumers can buy only the services and merchandise they want from the cemetery and are free to make purchases from retail vendors.
- Require providers to disclose consumer rights, rules and regulations before the transaction.
- Require providers to keep detailed records of all burial transactions and locations, and to make the records available to regulators upon request.
- Require providers to be truthful about laws and regulations

This bill was introduced after an investigation at a Chicago cemetery, Burr Oak, revealed that several hundred graves may have been dug up and resold. The executive director of the Funeral Consumers’ Alliance, Joshua Slocum testified before legislators that while the Funeral Rule of 1984 has certainly helped consumers make educated choices when dealing with a funeral home, more and more grieving families are making funeral arrangements without the services of a funeral home and are in need of protections for the whole funeral process.

The state of Chicago has been very proactive in its response to the Burr Oak incident, passing the Cemetery Oversight Act, which provides a Consumer Bill of Rights for cemetery customers. The act was signed into law January 17 and took effect March 1 and includes a toll-free hotline for any consumer wishing to file a complaint against a cemetery. Much like the bill proposed by Rep. Rush, it provides a rigorous regulatory structure for cemeteries and providers of funeral services under the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations.

Funeral Planning Online is Easy
Literally, your Grandmother can do it.  Human hosts guide visitors through each step in selecting funeral packages, and drop down charts make comparing the features and pricing of the packages easy.  As the family progresses through making the arrangements, they are guided by visual cues as to how far along they are in the process.  Along the way, the hosts periodically make recommendations for goods and services that support the package selected by the family.  Some examples are listed below:

• Flowers
• Caskets
• Burial Vaults
• Cards and Gifts
• Upgraded Obituaries (Tributes)
• Urns, Urn Vaults and Keepsakes
• Memorial Card, Candles, Bookmarks
• Veterans Flag Cases
• Access To Genealogical Records
• Cremations
• Traditional Funerals

Online Planning is Convenient and Saves Time
Using web technologies, families can make arrangements online from the privacy of their homes, without the need for an in-house visit to a funeral home.  Further, families are free to move ahead with the planning process at their own pace, and can walk away and return as they are comfortable.  The online host allows complete flexibility in moving backward to modify selections at any time during the process, as well.

Online Pre-planning
Individuals frequently take charge of their own funeral arrangements, relieving loved ones who are left behind from making difficult decisions in times of tremendous grief.  Online funeral planning makes the task of planning arrangements much easier, without the need to visit a funeral home.

Online Funeral Planning After a Death
There are few things in life more traumatic than the death of a family member, and the ease, convenience, and privacy of online planning can ease some of the tremendous burden, particularly for family members who may have difficulty with transportation and/or mobility. The Cremation Society of New Hampshire, an affiliated of Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium, was the first funeral and cremation firm in the country to begin offering complete on-line arrangements in 2000.  Since then, well over 1000 families have made their arrangements on-line with the Society.  In fact, last year, 60% of families served used the their website to finalize their cremation arrangements.  To learn more, go to www.csnh.com