Help You Can Offer The Bereaved After The Burial
Oftentimes, sympathizers leave the grave and the family alone after the funeral services. As a result, the surviving members of the family are left alone to nourish their loss. This is really tragic especially if there is only on surviving member of the family. It is an unfortunate thing that you can correct in ways that won’t hurt your personal circumstances. There are many ways you can alleviate the suffering of a person who has just lost a close family member.
After the Funeral, Then What?
If the immediate family members are still in chaos, you can help them organize a post-funeral gathering. This activity will help in mitigating the feeling of loss in the immediate family members. A gathering or reception immediately after the remains of the dead are buried will be a good opportunity for friends and acquaintances to be with each other to recount their memories of the dearly departed. It often happens that when a person dies, those who were not able to see each other for a long time get their chances to renew their friendships. The post-funeral reception will give them the opportunity to refresh their happy memories particularly about the person whom they just buried.
A Post-Funeral Reception Is Casual
Typically, the funeral service proper is a formal procedure. But a post funeral reception could give the visitors and well-wishers the chance to mingle with each other under a more relaxed and casual mood. This reception could be made more open with the introduction of food and drinks. Food and drinks makes people more relaxed, open and jovial, but not to the point of merry-making. The purpose is to alleviate the tragedy and the feeling of loss being shouldered by the dead person’s close family members.
Family friends who are really concerned about the lives of the surviving family members can arrange for at-home receptions where friends and guests could bring their share of the goodies a la potluck style, or arrange for a catering service to bring in the food and drinks. In some religious groups, it is typical for a church committee to handle this part of the post-funeral reception. You can hold this reception in your home, or in the church or in the funeral parlor if it is also offering restaurant services. Of course, you can hold it in the surviving family’s residence but remember you are trying to alleviate their sufferings so it might be better to hold the event in another place.
What About The Health Of the Family Weeks After?
It also happens very often that we forget about the surviving family members after a few weeks of the funeral service. This tendency of friends and acquaintances of the surviving family members must be corrected. We should understand that the close family members of the decease still have their lives to live. They must go on with their lives without their departed loved one. But how could they if they are left alone to take care of themselves after the first weeks of the funeral service.
This is where choosing the right funeral service provider really matters. Most funeral service providers are very good at providing relief for the immediate family members during their time of bereavement. Sadly, many of them leave right after they have done what they have been paid for. Thankfully, there are funeral service providers that do not limit their services after the dead is buried. Lately, there are funeral service providers which offer their services to the bereaved even after a few weeks of the burial.
What are some of the services that this new types of funeral services are providing?
- They offer personal counseling.
Depending on the personalities, characters and tendencies of the bereaved, some funeral service providers are offering personal counseling to help the surviving family members cope with their loss. Their counselors usually help the family for weeks and even months after the burial.
- They offer healthcare services
Good funeral service providers also offer health counseling if they see that a family member’s health is deteriorating after the death of a loved one.
The idea of providing this post-funeral services is to help the surviving family members get on their feet and be active in their personal lives after the death of their loved one. They are showing the remaining family members that they are not really after their money during their time of bereavement but are very much concerned about their personal lives as well.
