Upon the death of your loved one:

1. Make a list of immediate family, close friends and employer or business colleagues. Notify each by phone.
2. Make an appointment with the funeral home. The funeral home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery.
3. Contact your clergy. Decide on time and place of funeral or memorial service. This can be done at the funeral home.
4. Consider any religious rites that are needed.
5. Arrange for appropriate clothes, jewellery and hairstyle for your loved one.
6. The funeral home will assist you in determining the number of copies of the death certificates you will be needing and can order them for you.

Your funeral director will help:

• Arrange the transfer of your loved one to the funeral home
• Explain the embalming and funeral preparation process
• Set up a time to arrange the funeral
• Prepare obituary/death notices for newspapers and the internet

To register the death with the government:

Some information which may be needed to register the death with the government:

• Full Name
• Address
• Date and Place of Birth
• Date and Place of Death
• Father's Name
• Mother's Name
• Social Insurance Number
• Veteran's Regimental Number
       or Claim Number
• Education
• Occupation
• Marital Status

Personal items to think about:

1. Decide on appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made (church, hospice, library, charity or school).
2. Gather obituary information, including age, place of birth, cause of death, occupation, college degrees, memberships held, military service, outstanding work, list of survivors in immediate family, give time and place of services. The funeral home will normally write article and submit to newspapers and/or the Internet.
3. Arrange for members of family or close friends to take turns answering door or phone, keeping careful record of calls.
4. Coordinate the supplying of food for the next several days.
5. Consider special need of the household, such as cleaning, etc., which might be done by friends.
6. Arrange for child care, if necessary.
7. Arrange hospitality for visiting relatives and friends.
8. Select pallbearers and notify the funeral home. (Avoid anyone with heart or back difficulties, or make them honorary pallbearers).
9. Plan for disposition of flowers after funeral (church, hospital or rest home)
10. Prepare list of distant persons to be notified by letter and/or printed notice, and decide which to send to each.
11. Prepare list of persons to receive acknowledgments of flowers, calls, etc. Send appropriate acknowledgments (can be written note, printed acknowledgments, or some of each). Include "thank you's" to those who have given their time as well.
12. If Canada Pension Plan cheques are automatic deposit, notify the bank of the death.
13. Notify insurance companies.
14. Locate the will and notify lawyer and executor.
15. Check carefully all life and casualty insurance and death benefits, including Canada Pension Plan, union pension insurance plan and military benefits. Check also on income for survivors from these sources.
16. Check promptly on all debts and installment payments, including credit cards. Some may carry insurance clauses that will pay off any remaining debt. If there is to be a delay in meeting payments, consult with creditors and ask for more time before the payments are due.
17. If deceased was living alone, notify utilities and landlord and tell post office where to send mail.

We would like to thank the following for their contribution to this page:

Mike Stone, Lynn-Stone Funeral Home, Elmvale, ON

The Ontario Funeral Service Association