Funeral Preparation

Most people will not fight about the cost of Wedding or Funeral...Especially for funeral...Who in the right mind will be negotiating the price when it comes to preparing for funeral?

My friend's dad passed away recently and our group of friends kind of helped out with the funeral a duration of 5 days...

Sadly before that we already prepared and looked for casket companies quotations...Imagine all the different companies we looked for the prices of packages were like at least 5K to have the funeral below at the void deck...Yes funeral package...you would think that only marriage have packages right?

Lucky for us...we managed to get a basic package from Direct Funeral Services to help out for the funeral. I would like to comment that they are really honest people...makes people feel at ease actually...an elderly guy (who help out in catering) appeared one of the days and commented that they try and charge minimal...they don't try to earn from people...usually I see these companies try and squeeze as much as they can from the deceased family...but with the minimal requirement that my friend had requested the funeral package still sums up to 9K...she had asked to have the whole ceremony to be in Buddhism way and with that the package comes with coffin, embalming, lightings, fans, bus for the last day, buffet food for 1 day for 30 people etc...on top of that the extra things that were used during the funeral e.g toilet, toilet paper, stationary, drinks, fridge etc all sums up to around 600 plus!!

Renting for void deck from the town council was like $120, OMG...thats killer...just a simple 5 days event downstairs can drain so much from the living...how can a normal family afford around 10k of expenditure within just 5 days? I would say that the funeral has all the basic that should be covered for a Buddhism funeral but one thing her mum requested that burning of house is important and needs to be done...so that sums up to 1K for the monk chanting service plus joss paper and burning of house...

I always believe that we should not be angry when it comes to funeral...all should be done with due respect to the deceased. However, I was really upset when my friend's uncle came to the wake...firstly he was talking so loudly...then he was telling every one this and that...he was especially reprimanding that since the funeral is done in Buddhism style then burning of houses is not necessary...he added that the casket company is so bad added that in just to earn more money...

How can he say such thing when he did not know what is going on?? OMG its like on the last few days of the funeral already then her uncle came along and make so much noise about such thing...He should have done that in the first place if he is so knowledgeable!!! He should have came on the first day and explained to us about it right!????!!! I hate it when people try and comment when all things are done and fixed (or rather confirmed) Fact is that my friend's mum wanted the house...so just for her peace of mind, my friend decided to have it...what's wrong with it?

If you want to complain…then what makes me? I a Christian?!!?? Helping out in a Buddhist funeral, and since there are joss paper to fold I helped to fold and best part??!! Nobody know how to fold the “wang shen qian”. End up I had to teach everyone how to do it. OMG how ironical….

Things that I can conclude from helping out:

1. No matter how much you have, you gotta do the minimal respect for the deceased.
2. You still have to think about the living. So spend within your means
3. As friends and relative, this is the time that you are needed the most, just help out as much as you can.
4. Please don’t comment too much, as long as the deceased family is happy and feel good about it, there shouldn’t be anything that you should complain about.

It was really tiring since we had to make sure that the stray animals don't come around the wake area, especially near the coffin... I wonder why the casket company can't make the tent in such a way that no animals...or rather nothing can be able to go through the tentage and get to the area where the coffin is being placed? Strange....something I have been puzzled about...