Chapman or anyone else have advice on a funeral

Deal with only your local funeral home. Funeral homes do trade work with each other and can save you >$2k in professional fees. So, just have him call his local funeral home in Virginia and not a funeral home in FL (unless he's wanting services in FL).

If he's never dealt with funeral homes before, tell him to make sure he calls a locally owned and operated firm. If their yellow pages ad mentions "Dignity", keep on lookin. It's not that these funeral home do not know what they're doing or provide bad service, but they're typically a lot more expensive to deal with - thousands, not hundreds.

The only exception to this is if he's looking to have his father cremated with no viewing/visitation/wake prior to the cremation process. If that's the case then a funeral home in FL could probably do all arrangements over the phone/fax and mail the ashes back to VA.

If he's wanting burial, the body will need to be embalmed in order to come back to VA via common carrier. Probably an airplane. The local funeral home will make all arrangements for this to take place and pick the body up at the airport.

In Danville, I know of at least two locally owned and operated funeral homes. Fisker and Watkins, and Townes Funeral Home. In Roanoke, I'm not real sure about locally owned and operated except for Oakeys, but I think of Oakeys as more of a factory than a funeral home because of the volume they handle. I think they've got five or six locations throughout Roanoke.

If he's going to be cremated it might be a good idea to try to have someone trustworthy visit the crematorium. Based on what happened here in GA not too long ago, he may want to make sure his father is actually cremated and not just dumped in the back 40.

antichrist said:

If he's going to be cremated it might be a good idea to try to have someone trustworthy visit the crematorium. Based on what happened here in GA not too long ago, he may want to make sure his father is actually cremated and not just dumped in the back 40.

Click to expand...

Not saying it can't be done, but it would be near impossible to get away with that anymore. Ever since the Tri-State deal in GA many new laws and regulations have hit the books. We now have to deal with the EPA, the DEQ, and a new origination called CANA. They're monitoring everything from emissions to gas usage per pound. Crematories are also now randomly inspected by the state, too, something that was never done in the past.

For example, in the past retorts were basically large ovens with a direct flame. About 1.8 Million BTU's fed by a 4" gas main. Funeral homes would just do the cremation without logging any information at all. You just did the job and that was that.

Within the last 10 years, the laws have changed. Each body must not only be identified prior to cremation, but they must be logged in and given some sort of ID that also must withstand the cremation process. Many crematories use a stainless steel token with a number on it. That number, and the persons name, is recorded in a log book. It's also recorded on a graph on the crematory itself. This graph also maps the cremation process marking the total run time of the cremation and the temperatures throughout the process.

At the end of the year the crematory has to send this information to the DEQ where they determine if your running efficiently. They're also required to visit the crematory every-so-often, too (either every 3 or 5 years) and actually witness a cremation and check for emissions.

The state is required to visit your location at least once every 3 years. More often is they choose too. They inspect your retort and your log books with a fine tooth comb. You've got to be able to show them not only who you cremated, but how much they weighed, how long the process took, how much gas was used, and how much gas you've purchased. Even if you're just conducting maintenance you've got to accurately show the inspector where that gas went, or didn't go. And the meters on the buildings keep everyone in check....

This type of monitoring does not come cheap. It's also why you've seen the price of cremation jump from $695 to $2,000+.

Whatever you do, do not call and ask for quotations on "Transportation and disposal".

For some reason, those guys don't have much of a sense of humor.

If you'd known the guy I was having burned, you'd understand. He laughed, I'm sure.

Oakey's in Roanoke is a large company, but have handled services for me and most family members and friends over the past 30+ years, and always performed well. Lotz is the other local name that has been around for years, and probably a little cheaper from what I understand, but both are good companies.