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The first step is to select a funeral home and let them know where the death has taken place. They will arrange for your loved one to be transferred into their care. To reach Edson Funeral Home, call 1-800-238-3462 at any hour. We will then set up an arrangement time that works best for your family.

If you request immediate assistance, yes. If the family wishes to spend a short time with their loved one to say goodbye, that’s perfectly acceptable. Your funeral director will come when your time is right, keeping travel time in mind.

Helping others cope with the emotional upheaval of a major loss is a funeral director’s most important job, but they also take care of all the logistics of the funeral service, 24 hours a day. That begins with arranging the transfer of your loved one into our care and completing the documentation. At the arrangement meeting we guide you through how you would like to honour your loved one, then contact the church, clergy, musicians, hall, caterer and cemetery on your behalf. We prepare the casket or urn, personalization, stationery, guest book and monuments, place the obituary on our website (with family approval) and in newspapers of your choosing, and complete the paperwork: registering the death with Vital Statistics, the death certificate, burial permits, Canada Pension Plan notification and benefit applications, and the Funeral Director’s Statement of Death.

Burial in a casket is the most common choice in Canada. Cremation is often selected because it allows the memorial service to be held at a more convenient time, when relatives and friends can come together. A funeral service followed by cremation need not be any different from one followed by burial. Usually, cremated remains are placed in an urn before being committed to a final resting place: buried, placed in a columbarium, interred in a cemetery urn garden, or scattered according to provincial law.

Viewing can be an asset in the grieving process, as it provides a sense of reality that the death has happened. When the deceased suffered through an illness or physical changes, we try to restore a healthier, more peaceful appearance. When the passing is unexpected, a viewing is an opportunity for family and friends to say goodbye and express their emotions in their loved one’s presence. In both cases it provides comfort for many. Viewing is also encouraged for children, if the process is explained and voluntary.

The purpose of embalming is to sanitize and preserve the body, as well as enhance the appearance of the deceased. This extends the time between the passing and the final disposition.

Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. It may be necessary if you select certain arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial.

Compared with other major life events like births and weddings, funerals are not expensive. A funeral home is a 24-hour, labour-intensive business with extensive facilities (viewing rooms, chapel, hearses), and those costs are part of a funeral. The cost also includes the funeral director’s services: making arrangements, filing forms, working with doctors, ministers, florists, newspapers and others, and seeing to every necessary detail.

It depends entirely on how you wish to commemorate a life. Cremation gives you more flexibility: you might choose a funeral service before the cremation, a memorial service at the time of cremation or afterwards with the urn present, or a committal service at the final disposition of the cremated remains. Services can be held in a place of worship, the funeral home or a community hall.

The cremated remains can be interred in a cemetery plot, kept by a family member in an urn, or scattered on private property or at a place that was significant to the deceased. Check local regulations before scattering in a public place; your funeral director can help. Under Alberta Funeral Service Regulatory Board regulation 36.3(1), cremated remains not claimed within 5 years of the cremation must be disposed of by the funeral services business, as specified in the funeral services contract. For more on the regulations, visit afsrb.ca.

You might choose ground burial of the urn with a bronze memorial or monument. Cremation niches in columbariums are available at many cemeteries, offering above-ground placement in a mausoleum setting, and many cemeteries also offer scattering gardens where family and friends can come and reflect.

Yes. If you wish to have your ashes scattered, discuss it ahead of time with the people who will carry it out, as they may want your funeral director’s help. We can help create a meaningful scattering ceremony, formal or informal, public or private. Check local regulations before scattering in a public place; we can help with that too.

Yes. Depending on the cemetery’s policy, cremated remains may be buried on top of a spouse’s casketed remains or in the space next to them, and many cemeteries allow several cremated remains in a single grave space.

Uncertainty about income tax can add to the stress of losing a spouse. Meet with your family lawyer or tax advisor as soon as possible to review your tax and estate circumstances, and bring a detailed list of your questions to the meeting.

Several options may be available, including the Canada Pension Plan Death Benefit and Survivor’s Benefit, the Last Post Fund, Alberta Income Support, and Band Members Benefits. Talk to your funeral director to see whether you qualify.

Yes. We can assist with out-of-province arrangements, transferring your loved one to another province or bringing them home from another province.