what are you feelings on visitation at a funeral home?

Question

I am looking for serious responses here.
How does it make you feel to have to visit a funeral home?
What are your feelings of having an open casket for the deceased?
Is having the body there even necessary?

Answer 1

These are all personal preferences. While going to a funeral home is not my favorite place to meet up with people, it is nonetheless one place where you can see many familiar faces from the past....I like to think that the deceased gets a kick out of everyone being there together and talking about old times. Casket open or closed makes no difference to me.

I've already decided that my father will have a small service, followed by one heck of a party at the bar he frequents most.....he loves the idea of everyone having one last party on his dime!!

Answer 2

We've just gone through this with the death of a family member & it's unsettling to say the least. The body very seldom is a close actual resemblance of a persons appearance, I've found. I would prefer a closed casket with a picture on top & perhaps other memorabillia related to that persons life. I would rather remember them the way they were the last time I saw them. When my time is up I have my families promise to not put themselves through that kind of grief, especially my granddaughter. Three days of continuous grief is too long before I go the final resting place. Send me to my grave the day after I pass then have a memorial service in the near future & afterwards have a party that celebrates my life not mourns me & makes everyone sad. It's a tradition that needs to be changed. People can pay their respects without actually being there. Make a donation to a charitable or medical research organization in my memory & let's get on with life. The grieving & healing process is difficult enough without adding more trauma unnessessarily. The expense people go through is just mind boggling sometimes. The elaborate casket, the floral arrangements & so on. The deceased doesn't care he or she isn't there to see it. I once read that the definition of a true hypocrit is a Funeral Director who tries to look sad at a ten thousand dollar burial & to me that about says it all. If you want to send me off contented have me me cremated, rent a small plane & spread my ashes over a nudist colony. Then you'll know I'm happy in my new life. It'll save on the new wardrobe when i get there to boot!!

Answer 3

I think it's a meaningful ritual for some people, for others it's kind of morbid. it's all up to the culture of the family of the deceased. I remember when i was young and I wnet to funerals, I always thought the corpse woudl reanimate itself and grab me. lol