What to do when a death occurs
Prearrangements
Upcoming funerals
Click here to find out about upcoming funerals.
Visit our funeral parlors
Thanatopraxis is a set of operations necessary to perform an embalming. Embalming, the purpose of which is to preserve the body of the deceased for the visitation, consists in halting the deterioration of the body by injecting preservative fluids into the tissue.
Also known as a funeral director, the thanatologist is the professional who interacts with people who have lost a loved one.
In the visitation, the body or ashes of a deceased person are displayed as a way for people to say goodbye to the late family member. It is also a funeral rite which gives friends the opportunity to extend their sympathy to the family.
A visitation lasts as long as the family wants it to. This is generally between a half day and two days.
Costs vary from one cemetery to another. In addition to the cost of the plot there is the cost of the monument, the engraving and the excavation (digging of the grave).
A vault is a rigid, hermetically sealed container in which the casket or urn can be placed. It prevents possible subsidence of the earth and repositioning of the tombstone in the course of natural deterioration of the casket or urn. Vaults are available in steel, plastic or concrete.
A charnel house is a place where caskets are stored for winter pending burial in the spring. Cemeteries that do not permit grave digging in winter usually offer a charnel service.
Cremation consists first of all in placing the body of the deceased person in a casket or a wooden or cardboard
container, which is then inserted in a cremator (oven). Heat of 1,000 to 1,200 degrees Celsius reduces the human remains to bone fragments and ash. These are carefully recovered and placed in an urn identified by the name of the deceased.
The place where cremations are conducted.
The cinerary urn is a container in which a person’s ashes are deposited. The choice of a cinerary urn is personal. Urns have different shapes and different prices. They are available in bronze, wood, marble, granite, clay, porcelain, glass, metal and acrylic. They are sometimes of artistic design, and may reflect the various interests of the deceased person. It is this diversity that explains the often substantial differences in price.
Reliquaries are miniature versions of cinerary urns. They are also available as medallions or lockets. They contain the ashes or a lock of hair of the deceased. In this way many members of the family can preserve a portion of the ashes after cremation.
In Quebec there is no law governing the method of disposal of the ashes of a deceased person. Consequently this can be done anywhere, in accordance with the wishes of the deceased or the family, except where contrary to local by-laws.
A columbarium is all of the compartments known as niches where cinerary urns are placed. A columbarium normally forms a wall or part of a wall inside a building. A columbarium can also be outdoors. Columbariums are usually the property of cemeteries or funeral homes.
The niche is the site in a columbarium for accommodating a cinerary urn.
Every columbarium has its own pricing policy. There is no standard price. Usually, a niche at eye level will be more expensive than a niche at floor level. Some funeral homes permit families to place objects inside the niche, while others do not.
Also called a wall-niche tomb, this is a site inside a mausoleum in which it is possible to deposit a person’s body inside its casket. This type of burial replaces traditional interment.
A building within which columbariums and crypts (wall-niche tombs) are laid out.
It is always preferable for funeral wishes to be planned ahead of time. But if nothing has been done, the first thing to do is to contact your funeral cooperative. One telephone call is enough for the team at the Coopérative funéraire de l’Outaouais to take charge and guide you through the necessary steps for organizing funeral services and the main decisions to be made.
The first thing to do is to contact the Coopérative funéraire de l’Outaouais. It will look after bringing the remains back into the country.
Parents often hesitate to bring their young children to the funeral of a family member. On the one hand, they are afraid that the child will find this goodbye ceremony too upsetting, as often children are not clear about what death means. On the other, children may not really understand what is going on, and may start to sing or speak louder than is customary in such circumstances.
Let’s answer the first question first: it is generally acknowledged that children have a vague idea of death starting at age three. Naturally, you should expect an avalanche of questions during the service and in the weeks to follow. The best thing to do is to answer as honestly as possible according to your own understanding of death. Later, around age five, children realize the irreversibility of death, i.e. that they will never see the deceased person again.
As for the second concern, it is not uncommon for children to feel separate from the funeral ceremony and to manifest a few signs of impatience. But as a rule, people suffering the loss of a loved one tend to be understanding in this situation, and cannot help but appreciate that life can continue to express itself in this sort of way.
Children cannot be kept indefinitely apart from all things surrounding death, and their participation in the rites can only awaken them to this reality.
Where can one dispose of the deceased’s
The time has long gone when the only option for eternal repose was burial in a cemetery.
For all sorts of reasons, more and more people are requesting in their last wishes that their body be cremated in a crematorium, a practice allowed by the Catholic Church in 1963. Since 1985 the Church has also allowed the religious ceremony to take place in the presence of the urn containing the ashes.
Depending on the wishes of the deceased or the family, these ashes can be interred in the cemetery or disposed of in some other place meaningful to the deceased. For example, they can be placed at the foot of a tree that the person particularly loved, or dispersed in a river near which the person grew up.
The ashes can be deposited in an urn which the family can keep at its residence, or preserved in a columbarium.
Whatever your choice, it is best to discuss your end-of-life wishes with your family.
For while it is we who die, the pain of losing a loved one is the lot of those we leave behind. Your funeral adviser can also present you with the options available to you, and will respect your choices.
A will allows you to decide for yourself how you want your property distributed after your death.
When there is no will, the law provides for the division of the estate among the legal heirs. Half of the family patrimony goes to the surviving spouse, and the other half is distributed to the legal heirs in accordance with the Civil Code. Therefore it is necessary to make a will if you want to dispose of your property after your death in some way that is not provided for in the Civil Code. In addition, a spouse in a civil union cannot inherit from his or her partner unless that partner designated the spouse in his or her will.
This is a document in which persons express their wishes as to the medical treatment they would like to receive or not receive, in the event that they become seriously ill and incapable of making known their end-of-life choices. The living will is not binding, but is of informational value.
The Catholic Church has authorized cremation since 1963. However it was not until 1985 that it permitted the religious ceremony to take place in the presence of the urn containing the ashes of the deceased.
