Planning Cremations with a Terminal Illness

Planning cremation services in Sun City, AZ after being diagnosed with a terminal illness may seem fatalistic or even morbid. It certainly probably won’t be the first thing that comes to mind as you leave the doctor’s office after your diagnosis.

You will probably be numb at first, not knowing what to do. You may be angry that this is happening to you. You may be sad in the forthcoming days as you realize all the things you’d hoped to do, planned to do, and dreamed about doing will, for the most part, remain unfulfilled hopes, plans, and dreams.

You may worry about the loved ones you will be leaving behind and how your death will impact them. You may have children who are not yet grown and you realize you will never get to see them grow up and reach their potential and you won’t see the next generation being born and growing up.

Your spouse and you may have put off things that you wanted to do together throughout the years, waiting for your golden years, when all the kids were finally out of the nest and flying on their own and you were retired and could really enjoy all that you had planned. Now, those things will never happen either.

This is usually the immediate reaction to the diagnosis of a terminal illness, and it can bring on great sorrow, and even depression as you realize just how little time you have left to live.

However, there comes a point of acceptance, and it is then that there are several things that you should do to put your affairs, including planning your cremation, in order before you die.

Some terminal illness diagnoses are made with only days or weeks of life left. That is because the symptoms of some of these illnesses don’t appear until the illness is advanced or near the end stage. Other terminal illness diagnoses are made with a few years or a few months of life left. In either case, there is no time to waste.

Planning your cremation should be among the first things you do after you’ve come to grips with your diagnosis and you’ve accepted it. Make sure that you plan your funeral – the cremation and the services, with the people who you want to participate – both with your family and with the funeral home.

This is your funeral, so make sure that what is important to you is included in it. By planning your cremation in advance, you take the burden off of your family to have to try to take care of that while they are in the midst of grieving over your death.

Be aware, though, that some of what you plan or want may not be done by the time you die because your family wants to preserve your dignity and your memory.

For example, you may want a viewing before you’re cremated. But the type of terminal illness you have may ravage your body as it progresses so that by the time you die, you are unrecognizable.

Your family, therefore, may choosing to not have a viewing, but just a visitation instead, because they want people to remember you when you were healthy and they want to preserve your dignity in death.

For information cremation services offered in Sun City, AZ, including grief resources, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Simply Cremations & Funeral Arrangements is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 16952 W Bell Rd., Ste 303, Surprise, AZ 85374, or you can call us today at (623) 975-9393.