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What To Do When Death Occurs
  1. Make appointment with Riewerts Memorial Home by calling 201.384.0700. The memorial home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery. Some information to complete the State vital statistic requirements.
    • Birth Date
    • Birthplace
    • Father's Name
    • Mother's Name
    • Social Security Number
    • Veteran's Discharge or Claim Number
    • Education
    • Marital Status

  2. Contact your clergy. Decide on time and place of funeral or memorial service. This can be done at the funeral home.

  3. The funeral home will assist you in determining the number of copies of the death certificates you will be needing and can order them for you.

  4. Make a list of immediate family, close friends and employer or business colleagues. Notify each by phone.

  5. Decide on appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made (church, hospice, library, charity or school).

  6. Gather obituary information, including age, place of birth, cause of death, occupation, college degrees, memberships held, military service , outstanding work , list of survivors in immediate family. give time and place of services. The funeral home will normally write article and submit to newspapers (newspaper will accept picture and they will be returned intact).

  7. Arrange for members of family or close friends to take turns answering door or phone, keeping careful record of calls.

  8. If Social Security checks are automatic deposit, notify the bank of the death.

  9. Coordinate the supplying of food for the next several days.

  10. Consider special need of the household, such as cleaning , etc., which might be done by friends.

  11. Arrange for child care, if necessary.

  12. Arrange hospitality for visiting relatives and friends.

  13. Select pallbearers and notify the funeral home. (Avoid anyone with heart or back difficulties , or make them honorary pallbearers).

  14. Plan for disposition of flowers after funeral (church, hospital or rest home)

  15. Prepare list of distant persons to be notified by letter and/or printed notice, and decide which to send to each.

  16. Prepare list of persons to receive acknowledgments of flowers, calls, etc. Send appropriate acknowledgments (can be written note, printed acknowledgments, or some of each). Include "thank you's" to those who have given their time as well.

  17. Notify insurance companies.

  18. Locate the will and notify lawyer and executor.

  19. Check carefully all life and casualty insurance and death benefits , including Social Security, credit union , trade union, fraternal, and military. Check also on income for survivors from these sources.

  20. Check promptly on all debts and installment payments, including credit cards. Some may carry insurance clauses that will cancel them. If there is to be a delay in meeting payments, consult with creditors and ask for more time before the payments are due.

  21. If deceased was living alone, notify utilities and landlord and tell post office where to send mail.

  22. Funeral Director will prepare Social Security Form SSA 721. Check with Social Security to see that number is retired.
When a Death Occurs in Another State or Country

Riewerts Memorial Home is always available to ease the stress of arranging to bring home the remains of a loved one for a funeral in familiar surroundings. If you are not planning any funeral arrangements in the locality where the death occurred, contact us directly at any time of the day or night. We have trusted contacts available to us throughout the United States and even in many foreign countries. These firms often specialize in shipping human remains to our firm at a considerable savings to our client families when compared to their selecting a local funeral home in the place of death to handle shipment of the remains back to Bergenfield.

We can often in our initial phone conference with you, obtain the information necessary to quickly arrange transportation to our funeral home. Our contacts are able most of the time, to complete everything necessary to ship a human remains to us in a timely manner. The fact that someone died out of our area in most cases has little or no effect on either the timing or the cost of the funeral arrangement that you decide is appropriate for your family. We always strive to minimize the stress and confusion of handling a death that has occurred out of our local area. Call Riewerts Memorial Home first, we are here to help in the most difficult of situations.

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