Care before the funeral

Before a funeral your loved one is collected and cared for at a chapel of rest. Depending on the arrangements and how long the wait is, that can include hygienic treatment (embalming), dressing in clothes the family provides, and being placed in the coffin. What embalming is, and when it is needed and visiting a chapel of rest explain both in full.

Funero does not sell body preparation on its own. Hygienic treatment is included in a repatriation, because most countries require an embalming certificate before a coffin can travel, and we arrange the treatment and the certificate together as part of the paperwork.

Where your loved one is cared for

If the death was in hospital, your loved one first rests in the hospital mortuary, which charges families nothing. Many hospital mortuaries ask for the registrar's green form before they release anyone to a funeral director. From then on your loved one rests at the funeral director's premises, refrigerated between 4 and 7°C under the codes of practice. For most funerals that is enough, and no treatment is needed.

Embalming is a choice

No law in any part of the UK requires embalming for a burial or a cremation. Under their codes of practice, funeral directors must explain what it involves and get your written consent first, with the price shown as its own line. Most natural burial grounds do not accept an embalmed burial, so mention a green burial at the start.

Seeing them before the funeral

A viewing takes place in the chapel of rest, a quiet private room where your loved one lies, often in the coffin, dressed in clothes the family chose. Faith can shape these days too. In a Muslim family the washing and shrouding called ghusl is done by relatives or others of the same gender, before a burial held as soon as possible.

Read next

The days between a death and the funeral are set out in what happens when someone dies at home and what happens when someone dies in hospital. What a viewing is, and whether to have one, is in can you attend a direct cremation.

Related terms: Funeral director and Hospital bereavement team. Every term in the funeral glossary.