Let Freedom Ring ~ A Veteran's Tribute

We are pleased to announce that Wieting Family Funeral Home will be holding the 5^th annual "Let Freedom Ring" ceremony at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at the Wieting Family Funeral Home in Kiel, Wisconsin

A Tribute to Those Who Have Served

We are honored to be able to remember and pay tribute to the men and women who have defended our country and preserved our freedom. We especially recognize the veterans and their families whom we have served this past year at our funeral home.

This program is free and open to the public; however, registration is desired for planning purposes. If anyone would like to remember a veteran or to register to attend, please call the funeral home at (920) 849-4941 or (920) 894-4943.

For more information, please visit our website: wietingfuneralhome.com and click on the "Let Freedom Ring" banner on the homepage.

Ask the Funeral Director ~ Why Do We?

It isn't uncommon for us on a semi frequent basis to be asked, "Why do we have funerals?" This is, truly, a tough question to answer, especially when asked by family members who have suffered the death of someone they love. So...why do we have funerals?

Margaret Mead, a foremost anthropologist, described America's increasingly common response to death as follows, "When a baby is born, we rejoice. When a couple is married, we celebrate. And when someone we love dies, we pretend nothing happened." Many people today don't understand why we have funerals. Things that we don't understand, we tend to be skeptical of, even fearful of.

There are many misconceptions people have about funerals, but I'd like to highlight a number that tend to turn up the most frequent.

Funerals make us sad - When someone we love dies, we NEED to be sad. Funerals provide us with a safe, supportive place in which to embrace the pain we have when we've suffered the death of someone we love.

Funerals are inconvenient - Taking a few hours out of your week to demonstrate your love for the person who died, and your support for his or her survivors is a privilege, not an inconvenience.

Funerals are rote and meaningless - They don't have to be. We are always stressing that Every Life Tells a Story. With forethought and planning, funerals can and should be personalized rituals reflecting the uniqueness of the deceased and their grieving family. Funerals provide an opportunity to tell that story which can be shared for generations to come.

Funerals are only for grown-ups - Anyone old enough to love is old enough to mourn. Children, too, have the right and privilege to attend funerals. I've heard frequently that adults have 'learned a thing or two' from children who are grieving as well.

This is by no means a complete list of funeral misconceptions, but I do hope this has shed a little light as to why we have funerals. I would also like to offer myself as a resource to you, your church, or your civic group to come speak about any death, dying grief or funeral topic you may want more information on.

Financial Aftercare

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to step back into the role of funeral director, whether it be at the funeral home or by helping friends and family back in my hometown. In this particular instance I offered my assistance to my friend when her sister died after succumbing to a heart attack. While I didn't actually act as the funeral director, I was there in a consultant type of a role.

Most of my help is now coming in the form of what we call "aftercare". There are really two components of aftercare. One being grief related and the other being financial. I have focused on grief aftercare in past articles so this article will be focused on financial aftercare. My friend's sister, who I will refer to as Nancy, suffered from medical issues for quite some time, but they weren't deemed to be so serious as to think that death would occur so quickly. Nancy was a very independent person. She was a single parent who raised a wonderful son while also having a very successful career. She was always going to "get to that" financial planning and estate planning "stuff". But, not unlike a lot of people, she ran out of time. So, as a result, when she died somewhat unexpectedly, her financial affairs weren't quite in order.



Because Nancy hadn't had the chance to put things in order, the family is now faced with the daunting task of settling her estate. Anyone who has gone through this process knows the amount of time and effort this takes, especially when there is not a will, nor any direction whatsoever.

Each person's estate is different and can be fairly simple or extremely complex depending on the amount of assets and /or debts. As part of our service to our families, we have many different forms and suggestions available to families that will assist them. One good example is a form letter to credit card companies canceling credit card accounts. When settling estates, especially unexpectedly, there are many, "wow, we never thought about that" moments. We also will assist you with Social Security notification. We will send Social Security all of the information they need so you don't have to contact them at all. Life insurance tends to be a hurdle depending on the company. We'll help families initiate the contact with the appropriate places to get the ball rolling on filing claim information. The insurance companies, by law, have a month to respond to the death claim; however, most companies are quicker than that, especially when the claims are filed promptly.

Another area, albeit, not necessarily financial is how to deal with canceling any online and social media accounts a person may have had. Many people pay their bills online today and as we all know, there are passwords upon passwords and then more passwords to get into anything online. Many companies (rightfully so) are very strict about giving out password information over the phone, because of the potential for "hacking". Also, as foolish and unimportant as canceling a Facebook account might seem, it is important to do. Unless you are going to actively maintain the deceased persons Facebook account as a memorial, it is best to cancel to avoid any embarrassing or untimely "hacking" situations.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is make your estate planning a priority no matter what your age. You can do a lot of estate planning just by writing things down and putting it in a safe place (and telling somebody where it is!), but the best thing to do is contact an attorney to help you. However, if you do find yourself in a situation like my friend is with her sister Nancy's estate, don't hesitate to call upon us. We will do all we can to help, and we will get you pointed in the right direction.

Wieting Funeral Home Upgrades Company Website

Article provided by Chilton Times-Journal:

Wieting Family Funeral Home has always been ahead of the curve when it came to technology in the funeral service sector.

"We were the first funeral home in the surrounding area to have a website, and we've been looking to advance our internet reach ever since," Funeral Director Dan Wieting said

Recently, Wieting began a long and arduous journey to update our funeral home's website.

"We decided that instead of just tweaking a few things here and there within our current site, we would start from scratch, and have a web presence that would be able to disseminate more and various information to more people quicker," Wieting said.

The new site was unveiled in February. One of Wieting's favorite parts of this new site is the photo gallery. Viewers will see photos of area landmarks, and pictures from community events they have sponsored.





"In the very near future, we'll be incorporating more and more video to the site as well," Wieting said. "This provides a way to relay more information quicker and is more apt to hold someone's attention than large amounts of text. We'll be starting with part one of a three-part series about the history of our family in funeral service."

One of the principal functions of our funeral home's website is to give access to obituary and service information. People may voluntarily sign up to receive email notification when a new notice is placed online at www.wietingfuneralhome.com. When a new obituary is posted, viewers will be notified of that addition.

When looking at an obituary on the website, viewers will notice that below the primary photo there is a list of ways to share that notice. Viewers can click to email the obituary to friends and family, or post it to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.


These obituaries are also have places to offer a short condolence to the family under the Memory Book tab, or share a long story or memory under the Life Stories tab.

Wieting also publish a quarterly newsletter. Viewers can subscribe by scrolling to the bottom of the homepage and entering your email address on the right side under the heading "sign me up for our newsletter"

"If there is something you'd like us to blog on, please let us know by emailing us.," Wieting said.

In connection to the new website, Wieting also begun to become active within the social sites. The company does have an active Facebook page. Also Wieting is starting to dabble in a YouTube Channel and Google+.

For more information visit www.WietingFuneralHome.com.

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