FAQ: Cremation Services

You'll need to provide the documents/information required to complete your loved one's death certificate and obituary. If you are planning to have a service, you may also wish to bring in a collection of family photographs to be used in making a tribute video or in the decoration of the service location. Other items may be needed at some point, depending on the arrangements made. Your funeral director will provide you with an exact list of the things he or should would like you to bring along to the arrangement conference.

In Oklahoma, the state Medical Examiner must issue a permit authorizing cremation before the cremation takes place.

We will gather all the information needed for the permit and will submit it to the Medical Examiner. As a very general rule, it usually takes 2-3 working days after the permit application is submitted before the permit is issued.

However, there may be extraordinary circumstance whereby the permit can be delayed for several days or more. Famailies who want the remains present at a memorial service must keep this in mind and not schedule a service without consulting the funeral home.

The short answer is "no", but there are exceptions, such as families members or friends wanting to see a loved one to say goodbye. 

We can advise you on all your options depending on the individual circumstances.

Generally if there is no viewing or visitation, the deceased is cremated in the clothing/bedding they were in at the time of death. 

We can dress the deceased in different clothing, wrap them in a special blanket, etc. by request.

Once the permit to cremate is received from the Medical Examiner, will will usually cremate that day or the day after, depending on our cremation schedule. Ashes will then be available the day following the cremation.

We allow a limited number of immediate family the oportunity to witness their loved one placed into the cremation chamber. There is a viewing window available at our crematory. This "witness cremation" can be scheduled once the Medical Examiner permit has been received.

When you make cremation arrangements with us, you will select some type of container for the ashes to be placed in.

There are many things you can do with ashes, including simply taking them home with you for safekeeping. 

There may come a time when you know exactly what you'd like to do with them, but it may not be right now. Be patient; the right way to care for them will surface in time. 

After all, there are a lot of options: burial, scattering them on land or sea; dividing them among family members, etc. but you can also use the cremated remains in keepsake jewelry or to create meaningful pieces of art. 

As we said, there is no have-to-do; there's only a want-to-do (and you are in complete control of it). If you're curious about your options, just give us a call. We'll share what we know.

It depends upon what you mean as "special", but we do our best to accommodate the wishes of surviving family members. 

Most commonly, families will ask to place notes, photos, children's drawings, or other personal messages of love. We encourage you to speak with your funeral director to learn the regulations of our crematory related to your loved one's cremation.

Memorial services are too important to leave to chance. Unlike so many other things, there will never be a “second chance” to get the service right; it has to be right the first time. That is why most of the families we serve prefer we take care of the memorial service arrangements. We are experts at handling all the details in an efficient and professional manner, as taking care of family and friends is our primary job.

Some families tell us that “the church will handle it”, and although most church staff will help if asked, our experience tells us they would much rather be focused on supporting and ministering to the family instead of trying to quickly find help (often volunteer and inexperienced) to coordinate and handle everything involved in making sure the service goes smoothly and doesn’t embarrass the family.

Other families tell us that they or other family members will handle the details. Just like with churches, most people “don’t know what they don’t know” and find it incredibly stressful and difficult pulling together all the elements needed in such a short amount of time. It is really asking a lot of someone inexperienced to take on all that responsibility. As a matter of fact, they most often end up asking us to help coach them though all the details, essentially wanting us to handle the service but without actually asking us to do so.

We can provide you with a checklist of the many tasks and details we handle when we are in charge of the arrangements. These of course vary with each circumstance, but it is important to know what someone else may have to do if the funeral home is not involved. If Strode is not involved, we will ask for the name and contact information of whoever is “in charge” of the arrangements so calls, e-mails, and inquiries may be forwarded to them. We will also ask for an address for any floral deliveries.

Yes, you can. The burial can be in-ground, or your loved one's cremation urn can be placed in a columbarium niche. Speak with your funeral director to learn more about your specific cremation burial options