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NOVEMBER 2014
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
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Final Roadmap Provides Direction
When Path Ahead is Unclear
Paula A. Porter
ing as the chief operating
officer and chief embalm-
er at
Heritage Memorial
Funeral Home,
located in
Corpus Christi and Kings-
ville. In December 2013,
Paula received her Cre-
mator Operator’s license.
Paula is member of the
Epsilon Nu Delta Mortuary
Fraternity, National Funer-
al Directors and Morticians
Association,
the
Alamo Di-
rectors of San Antonio,
and
the
100 Black Women of
Funeral Service.
As a young teenager, she
was fascinated with being
a mortician. When her fa-
ther would go to work, she
would get dropped off at
Jackson-Flowers Funer-
al Home.
While there,
Mattie Flowers
took time
out of her busy schedule
to mentor and train her
in the mortuary business.
With 25 years of experi-
ence in the business, the
community rewards her
by complimenting her on
how well she and her staff
perform services for their
loved ones. Her philoso-
phy is “let the works I’ve
done speak for me.”
Phenomenal
Texas Women
CHICAGO,IL—
To support funeral directors
and cemetery operators when guiding cli-
ents through their advance care planning
needs, the newest online end of live plan-
ning toolkit,
Final Roadmap
helps stream-
line the process and further builds connec-
tions with clients and family members.
“Most people think that if they or their
loved ones have a few legal forms, they’re
well prepared,” says
Steve Byrne,
“but
nothing could be further from the truth.”
In fact, he says, a wide variety of medi-
cal, financial and personal decisions need
to be made.
Byrne is a founding partner of Final
Roadmap an online guide to end of life
planning that helps people deal with sen-
sitive issues. “We articulate what the end
of life components are and how each item
may be approached. Our focus is on those
decisions which can be anticipated and
cause the most unnecessary pain as we
struggle to accept death as part of life,”
Byrne explains. “It’s uncomfortable to
talk about advance care planning, but the
benefits are substantial,” says Byrne. “You
assume more control over your own life,
and sharing your wishes with your family
is a beautiful gift to them. The people that
love you want to act on your behalf. No
wondering. No fighting. No regrets.”
Clients control personal “digital vaults”
filled with their own last wishes on a host
of issues. Answering these questions helps
a client prepare for a time when they can
no longer speak for themselves, because
they are either incapacitated or deceased.
According to Kerry Shannon, a health-
care authority with over thirty years expe-
rience, “There are numerous advantages
when people can make decisions in ad-
vance and communicate them with doc-
tors and family members, including bet-
ter quality of care and all of the patient’s
wishes being observed. Perhaps best of
all, it relieves family members of the add-
ed stress of trying to figure out what their
loved one would want through all the pro-
tocols, directives, choices and treatments,
and more.”“It’s really good for everyone,”
Shannon concludes.
Shannon, who wrote the healthcare in-
dustry’s definitive white paper on ad-
says that it isn’t just a single conversation,
“It’s a series of conversations, a dialogue,
over time.”
Embedded within these categories are
a total of 29 forms to help guide clients.
That might sound daunting, but every-
thing — from limitations on preservation
of life to where to call to stop milk deliv-
ery — is covered.
By planning ahead, clients can spare
their relatives, like the two Lemon broth-
ers, where one sibling wants the parent to
continue using a feeding tube, while the
other pushes for in-home hospice care.
“Emotions are terribly raw, so uncer-
tainty can lead to disagreements that
fracture families and take years to heal,”
Byrne says.
“We can’t keep people from passing away,”
Byrne said, “but we help prevent tragedies.”
In opening up a new revenue stream for
funeral homes and cemetery operators, Fi-
nal Roadmap is offering a rebate, which
can generate significant dollars to indus-
try professionals. For further information
about the opportunities with Final Road-
map that can produce income, please call
Steve Byrne at 630-710-3119 or via email
at Steve@FinalRoadmap.com.