Dear Pat,

When our brother passed away in Seattle, a city across the country from our location in Florida, we had no knowledge of where to turn. Fortunately, by process of an internet search, I discovered Barton Family Funeral Services. Your website has an abundance of resources and information that can genuinely assist and help a family clear away confusion and gain a sense of direction in how to proceed.

Initially, I placed a call to your Kirkland office and spoke with Wende Clarke. She was more than helpful with information regarding the services that could be provided and the costs for those services, which by the way are very reasonable by all comparisons and standards. Lyle Burns was the gentleman who handled all the affairs in a prompt, efficient and compassionate manner and our family is very grateful to Lyle for all of his help. One last detail was handled by Molly Ramage who was extremely kind and patient and we are thankful to Molly.

Our family is so very grateful to Barton Family Funeral Services for the psychological comfort that was created from handling all the details and affairs of our loss in a way that was efficient, professional and compassionate.

Very truly,

Dan Yoder

Low Cost Care

"Low Cost" has meaning only when one answers the question, "Compared to what?" Low cost airlines deliver people from point A to point B with remarkably little difference in the end result between those who fly first class on a full service airline and those who fly to the same destination on the deep-discount airline. Both arrive at the same busy destination, wait for baggage, and confront immigration, customs, or security personnel who treat everyone with similar disregard.

Most people don't know too much about funeral costs and what they are actually paying for so it is generally difficult to know if "low cost" is right for them. Astonishingly those who take the time to learn, even if they are inclined to fly first class when choosing an airline, almost always opt for the low cost funeral service as long as they know two important factors are provided by the funeral director:

• Respect for, and understanding the needs of the family.
• Respectful care and disposition of the deceased.

Pre Planned Funerals

Barton Family Funeral Service recommends pre-planning your funeral service and evaluating your options before deciding to pre-fund your services.

Our fees are modest so there are few reasons to prepay, however, if a person wishes to set money aside to pay funeral costs, we offer Forethought Life Insurance for such purposes. Such a policy will cover the cost of a pre-planned funeral and the insurance value will be paid to the beneficiary.

Definitions

Pre-arranged funeral contracts are called "Pre-need" contracts to distinguish them from "At-Need" arrangements. Funeral contracts that are written between the consumer and funeral establishment at the time of a death are At-Need Contracts. We feel that the At-Need Contract drawn up after a death has occurred is when a family is least prepared to make all of the many decisions involved; therefore, the concept of making these important decisions early and in a more informed manner makes sense. This area of planning is call Pre-Planning.

History of Funeral Services

The history of funeral service is a history of mankind. Funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. Every culture and civilization attends to the proper care of their dead. Every culture and civilization ever studied has three things in common relating to death and the disposition of the dead:

• Some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies
• A sacred place for the dead
• Memorialization of the dead

Researchers have found burial grounds of Neanderthal man dating to 60,000 BC with animal antlers on the body and flower fragments next to the corpse indicating some type of ritual and gifts of remembrance.

With no great psychological knowledge or custom to draw from, Neanderthal man instinctively buried their dead with ritual and ceremony.