What We Offer

It is your right, and our desire, for you to have as complete an understanding as possible regarding the cost of our services.

The largest factors in this cost are in terms of personnel and professional services, facilities, equipment, governmental compliances (including federal, state and local) and liability. The maintenance of these necessities in funeral service is never ending. It must be available 24 hours every day in the year. Broken down into understandable figures, ours is a 168 hour week and not the 40 hour week which today is the acceptable standard.

A funeral is a very personal affair; subject to the desires of the individuals involved only. Hence, there is no standard pattern for all funeral services. Not all items will be required in every service. Tradition, custom, religious creed and individual preference will influence the items of service necessary or desired.

Our service must be completely flexible as to meet all or any single demand. It is impossible to foresee what these demands will be. It is therefore necessary that we maintain a complete, well trained, licensed professional staff, adequate facilities and equipment ready to meet the needs and demands of the family–and fate alone determines what those needs will be.

Services We Offer

The most important service our directors can offer is using our experience to give families choice.  We feel the arrangement conference should allow families to share the life of their loved one and express how they feel is the best way to commemorate this life lived.  The time spent with the funeral director should not feel like a cold business transaction and it should not be directed towards one type of funeral service.  Our directors have been trained to give your family options that let you personalize a funeral appropriate for your loved one.  Here are a few of the services we can provide for.

Chapel Service

At Farenga Bros. and Hodder Farenga Funeral Home we hope you will find our chapels clean, spacious, and tastefully decorated.  Should your family wish to have time at our chapel for friends and family to gather our directors will personalize a service according to your family’s specific directions.  Whether there will be a viewing with calling hours, a chapel service with a closed casket, or a church service, our directors are trained to the highest standards of all aspects of funeral service and will guide your family through a difficult time, to make sure your desires are heard.  Any type of funeral may follow these services whether it is entombment, ground burial, or cremation.

Prearrangements

Whether you would like to set aside funds for a funeral service to ease your family’s burden, shelter assets for a funeral while applying for Medicaid, or simply have an idea of your options regarding funerals, our directors are willing to take the time to sit with you and prearrange a funeral conforming to a family’s wishes.  Funds may be set up in a PrePlan trust, which is maintained by the New York State Funeral Director’s Association.  These trusts are government backed and insured, interest bearing, revocable (principal and interest) and transferable between funeral homes.  If prearrangements are being made for a Medicaid recipient, an irrevocable trust is opened to shelter final expenses.  By making an appointment a director will walk you through the creation of these trusts, or simply answer any questions you may have without setting funds aside.

Transportation Nation and World Wide

Whether your family wishes for us to arrange a burial or entombment out of town, out of state or out of country our directors are ready and capable.  The reputation we enjoy from over 125 years of service and our involvement in funeral director’s associations has forged relationships with funeral homes throughout the nation and we are confident our nationwide agents can assist with transporting the deceased to us or handling final services in a dignified and timely manner.

Our funeral homes serve people from all nationalities and walks of life.  Quite often we are called upon to arrange for the repatriation of the deceased to their homeland.  Our years of experience ensure that our directors will conform to the guidelines of various nations and that we can arrange for the most convenient transportation route.  All this is done so that services may take place in a dignified manner, no matter how far away.

Direct Burial or Cremation

Our directors stand ready to help your family arrange for any type of funeral service.  A direct burial or cremation is when there are no services before a burial or cremation take place. Should there be a need to place an obituary in the local newspaper, memorial cards as a keepsake for friends and family, or an urn to house cremated remains, our directors will guide your family through a meaningful memorialization. We can also arrange for a memorial service after burial or cremation take place.  If desired, this may give family and friends time to share and express their love while avoiding costs associated with a traditional funeral.