ABOUT US

About Us

At Hooper Memorial Home Inc. we go beyond your expectations. To us this means many things. Being available at all times before, during, and after the funeral, offering a variety of personalized options, maintaining comfortable surroundings with a warm atmosphere, and treating each family with all the dignity, respect and professionalism they deserve. All this is accomplished through almost 100 years and three generations of professionalism and experience.

Understanding Where Your Money Goes 

It is the Hooper Memorial Home Inc. desire to explain to you exactly where your money is being spent when you pay for funerals. First let me say that you are paying more for what you don’t see than what you do. The biggest element is time, most businesses have 40-hour workweeks, the funeral business is 168-hour weeks. We are available 24 hours per day and 7 days a week; the maintenance and upkeep of this business is never ending.

When you pay for the professional service fee, you are paying for the meeting with the family; obtaining vital record information, doing the obituary, doing the contract, selecting a casket, vault and other aspects of the funeral.

The funeral director is also coordinating the times of the services with the clergy, fraternal organizations, hairdresser, civic groups, cemetery, vault company, casket company, printers, veterans associations and many others.

He must complete the death certificate with the vital information from the family and obtain a signature from the attending physician or coroner/medical examiner for burial. The director must also file the certificate as well as obtain certified certificates for the family and get a burial / cremation permit from the State.

Call / email obituary information for the newspapers and place a copy of it on the website. The funeral director must care for all the flowers and obtain the flower cards for the family to acknowledge the persons who sent them. Print programs, folders, prayer cards, bookmarks and other personalized items.

Complete all necessary forms for Social Security, Veterans administration, the flag and burial benefits, insurance forms, state and federal forms where required. Answer all calls regarding the funeral services and give out funeral information to the public. This is all included in our professional service fee.

As for the preparation of the decease and embalming when necessary, in excess of regular embalming, if a person has a contagious disease additional precaution has to be taken to protect not only the embalmer but the public as well. In the case of severe trauma restorative techniques and skills must be used and sometimes this work may take several days before completion.

Normal embalming usually involves shaving, shampooing, dressing, casketing, applying cosmetics, cosmetizing unattractive bruises or cuts and hairdressing (a professional hairdresser may charge extra).

In addition to the above items we must make use of other professional and non-professional personnel to arrange flowers, assist in the above items, be in attendance during all visitations and funerals and assist in adhering to the family wishes during the funeral.

All of these services require an average of eighty man-hours per funeral. After the service the funeral director assists the family with the filing of the appropriate forms and avails him/herself for bereavement support. The funeral director also maintains a staff person who is versed and trained in the art of using telecommunications to be supportive of a bereaved family member 365 days per year, 24 hours per day.

In addition to the above, the funeral director has what is known as fixed overhead, which is the figure he must maintain. This overhead includes taxes, specialized education, surgical instruments, utilities, telephone, air-conditioning, advertising and promotions, insurance, stationary supplies, computers, workman’s comp. unemployment comp, cleaning, building maintenance, yard care, website, auto maintenance and much more.

Funeral home facilities and equipment charges are made for the use of it for visitations and funerals and also for capital improvements such as carpet replacement, drapes, chairs, furniture, etc.

Merchandise fees are for the items you choose such as caskets, vaults, memorial book, prayer cards/acknowledgement cards and more. Finally the transportation fees are for the cost, depreciation and gas of the autos used for your service.

We hope that this clarifies most of what you might be asking yourself regarding funeral costs. If you have any additional questions please don’t hesitate to call at (717)-651-1000 and one of our professionals will be happy to answer any of your questions.

Embalming Policy

Although Pennsylvania law does not require embalming except in the interest of public health. If a family doesn’t want embalming, they don’t have to have it; however Pennsylvania Law requires that the disposition of the loved one must be within 48 hours from the time of death. If you don’t want embalming then you have the right to choose an arrangement, which does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial.

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