Dealing with bereavement after a person close to you passes away, even if it was expected, can be devastating emotionally.

While processing your loved one’s will is very important, or worrying about how to go about the process if they died without a will, as both require your utmost caution- preferably with a legal professional. It’ll only become a factor worth considering once you take care of a few other things first. 

This article outlines some of the steps you’ll need to cover from the moment your loved one passes away to the day the estate administration is completed. 

Hours After The Loss 

Soon after losing a loved one, naturally, you most likely won’t know what to do and say. If you feel shocked and overwhelmed, don’t worry too much, it’s only normal in your situation. 

Pause for a little bit and breath before starting some of the steps listed below:

1. Get A Death Pronouncement 

If the deceased passed away in a nursing home or a hospital with a doctor on board, the staff can take care of the majority of the immediate needs. A hospice nurse will declare your loved one dead if they passed on at home while under assisted elderly care.

One of the first things you should prioritise that’ll help you in obtaining a death certificate is to make an official declaration of death. If the deceased passed away at home, particularly if it was sudden, it’s best to have them pronounced dead by a doctor as soon as possible. Dial 911 the soonest to have them taken to an emergency department to be pronounced dead and transferred to a parlour.

2. Inform Your Friends And Family

Think of other close family members and friends who should know that their loved one has passed away. Look for any contacts to help you determine who should be notified. Inform colleagues and members of all social communities or churches that the person was a member of. 

You can also request that the people let other people know by informing someone who is connected or otherwise related to the deceased. You could try posting the death on your or their social media accounts for a wider reach. Some might even volunteer to help buying funeral flowers to ease the burden you’re going through. 

A Few Days Into Mourning  

After a few days have passed you may now begin some of the processes that are best done at this stage. These include:

1. Make Preparations For The Funeral, Burial, Or Cremation

Examine the documents available to see if the deceased was subscribed to any burial package or whole life insurance. If they weren’t, you’ll have to choose a funeral service and deal with other responsibilities. These include deciding where the funeral wake will be held, where the body or ashes will be buried if you chose to go the cremation route, and what sort of urn or tombstone to order. It’s advisable to research how much the funeral might cost so that you can make an educated decision.

Try to get as much assistance as possible. Make arrangements for friends and relatives to serve a different range of tasks such as being pallbearers, helping arrange the funeral service to lending a hand in purchasing funeral flowers. Organize any meeting you’ll need to have with the deceased’s closest family and friends after the funeral.

In addition, you can request that an obituary be written by a family member or friend who is a great writer.

2. Protect Their Property

Take measures to protect your loved one’s house and car. Someone will have to be responsible for taking care of the deceased loved one’s small garden, collecting their mail, and disposing of all perishables in the house in general. Protect the deceased’s personal properties. Ask that a colleague or family member take care of most of the tasks. Keep any valuable items such as jewellery pieces and money in a safe for good measure. 

3. Take Care Of Pets 

Put pets with a trusted family member, preferably one who already has pets. If the deceased’s loved one’s pet is hypoallergenic, then they can be taken by anyone who’s willing. It’s best if their pets are properly taken care of until they can be moved somewhere permanently like another foster home or an animal shelter. 

These are some of the things people can usually overlook in the rush of things. Yet this is very important because that pet was an intimate part of your loved one’s life. In their remembrance, take care of them well. 

4. Make Sure Mail Is Forwarded 

The last thing you want is for a heap of mails piling at your loved one’s door unattended. If you think they might receive mail, you can head to the local post office and have them redirected to your address instead. 

While your loved one’s already gone, it’s courteous to not make it obvious that the house is uninhabited. You can express your love and grief by taking care of things they would have taken care of themselves back when they were still with the living.

Once the mail starts coming to your house, you can now easily identify any subscriptions and accounts you have to go and request to be closed due to the user’s passing. 

5. Notify The Employer Of Your Family Member

Get in touch with the deceased’s employer and find out if there are any paychecks or other benefits that you can claim on behalf of them or their family. Also, inquire if there’s any life insurance policy that the deceased had been contributing towards at the company. It’s additional help for the grieving family members. 

Two Weeks Moving Forward

A week or two after your loved one has died; it’ll now be a good time to plan ahead. 

1. Ensure That Certified Copies Of Death Certificates Are Kept Safe 

Get around ten copies of the death certificate and have them certified as they will be required in a lot of processes you will have to go through on behalf of the deceased. These actions may include closing bank accounts, brokerage accounts, register the death with relevant government agencies as well as filing for insurance.  

The funeral parlour might also be able to get these copies for you or alternatively the vital statistics office in the state in which the death occurred. 

2. Locate The Will And Executor

The location of any cash, property, or personal belongings must be known to relevant people who are also close to your loved one. You should have spoken to your loved ones before they passed away, and they should have told you where their will was held. If not, you’ll have to look for confidential records in all possible places.

People typically name the person who will be in charge of the will’s administration in the will. This person is called an executor. For the bulk of the steps mentioned below, the trustee must be there. If there’s no will, the probate court will appoint an administrator.

Bottom line 

The time just after receiving news of the death of a loved one can be overwhelming. That’s why some people would rather react inappropriately. Also, so much needs to be processed at the same time and you’re just one person dealing with a lot on your plate. Get help from your relatives, colleagues, and friends as you start going through the steps listed in this article and several others that will still need to be done following your loved one’s death.

If you have chosen to take a few years off to spend with your family and focus on being a mom, you probably have some reservations about whether your old resume will still hold up. Business changes quickly and being out of the game, even for a few years, can put you at a disadvantage.

If you feel insecure about your ability to get back into the workplace, you are not alone. Millions of stay-at-home moms are getting ready to return to work this year. The key is to focus on how to sell yourself using your resume. Setting yourself apart from other candidates is all about showcasing your skills and what you can do for the team.

Your education and job experience remain an advantage, regardless of your time away from the job. It’s essential to present your resume in a way that highlights your skills, career accomplishments, and steers the focus away from your absence. Keep in mind that as a parent, you will add many new skills and knowledge to your soft skill set that can be used in the professional world and should be showcased in your resume. 

Employers are less worried about a career gap on your resume than they are about your unique skill set. Don’t shy away from your years off the job. You can include some of the soft skills you have learned as a parent and showcase your independent achievements. After all, negotiating with a cranky toddler is a masterclass in conflict resolution, which is easily applied in the workplace. Let’s look at a few resume tips to help moms like you that are returning to work achieve their career dreams.

1. Review the Market

After a few years, a lot can change in your industry. You may have kept up with a few friends from work while you were at home, but that doesn’t mean that you have your hand on the pulse of your business. Every industry evolves with new advancements and technologies, and it’s important to know what is new in your field.

Before you start revamping your resume, take some time to review your market and find out what is new. Do some research into the latest industry news to get you up to date. You can check current job postings in your market and determine what kind of qualifications new employers are looking for. You don’t want to end up attending your first staff meeting and realizing that you don’t know what is going on.

2. Include a Cover Letter

Most modern companies don’t require a cover letter to be attached to a resume, but it is still an excellent introductory tool. Let your resume speak for your skills and experience, and use your cover letter to focus on your soft skills, goals, and achievements. Your cover letter is the space where you can highlight the achievements during your time away from your careers, like your volunteering, education upgrades, and certifications.

Your cover letter should be simple and straightforward. This is the place in your CV where you can fill the gaps that your resume may leave for potential employers. You don’t need to get too personal or reveal all the details of your life story; however, your cover letter should act as more of a personalized introduction for recruiters.

3. Skill-Based Format

With thousands of online resume templates available, it can be challenging to pick the style that will work the best for you. As a mom returning to work, you want to highlight your skills and take the focus off your time out of the industry. It’s best to avoid a chronologically styled resume template as they will make your career break more obvious. 

A modern resume that allows you to focus on your hard and soft skills, accomplishment, and goals will work better and get more attention from recruiters. Employers are less interested in your employment gaps than what your specific skill set can bring to their company.

4. Mirror Job Description

The great thing about using a resume template is that it can be repeatedly edited. Once you have your basic outline, you can customize each version to match the needs of individual employers. After you review a job posting,  rework your resume to mirror the pain points that the employers are looking to solve. This will give employers a clearer picture of what you have to offer and how hiring you could be the solution to their problems.

Take your time studying current job listings to get a feel for what current employers are looking for. There may be a difference in industry language or a new emphasis on education that wasn’t present in the past. Mirroring your resume to adapt to current job descriptions is an effective resume strategy. 

Heading back to work after spending a few cherished years as a mom can be terrifying and exhilarating. Don’t be intimidated by your absence from the workplace. Show your confidence by creating a resume that highlights your skills, achievements, and experience and gets the attention of recruiters. 

Most women have them at some point in their lives. They keep the world going ‘round’. They’re born every 3 seconds. They poo a lot, scream a lot, and deprive you of sleep, and then the next minute, they’re smiling like a Cheshire cat. That’s babies for you. Here are a few interesting and surprising facts about babies. And be warned, they have more to teach us than you first thought. These facts will hopefully have you looking at your bundle of joy in a new light.

Fun Facts About Babies

If you’re a recent mom, you probably know all there is to know (and more!) about bottle feeding, breastfeeding, and diaper changing. But here are a few baby things you might not know. For instance, the most children one woman has ever had in a lifetime is – get this – 69. Mrs. Vassilyev, a Russian woman, gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets between 1725 and 1765!

1. Heavy baby heads

Approximately one quarter of your little bambino’s weight is made up of their head.

2. Eating fish = mega baby brains

The best snack you can give your baby is, in fact, fish. Eating more fish during your pregnancy improves brain function in babies. We all know eating fish is supposed to boost our brain power. What’s more, eating fish will provide them with better communication skills. It’s all about the fish, baby!

3. Men have more diaper changing know-how than women

That’s right. Men, not women, are best at changing a baby’s diaper. A recent survey revealed men take just over 1 minute while women can take over 2 minutes. What’s that about?!

4. May babies are heavier

Research has shown children born in the month of May are more than 200 grams weightier at birth than children born in any other month. Surely given all the holiday eating, one would think that January sees the heaviest babies.

5. Babies are smaller than a grain of rice

That is to say when they’re in the womb at four weeks old!

6. Smiling is your baby’s favourite exercise

Babies are born to smile. We know this because blind babies also smile, so it’s not just copying.

7. Bony babies

Scientific facts about babies that you might now know about! When born, babies have 300 bones, but by adulthood, they only have 206. This is because some bones fuse together. Ugh!

8. No Kneecaps

At birth, your little one is kneecapless! Well, technically speaking, they have a structure of cartilage that looks a lot like kneecaps. They don’t develop them until after six months.

9. A turned head = a full belly

Your bambino didn’t just see something exciting. If they turn their head at a spoonful of food, it’s because they’re full.

10. As strong as an ox

This is one interesting facts about babies! Pound for pound, your little papoose is stronger than loads of animals, an oxen being the best example of matching strength. Your little super baby has mega-strong legs.

11. Babies come first

Even when they’re in the womb, your baby is numero uno, dinnertime included. Using the umbilical, they take the nutrients they need and leave mum the rest. That’s why it’s so crucial for a woman to eat healthily during pregnancy.

12. Uber – advanced hearing

Your baby is born with ultra sophisticated hearing and can work out where a sound is coming from just 10 minutes after being born.

From the very moment she or he is born, your little cherub is capable of so much. These are just a few ways a baby demonstrates his or her brilliance. So, remember (and treasure!) these 12 amazing facts about your baby, beautiful and brainy miracle of life.