What to Do When Someone Dies in New York City

If someone has just died, you don’t have to know what to do. Call us any hour, day or night, at (718) 424-2000. A member of the Guida family or our staff will answer, listen, and tell you what comes next.

If someone dies at home unexpectedly

If the death was sudden and no doctor or hospice was caring for the person, call 911 first. Emergency services must respond, and the medical examiner may need to be involved before a funeral home can bring your loved one into its care. Once they’ve finished, call us.

If someone dies at home under hospice care

Call the hospice nurse or the person’s doctor first. They will confirm the death. Then call us, and we’ll come to your home at any hour.

If someone dies in a hospital or nursing home

The staff will ask which funeral home you’d like to use. Give them our name and number, or call us yourself, and we’ll arrange to bring your loved one into our care.

What we take care of after your call

• Bringing your loved one into our care
• Filing the death certificate and getting the burial or cremation permit
• Ordering certified copies of the death certificate for you
• Explaining your choices for the service, burial or cremation, at your own pace

Things you can do in the first few days

1. Let close family and friends know.
2. Look for any written wishes, a cemetery deed, or pre-planning papers.
3. If the person served in the military, find their discharge papers.
4. Gather the person’s full name, date and place of birth, and parents’ names. We’ll need them for the death certificate.
5. Decide who will make the arrangements with us. You don’t have to decide everything at once.

Questions families ask

Please call us at (718) 424-2000, any hour, day or night – we are here to answer your questions.

Learn more our Traditional Funeral Services and Cremation Services.