How would I arrange a funeral and burial out of state?

Agfoley, I didn't have any idea, either, when both my parents told me they wanted to be buried out in the mid-west where my Dad had grown up. My first thought was how am I going to do that??? What a relief when I called the local funeral home and they walked me through the steps that they would take.

I had no idea so thank you, freqflyer snd pamsregma for your insight. Yes she does have a plot in Arizona.

Oh, I forgot about the cost of a headstone. For my parents it was $4k.

Pick out a local funeral home in Texas and that funeral home can make the arrangements with a funeral home in Arizona. Hopefully your Mom had already bought a plot. If not, is there family in Arizona who can recommend a cemetery and a funeral home?

I recently went through this twice with my parents. The funeral homes were wonderful as everything went smoothy. The cost will be more because the local funeral home will need to fly the casket [in a safety crate so no one knows it contains a casket] on a commercial airliner in cargo.

Then the Arizona funeral home will make arrangements to pick up the casket at the airport and drive the casket back to the funeral home. Then church services can be done or grave side services. Then there will be a cost from that funeral home.

For my parents [both in their 90's], each one had a viewing and then a Mass at the local church. Once at the other funeral home, another viewing, then grave side services. The cost was $15k for each parent. Thank goodness they had already bought their plots years ago.

Well, the purpose of the wake is to comfort the grieving, so if your friends and family are in Texas, do it there. If she has a plot in Arizona, your local funeral home will network with the cemetery in AZ to interr the ashes. You can ship the coffin to AZ, but that is ten times more expensive.