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By : SHOBA MANO
Source : the star online
With everything taken care of, family members can focus on grieving for the passing of one of their own.
The flowers are fresh. The parlour is packed
with family and friends singing the late Philomena Dass' favourite
hymns. Her son, Johnson had just put the finishing touches
to his eulogy for his beloved mother.
In the background, NV Multi Corporation Berhad (NVM) is running the entire funeral, leaving Johnson and his family free to grieve undisturbed.
NV Multi Corporation Berhad (NVM) handles
everything, from making the dreaded phone calls to relatives
and friends and obtaining the death certificate, to making
burial arrangements and sending out thank you?notes to those
who attended the funeral.
The only public-listed bereavement care company in South-East Asia, NVM operates the Nirvana Memorial Center in Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, which sits on an impressive 118,600 sq ft of land and boasts five-star facilities.
Divided into 11 parlours, the memorial centre incorporates an exhibition hall where caskets, urns and clothing for the dead are showcased.
Within the hall is a VIP room where families can watch home videos while waiting for the formalities to be completed.
"We encourage the viewing of such videos
as we believe it is better to celebrate the life of the deceased,
rather than to mourn his death. Oftentimes, death is seen
as something morbid and frightening," said Au Kok Huei,
general manager of corporate communications.
"Funeral parlours don't help by being gloomy and macabre," he pointed out.
To counter this "taboo'' attitude towards death,
the centre sports a contemporary design and includes a reception
counter, cafe convenience store, and Internet service, all
of which operate 24/7.
"We even have a record book for visitors
to leave condolence messages and will create a website for
kith and kin to track the funeral service. These serve as
permanent records to keep together with the photo album, also
prepared by NVM," said Au.
There are seven parlours on the first floor and four VIP parlours on the second floor. Each VIP parlour comes with an adjacent room and attached bathroom for families to rest, shower and change. The parlours are designed with themes such as Balinese, Christian, Japanese, Buddhist, Zen and Garden.
Food is served in the Golden Lounge.
Nirvana's special White Lady service ensures that only women deal with female corpses. These corpses are showered, made-up, have their hair styled and dressed for the occasion. The dress may be purchased from the showroom where it is elaborately displayed on mannequins.
The showroom also displays caskets and urns for purchase. The choice of vendors are immense; there are 47, with the caskets ranging from those costing RM388,000 (used for the likes of Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung) to RM1,500 ones for the average man on the street.
"We embalm all corpses for aesthetic and hygienic reasons. The living will come into contact with the dead body, even kissing and touching it, and so it is healthier to embalm.
An embalmed body also preserves for between five and seven days, and will not give off a foul odour which is common in those stricken with cancer or other serious diseases.
"We engage professionals to perform the embalming service. Many people turn to non-professionals, in which case the body may turn purple or even have dents in it," said Au.
He said funeral service packages range from RM21,800 to RM33,000, and includes arranging the death and burial certificates, embalming and dressing the body, casket, hearse, altar, photographs, flowers, and directional signs on roads, use of the parlour and all of its facilities, and burial.
It also includes the use of an air-conditioned bus during the funeral procession, and nitty-gritty details such as the provision of drinking water, peanuts and sweets, photography, mailing of "thank you" cards.
A funeral director and emcee are also assigned to each family. They will handle the entire funeral service round-the-clock for the three-day/two-night duration.
Even when death occurs abroad, we attend to everything from filing the necessary documents, to fetching the body from the airport at any time of the day or night,?said NVM service consultant Saravanan Arumugam.
He said as part of offering a personal touch, NVM tries to accommodate out-of-the-ordinary requests.
A Christian family asked us to provide someone to play the piano, which was quite easy to do. But another family insisted we provide two police outriders to escort the hearse. We managed to do that too,?he said.
Au visited Hong Kong's public funeral parlours
in 2006, when the Government invited tenders from companies
to give them a facelift.
Hong Kong has a total of seven public funeral
parlours. The bathing areas are not as private or hygienic
as ours, and oftentimes you see bloodstains on the floor.
The corpses of ladies are handled by the
old men who run them, because that is traditionally how they
operate.
After cremation, the ashes are put in urns
and transferred to boxes. We advised them that the urns needed
to be properly segregated, catalogued and tucked away safely
into compartments,?said Au.
NVM now has a three-year contract with the Hong Kong Government to improve the image and efficiency of one of these parlours.
Government officials from Taiwan and Vietnam
have also visited NVMC centre and memorial parks in Malaysia
to learn how funeral services and cemeteries are professionally
managed.
Even though NVM offers five-star service, Au said prices remained very affordable. He said a funeral could cost about the same even if the family ordered the tents, casket, food, flowers and other services separately.
our centre even has a private back door?where
the bodies enter and exit. All those involved in its transport
are dressed in black suits out of respect for the dead, reverence
for peoples culture and sensitivities, and to make the whole
process comfortable and peaceful for the dead and living.
Most homes and churches are not equipped
to hold funeral services, but the centre is designed specifically
for that,?said Au.
> To learn more about the Nirvana Memorial Center or to consult them, please call its toll free line at 1-800-88-1818.
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