O'Leary Funeral & Cremation Services

O'Leary Funeral & Cremation Services Certain services may be broadcast via Facebook Live on our page at the family's request.

Full service Funeral Home and Flower Shop within our Celebration of Life Center; offering traditional burial and cremation funeral services, pre-arrangements, monuments and markers, professional grief counseling and a Community Event Center. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we ask everyone who enters into our Celebration of Life Center to please wear a face mask and maintain social distancing between households. Specific details about these services will be announced on the individual obituary page on our website, www.olearyfunerals.com. If you have any questions, please contact us at (515) 981-0700.

02/24/2022

Share memories & support the family

02/24/2022

Share memories & support the family

We’re all dying, not one of us can escape it. Not one. Let’s talk about it…I learned a lot losing my parents. I learned ...
02/11/2022

We’re all dying, not one of us can escape it. Not one. Let’s talk about it…

I learned a lot losing my parents. I learned more about the documents below than I ever wanted to know.

Several friends and family have asked what I’ve done for myself after going through the process of burying both parents, having to empty their home. Well, the documents below are just a start. They’re also not near as expensive to have completed as one would think.

Important things I’ve learned and would encourage all of my friends to do ASAP:

- Make sure all bank accounts have direct beneficiaries. The beneficiary need only go to the bank with your death certificate and an ID of their own.

- TOD = Transfer On Death deed if you own a home. Completing this document and filing it with your county saves your heirs THOUSANDS. This document allows you to transfer ownership of your home to your designee. All they need to do is take their ID and your death certificate to the county building and the deed is signed over. Doing this will avoid the home having to go through probate.

- Living Will: Allows one to put in writing exactly what you want done in the event you cannot speak for yourself when it comes to healthcare decisions

- Durable Power of Attorney: Allows one to designate a person to make legal decisions if one is no longer competent to do so.

- Power of Attorney for Healthcare: This document allows one to designate someone to make healthcare decisions for their person.

- Last Will and Testament: Designates to whom personal belongings will go to.

- Funeral Planning Declaration: Allows one to say exactly one’s wishes as far as disposition of the body and the services.

- If the above documents are done, at least in MI and IN, you can AVOID probate. If all the above is not done, you have to open an estate account at the bank. All money that doesn’t have direct beneficiaries goes into this account. You have to have an attorney to open the estate account. The attorney also has to publicize your passing in the paper etc., to allow anyone to make a claim on your property. - It’s a complete PAIN.

- Make a list of all banks and account numbers, all investment institutions with account numbers, lists of credit cards, utility accounts, etc. Leave clear instructions as to how and when these things are paid. Make sure heirs know where life insurance policies are located.

- Make 100% sure SOMEONE knows your Apple ID, bank ID account logins and passwords!!!! (Mom had a little binder with all of this! )

- Make sure you have titles for all vehicles, campers, etc!

- MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!! - Talk with those closest to you and make all your wishes KNOWN. Talk to those whom you’ve designated, as well as those close to you whom you did not designate. Do this to explain why your decisions were made and to avoid any lingering questions or hurt feelings.

Hope this helps! Hope this lights a spark to encourage all my friends and family to take care of these things to make it easier for those we’ll leave behind!

*** I am NOT an attorney. The above is all simply lessons that I’ve learned on my own. Of course only you can make decisions for yourself! My hope is that the above list at least helps you start an important conversation with your loved ones and an attorney that can help you complete all the necessary steps. ***

Isn't this a great way to think of our loved ones? Most likely, they weren't rich and famous. (Most of the world probabl...
02/07/2022

Isn't this a great way to think of our loved ones? Most likely, they weren't rich and famous. (Most of the world probably didn't even know we suffered a loss.) We know how they touched and shaped our lives, and that's all that truly matters.

02/01/2022

Share memories & support the family

In honor of the Lunar New Year tomorrow and the year of the tiger, I would like to share this quote about courage and st...
01/31/2022

In honor of the Lunar New Year tomorrow and the year of the tiger, I would like to share this quote about courage and strength as that is what the tiger represents. Here is to a fresh new beginning where we can try our best to be OUR BEST!

01/31/2022

Share memories & support the family

01/31/2022

Share memories & support the family

01/26/2022

Share memories & support the family

01/19/2022

Share memories & support the family

On this Thursday night, I'm contemplating this wonderful quote. While it may seem like a very simple statement, too ofte...
01/07/2022

On this Thursday night, I'm contemplating this wonderful quote. While it may seem like a very simple statement, too often I feel as though we punish ourselves for what we didn't know or do in the past. Take seeing this post as a reminder to be kind to your past and current self. If you feel any dissatisfaction towards anything you've done in the past, just know you did the best you could at the time! Also be comforted in the fact that now that you know better, you can do better!

Christmas Without You - Author UnknownAlthough it's sad to reminisce on Christmases we knew, this year I shall celebrate...
12/25/2021

Christmas Without You - Author Unknown

Although it's sad to reminisce on Christmases we knew, this year I shall celebrate in memory of you.

I'll put aside my sorrow with every unshed tear. And concentrate on all the joy we shared when you were here.

Our time together taught me what Christmas time is for. And that's what I'll remember, until we meet once more.

🎄🎄🎄

Holidays after a loss are often some of the hardest days. Keep their spirit alive in your heart and have a joyous Holiday season. From the O'Leary Funeral & Cremation family to yours, may your Holiday be filled with light, laughter and love.

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1020 Main Street
Norwalk, IA
50211

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(515) 981-0700

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O’Leary’s Celebration of Life Center honoring our 5th full-year in Norwalk

Eric O’Leary is honored to call Norwalk his home and where he is the “proud father” to his 3 year old son, Conor. Eric lives and works in Norwalk. As a resident he likes working in his yard and is always willing to lend a helping-hand to a fellow neighbor. As a for work Eric has chosen Norwalk to continue a life long dream of owning and operating his very own funeral, cremation and flower business.

Since the young age of 11, Eric had the calling to be a funeral director. He knew most of his great-grandparents, great- aunts and uncles, and all of his grandparents. While growing up there was a span of a few years that he was always going somewhere in Iowa to attend a relatives funeral. Unknow to him at the time this would be Eric’s calling in life. He started working in one of the local funeral homes in Newton while attending college. He attended Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling, IL learning invaluable knowledge and skills. Following his college graduation in September 1996 he returned to Newton completing his internship and completing his funeral director license requirements. Eric continued to work in his home town of Newton; worked in Winterset for a couple of years; and moved to Southfield, Michigan in 2002 where he would eventually move up in a company where he gained management skills; continuing to serve the families and develop life-long friendships some of which are yet his closet friends today.

Eric is dedicated to his chosen profession by always available days, nights, weekends, and holidays to always ready to anwer the phone for a family needing his services, to help coordinate services, or to just be available for someone who at that moment needs a friend.

Eric is a selfless person; often times placing the families he’s had the honor to serve before his own needs and family. Eric has missed several holiday meals and events such as music concerts, sport games, church activities, amd scheduled holiday trips that ALL had to be cancelled at the very last minute. The families that have come to know Eric as someone that cares for their loved one [that died] like a member of his own family; and they will never realize all the sacrafices he makes or the long hours he works. What the O’Leary families do know and come to expect is that regardless of the day of the week or the time of the day; Eric is there for them;helping today, helping tomorrow, and always there to provide emotional comfort, guidance and support for each and everyone of them.