Valencia Trader

Dealing with a death in Spain

Dealing with a Death in Spain

When tomorrow starts without me ..............

Although it is not a nice subject to broach, unfortunately it is a reality.  It is painful enough losing a relative or someone close when you are in your native country, but when you are living abroad, it is all the more difficult. 

I recently lost my mother who died of cancer here in Spain.  I thought that writing this article may be of help to someone who may experience the same situation.  Formalities are not the same as in England and it can be very daunting to find information and what to do in these circumstances.

If your relative dies in hospital, I believe a lot of the formalities are dealt with directly by the hospital, ie certificates and transfer of body.  However, if your relative dies at your residence or at a private home, you will need to make your own arrangements. 

My mother was quite ill in the last two month's before she died.  She had cancer which had spread to her bones and is incurrable.  This obviously entailed visits to the local GP and hospital.  It is essential to get a SIP card organised (OAP's are entitled to free healthcare in Spain).  Near the end, although there was nothing they could do for her, I wanted her to be pain free but not kept in hospital as she didn't speak Spanish and it was too much of an alien environment for her.  I choose to have her treated in the small (English) care home where I could also be with her. 

I have to say that the hospital in Gandia where excellent and sent out nurses daily to provide palliative care, which I hadn't realised was available.  They provided a telephone helpline and daily visits to change dressings and morphine.  The nurses were extremely compassionate and professional.

Before my mother died I was advised that I needed to make arrangements with with the tanitoria.  The tanitoria is where the person is taken to rest before burial or cremation.  Cremation in Spain normally takes place about 24 hours after death.

I needed to supply my mother's passport which the funeral director sent away to the British Consulate.  As next of kin he also required my original NIE paper and details.

My mother was cremated at Javea Crematorium which also provides a tanatoria service and collection of the body.  They also arranged for collection of death certificates from the hospital (which had been completed by a doctor who had visited just after my mother's death).  

I was given two types of death certificate, one international and one Spanish.  I also needed a certificate for the transportation of my mother's ashes so that I could take them back to England.  Strangely enough, neither type of death certificate listed cause of death.  This may have been because my mother was receiving treatment under the hospital and was terminally ill.

If you wish to take ashes on a flight you must check the airline's policy and have a certificate for the ashes.  It is best to print the policy from the website as no one seemed to know what to do when I declared the ashes for transportation!

Obviously different situations will vary as to the correct procedures.  However, I hope that this may be of help to someone.

Also some useful information can be found the the Age Concern Espana website :-

http://www.acespana.org/acespana/info_571.htm