Matthews Funeral Home

and Cremation Service
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We are a full service Funeral Home that can provide any service that your family wishes. It is important to make the service of your loved one a remembrance and one special to you. The funeral service is for those left behind to aid in their grief process and to give them an opportunity to share with friends and relatives their memories. We can help you with the planning and the personalization of this service.


 

The Celebration of a Life Lived


In this section, I would like to give you some ideas for making the service, no matter what kind of service you select, a celebration of the life that you are commemorating. The funeral service is the first and most important starting place for some people. The service should be a tribute and a comfort to those attending.

Types of Celebration and Tribute

 

Memory Board ...  a collage of family photographs that are placed on a display board and available for viewing at the visitation, the funeral service or both.

 

Video Tribute ... an assortment of pictures put in a video format set to the family's favorite music to be played at the funeral or memorial service. We have found that around 50 pictures make about a 5 minute video which is ample in length.

 

Options for personalization ... Some families have opted to place other items on the casket instead of flowers such as quilts, saddles, boots, crafts, pictures or hobbies of the deceased. One family had the funeral home pass out sticks of gum to all those attending because that is what the deceased did every Sunday at church services for all the children.

 

Having a member of the family or a close friend speak is very comforting for the family and friends. Balloons being released at the graveside service lends a personal touch. Anything that reflects the life celebrated is appropriate and helpful to those dealing with their grief and makes the service personal and a tribute. We feel it's important to celebrate and remember the life of the loved one.

 

Other Services We Offer

 

In addition to conducting funeral service choices in our chapel, or church or facility of your choice, we offer the following:


Military Honors & Arrangements
Out of State/Country Arrangements
Pre-arrangement
Flowers
Balloon Releases

 

Please check our Grief Groups page for additional services

 

Locally Owned and Operated is the Right Choice




 

 

Traditional Funeral


A traditional funeral generally depicts a service where the deceased is embalmed, dressed and placed in the casket the family selects and placed in a visitation room for a period of usually two days where family and friends may come and view the body and pay their respects and sign a memorial book. The funeral service itself takes place either in the funeral home chapel or in a church or other location of the family's choosing, followed by burial in a cemetery. This is still the most selected choice of funeral options today.

 

This gives the family and friends the most opportunity to view the deceased and share their grief and memories of the loved one. It also allows for a great deal of personalization. For example, interests of the deceased such as hobbies can be displayed in the visitation room for those visiting. The family may select a time period in which they would also be at the viewing to greet friends. The funeral service itself may include a video of photos of the deceased accompanied by their favorite music. When it comes to personalization you can let your creativity blossom.

 

Also, some families have selected to have a private graveside service and from that point go to a church or funeral home chapel and have a memorial service for the family and friends. Basically, they do the Traditional service in reverse. This allows for more time to visit with friends after the service.

Graveside Service

 

Some families will choose to have a service at the grave site. This is selected for a variety of reasons such as, the deceased has been ill for a long period of time, has resided in a nursing home or is very aged and has not very many friends left to attend a service.

 

 This still allows for viewing of the body and for some type of personalization but the service is much simpler and brief.


Cremation

 

Below you will find some of the options for cremation. First let's discuss what cremation is and why some people choose cremation.

 

Cremation is the process of reducing the body to very tiny fragments of bone (not ashes as you probably thought) through intense heat and pulverization of the remaining bone that are left after the cremation process. The cremains are placed in a temporary container for the family to choose the final disposition. Some families will bury the cremains and others will scatter them in a place that is important to them or the deceased.

 

Many people will look at cremation as an alternative to ground burial. They will still have a traditional funeral and instead of going to a cemetery the body is cremated. Some people feel it is ecologically better to cremate than bury a casket. Reasons for cremation vary widely, and cremation is your choice. Please explore all the options available to you and your family.



 

 

 

Traditional Services with Cremation

Many people do not understand that this option is available to them. What it involves is a Traditional service including viewing of the deceased and a service with the body present at the funeral either in the funeral home, chapel, church or location the family selects. After the service, the family usually greet the friends who came to the service, and the deceased is taken to the crematory for the cremation.

 

With this option the family and friends have given themselves the benefit of the viewing and a traditional service with whatever degree of personalization and also have accommodated the deceased's wish to be cremated.

 

To clear up some myths about the cremation service...

 

You do not have to purchase a casket - many funeral homes have caskets that are used for this purpose. The interior of the casket is completely removable and usually it is a very nice looking wood casket. The funeral home will have, for lack of better terminology, a rental fee for this casket. There would be no outside container to be purchased, unless the ashes are to be buried in a cemetery that required such.

 

Before continuing, I would like to emphasize again the importance of some type of service to allow the family and friends to gather to share memories and their grief. You will find us emphasizing this because we believe in it very strongly -- not just because we are a funeral home. We see the importance of family and friends getting together and drawing strength and comfort from each other. 

Viewing, Cremation, Memorial Service

Here is an option that still allows for the viewing of the deceased, and allows family and friends to pay their respects and to face the death. The difference is that instead of the body being present at the service the cremation takes place after the viewing. The ashes can be present at the memorial service or not.    

Direct Cremation

If this option is selected, the family signs the cremation paperwork and the body is cremated without any viewing or service.

 

You can do a memorial service with or without the ashes present if you wish and we would encourage that you do so.