Our Services

In the past 100 years of experience as funeral directors we have found that it is very questionable if a one-hour visitation is actually effective or not. Through the years we have been asked by a few families each year to arrange for a funeral with visitation one hour prior to the ceremony.

Here is what we have found. Many people in our society wait until the last minute to do things - funeral visitation included. This creates long lines that can very often delay the beginning of the funeral ceremony. We try to be as  punctual as possible and these last minute people cause a delay for the family's funeral. I am not blaming them as there may be a good reason as to why they appear last minute.

Many people appear at the last 10-15 minutes before a service is to start. However, it does create a problem for those in attendance and ourselves at the funeral home. Attendees of funerals are often on a tight schedule and late funerals cause them time constraint problems. Others have been patiently waiting for the line of friends who are  visiting with the family to end in order for the ceremony to begin.

Another concern we have is for the officiating clergy, who may have other committments elsewhere and must wait to begin the ceremony. The unscheduled delay in starting can wreak havoc with appointments for everyone. Due to longer than anticipated waiting lines, we have had to delay funeral ceremonies thirty minutes or more. Everyone looks bad when this delay takes place.

Some last minute visitors are not given sufficient time to view the memory boards and sign the memory books that have been set up for them to utilize as well.

We highly recommend a full 2 hours visiting prior to the ceremony. Something that much of the public overlook is the fact that there are some people, especially those who will not leave their homes after 6 or 7 p.m. in the evening. For these individuals their home is like a "Fortress of Solitude" and they fear going out at night either in the dark of winter or in the middle of daylight savings time. Consider the more visitations you have, the more you spread around the choice for friends to come and visit even though there is a cost attached to extra visitation. The more you have visitation, the more time you are able to spend talking with family and friends. Our funeral home is a place where stories get told and hearing these stories is very comforting to our families.

You are the only one to weigh whether it is worth it or not.

George Darte - President