Services

Providing a tribute to a life lived through meaningful funeral arrangements allow families and friends to begin to heal after the death of someone they love. Honoring a person and the importance of their relationship through an appropriate service is a powerful and healing rite of passage. Funeral services allow us an opportunity to contemplate the meaning of life and death, and provides a social support system for friends and family members.

The loss of a loved one is a major life change and the way in which we approach these life transitions is often based on a family's traditions and will provide a starting point for establishing some new norms.

A set time for family and friends to visit, share memories and show support.

Offering includes:

  • Professional services of funeral director and staff
  • Dressing and placement in the container
  • Use of facility equipment and staff
  • Transfer of deceased
  • Use of hearse
  • Cremation casket / container
  • Personalized memorial urn
  • Remembrance jewelery pendant

A personalized life commemoration with both a set visitation time and planned ceremonial event.

Offering includes:

  • Professional services of funeral director and staff
  • Embalming
  • Cosmetics, dressing and placement
  • One full day viewing
  • Use of facility equipment and staff
  • Transfer of deceased
  • Use of hearse
  • Use of service vehicle
  • Register book and prayer cards
  • Cremation casket / container
  • Personalized memorial urn
  • Remembrance jewelery pendant

An opportunity for family and friends to come together in a planned tribute to a loved one.

Offering includes:

  • Professional services of funeral director and staff
  • Embalming
  • Cosmetics, dressing and placement
  • One full day viewing
  • Use of facility equipment and staff
  • Transfer of deceased
  • Use of hearse
  • Register book and prayer cards
  • Cremation casket / container
  • Personalized memorial urn
  • Remembrance jewelery pendant

No Visitation, No Farewell

Offering includes:

  • Local (within 15 miles) transfer of remains to the funeral home
  • Basic services of funeral director and staff
  • Local transportation to the crematory
  • Return of cremated remains to funeral home
  • Cremation casket / container
  • Basic memorial urn

Committal Service

A committal service is often a final rite of burial or entombment. This most often takes place following a funeral service at which time family and friends gather and commit the final remains of a loved one. This is a place that allows family to return to in remembrance of that person and it also helps to put to rest in our minds what has become of this person who was a part of our life in a place of significance and honor. We do this because there is value in the human body in that this was the body with whom we had a relationship – the body of a parent, spouse, sibling, relative, friend or neighbor. For most of us, we are a people who believe that relationships and the obligations and bonds that come with them continue beyond death.

Visitation

Viewing and spending time in the proper venue with the loved one's final remains allows family and friends an opportunity to see this special person one last time and truly begin to acknowledge the reality of death. Receiving friends through a visitation activates the family's support system and allows people the opportunity to express their concern and love for each other.

Calling hours allow for a gathering in a venue that gives family and friends a place and time to tell stories, to cry, to laugh, to support one another within the framework of putting the death of a loved one into perspective. Today a family has many ways to create a personalized visitation with a number of options with many dimensions depending on the situation. Our Funeral Directors will explore all of these choices to determine which of these is best for your particular needs.

Funeral Ceremony

Every funeral service in unique and there are many ways to honor a life lived in an effort to make the transition for those who will journey on in this life now without a deceased loved one. Although there are many ways, some are more effective than others.

Part of our role at Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home is to guide you through these options. Whether it is in writing a personalized obituary, creating a personalized program for the ceremony, providing insight into the preparation of a eulogy, helping with different photo display methods, or arranging other party’s participation, such as church, clergy, musicians, military honors, fraternal organizations tribute for members, or simply helping with hosting and accommodating the public in a dignified way, our experienced Funeral Directors and staff will be attentive to every detail.

In whatever way a person is memorialized, talking about them with others will help reconcile the loss.