Funerals are an important step in the grieving process, as well as an opportunity to honor a life lived. They offer surviving family members and friends a caring, supportive environment in which to share thoughts and feelings about the death. Often funerals are the first step in the healing process.

The advantage of choosing a traditional funeral is that it follows a familiar pattern so families will know what to expect. A traditional funeral can make it easier for families and friends, because there's an established etiquette for the different stages of the ceremonies involved.

• Calling hours or visitation
  
• A formal service in a funeral home or church
  
• Procession with a hearse to escort your loved one to a cemetery
  
• Earth burial or entombment of the casketed remains in a mausoleum

Some of the costs associated with a traditional funeral will include:

• Personal services of the funeral director
  
• Embalming, dressing, cosmetology and hair arrangement
  
• Use of funeral home for visitations and the funeral service
  
• Hearse and other funeral vehicles
  
• Casket, vault and other goods and services

We take great care to offer services to those in our community who are seeking more personal ways to express grief and say goodbye to a loved one. We do not seek only to ‘dress up’ the traditional funeral services, but listen closely to our families, and create truly unique, completely personal services for your loved one.

Some popular ways in which our client families have personalized funerals include:

• Display arts, crafts, or other personal artifacts that were cherished by the deceased.
• Lead the funeral procession past some of the deceased's favorite spots.
• Hold the funeral in a favorite spot of the deceased, especially if he or she was not a churchgoer.
• Playing favorite songs during the Calling hours or service.
• Releasing balloons, at the interment, as a celebration of the life and ethereal spirit of the deceased.
• Presentation of a personalized photo display, digital or video memorial.
• Family and friends are invited to write letters containing their unspoken thoughts, which are then placed in the casket with the deceased.
• Online guest books. All comments left by Web site visitors are noted to the funeral register for the family.
• Live music played at services.

Direct burial includes local transfer of the deceased to the funeral home, required authorizations, services of funeral director and staff, transportation of the deceased by livery to local area cemetery. Our prices do not include cemetery charges.

If your loved one dies far from <>, we will help you return their body to you. And, should you wish a loved one returned to their birthplace, or to another location for interment or entombment, we can make all the arrangements for you. Call us to discuss your needs.

Every family is unique. We listen not only with our ears, but with our hearts and will consider all your financial and emotional constraints in designing a funeral or memorial service that suits your needs. No matter what your budget or your vision for your loved one’s service, we’re here to help.

Deeply Honoring Those Who Served

Our Life Tributes program offers a customized and animated video and a dedicated website honoring your loved one’s life. Each part of the Life Tributes program uses photos of your loved one combined with one of our various themes to create a memorial DVD that is yours to keep. This can be shown at the viewing or at a funeral service and can be viewed online.

Families have a choice of several Register Books that provide a place for visitors to sign in at services. The books are personalized for each individual with a memory page and a page for a family record. Funeral service and burial place information are also recorded in the Register Book.

We create folders to distribute to friends and family at services or to include in thank you notes. These folders contain a verse chosen by the family along with information about the loved one. A photo of the loved one may be included in the folders.

Prayer Cards are personalized with birth and death information about your loved one. A verse, chosen by the family, is printed on the cards. These are handed out at services and many families choose to have extra cards printed to give to those who may not have been able to attend services.

Thank you notes or acknowledgement cards are personalized for our families. There is a large choice of designs for the note cards and the cards contain a message that is chosen by the family. We are able to make these note cards available to the family long after the service is over.

Various Keepsake Urns and jewelry are available for families who wish to memorialize portions of cremated remains.

Arrangements can be made to have local musicians perform during services at church, funeral home and cemetery. Most familiar songs can be requested.

Cremation refers to the way in which you choose to handle the physical remains of you or your loved one. Whether you choose burial, or cremation, you can still have a traditional funeral, or a simple memorial service, with or without the cremated remains.

Our state-of-the-art, on-site cremation facility means that you and your family are assured that your loved one will be properly cared for by our expert staff in a timely way without ever having to leave our care.

You can also select direct cremation, which includes local transfer of the deceased to funeral home, required authorizations, services of a funeral director and staff, transportation of the deceased by delivery to local crematory, an alternative container for cremation and the return of the cremains to the funeral home.

If you want to arrange a direct cremation, you can use an alternative container. Alternative containers encase the body and can be made of materials like fiberboard or composition materials.

Many people come to us believing that cremation means that you can’t have a funeral or memorial service. This is simply not true; we can assist you in arranging for a traditional funeral or memorial service, performed either before, or after, the scheduled cremation. Should you and your family wish to have a traditional funeral for your loved one; our staff can make all the arrangements, including:

• Calling hours or visitation
• A formal service in a funeral home or church

Where a traditional funeral follows a patterned order of activities, including prayers, eulogies, songs, and in some cases, processionals; a memorial service is less structured by religious or social constraints. Our staff can help you to plan the perfect memorial service for your loved one, including:

• Non-traditional locations
• Tribute videos
• Memory Boards
• Keepsakes
• Displays of medals, awards, or other memorabilia
• Personalized music selection

As with all of the services we offer, our expert staff will help your family design a truly memorable memorial service that reflects the life of your loved one.

Additionally, we will work with your family to plan a suitable service that suits your budget. After all, we believe that you shouldn't have to pay a fortune to celebrate the treasured life of your loved one.

To learn more about the wide variety of memorial service options we offer, give us a call or stop by one of our locations. One of our caring staff members will guide you through the array of memorial services we offer and help you plan a truly distinctive service for your loved one.

Often, the family elects to take their loved one directly to the crematory, without a funeral or memorial service. It is our intention that you or your loved one receives the services you desire – no more, and no less. Should direct cremation be your choice, our staff will provide you with a suitable cremation container, and assist you in taking your loved one to the crematory. Should you desire an informal, heart-driven ceremony at the crematory for your immediate family, we will be honored to facilitate this decision.

• Metal Caskets - whether made from bronze, copper or steel, metal caskets are known for their durability and beauty. Bronze and copper are naturally non-rusting. Stainless and carbon steel caskets come in a variety of grades, gauges, styles and finishes.
  
  
• Hardwood caskets include a variety of woods: mahogany, walnut, cherry, maple, oak, pecan, poplar, and pine. These caskets are the choice of families who appreciate and cherish the qualities of natural wood. The warmth and beauty wood ideally suits it for the construction of quality caskets.
  
  
• Cloth covered caskets are made from corrugated fiberboard, pressed wood or softwoods, which are then covered with cloth and contain finished interiors. As a result of the construction methods and materials used in their manufacturing process, cloth covered caskets are modestly priced and offer an economical choice for families.
  

A burial vault is a sturdy box designed to protect the casket inside of it. Vaults are made of concrete, plastic or metal. In many cases, cemeteries require a vault to keep the ground over grave sites from sinking, giving the ground a neat and even appearance. Our staff can help you select both a casket and a suitable vault.

When choosing cremation, many people neglect to consider the wide variety of urns available today, and simply fall back on the traditional wooden box or ceramic vessel. We offer a beautiful array of unique urns, including the newest in biodegradable urns used in scatterings at sea, or interment in green cemeteries.

We also offer hand-blown glass, companion, oriental cloisonné, and marble urns. Our professional staff can help you to select the perfect urn for you, or your loved one. Call us today at (607) 733-7566for an in-depth conversation about the possibilities – they’re as endless as your imagination.

Made from corrugated fiberboard or pressed wood, these containers are designed for transportation of the body to the crematorium, and to act as a container for the remains during the cremation process.

When a body is being shipped from one location to another, a transfer container is used to protect it during the course of the journey. We have a wide selection of excellent, light-weight options for you to choose from.

We are proud to offer our families the innovative keepsake jewelry, Thumbies, by Meadow Hill. They craft this one-of-a-kind keepsake jewelry from the unique fingerprints of the special people in our lives.

For more information, contact one of our staff members at (405) 454-2201, or visit the Meadow Hill Web site.