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.

Website Information

Today, most important information is accessed via the internet and funeral services are no different at www.LSVPMemorialHome.com. We have provided not only essential information that people request, such as funeral home address and direction information, but also an obituary page for each funeral service. This enables your family a secure place that will allow everyone to view the obituary information for their loved one, whose life we are honoring. Included are the service schedules and locations, as well as family members surviving the individual, and any special request, such as memorial donation information.

Additionally the obituary pages of our website provide a number of ways to communicate with families and to share memories with others. A private message can be sent to the family through a condolence card or a memory could be posted on the bottom of a person’s obituary page for all who visit to view. Photos and stories interwoven tell a story and can be shared by creating a memorial page for someone. Here is a separate place to create more extensive memories through photos and text with more options for the appearance which then can be viewed by everyone.

All postings to an obituary page are first sent to a family member for review. The family members name receiving these messages is provided on the page for that individual. Each family is given access to a private webpage for review and approval of all submitted information. After reviewing these postings the families can control the release of these messages to be added to the publicly viewable page

Online Obituaries

Obituary and death notices are public notices of the death of someone traditionally published in a newspaper. Newspapers have evolved into full obituaries in recent times, although some are still free, such as our weekly newspapers, The Advertiser and The Dispatch. Although most are now paid obituaries, some newspapers do offer a limited death notice at no cost.

Each notice is unique, although they often follow a format which readers have become accustomed to. We at Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home will work with you to gather all the essential information, as well as discuss the different dimensions of biographical and personal information, such as a family statement. We will make every effort to create an obituary that is appropriate and unique for each person.

At the Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home, we can facilitate placement of newspaper notices in almost any newspaper in the country. Each newspaper has its’ own policy about the cost, usually on a per line basis. Some still run free obituaries, but a newspaper notice can range from a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars, or even a thousand dollars in certain papers, depending on the newspaper. We can provide information and guidance regarding the individual newspaper charges and will help to give options about the different ways that we can handle these costs.

Because a notice in the newspaper is a public statement of the loss of a loved one, it can often become a cherished remembrance for a family. There are many important considerations about what is best for each family and it is our goal to advise you as to the ways a dignified, yet personal statement, can be composed.

A photograph can be included with an obituary in the newspaper or a symbol may be selected, such as an American flag. Consideration must be made that this may add more linage, adding to the cost.

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.

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.