A chapel service brings family and friends together to honor and remember a loved one.  This may entail gathering at the funeral home or cemetery chapel.  The service may be religious or spiritual, structured or flexible, large or small.  The services may be officiated by clergy or the funeral director follows the ideas of the family making the arrangements.  The deceased is not viewed by the family or friends at the chapel since the body has not been preserved.  The body remains in its natural state. 

After the service, family and friends follow in procession to the place of burial or meet at the cemetery at a planned time.  The committal service is conducted at the graveside of the green burial ground within the cemetery.

A graveside service is held at the cemetery for the earth burial.  The committal service at the cemetery may entail readings, prayers, and thoughts of remembrance.  The graveside service allows for flexibility of expression without time restraints of the traditional funeral process.  

Olson & Parent Funeral Home feels the graveside service, whether following a funeral service or the only gathering of family and friends, can be a meaningful expression of remembrance.  Often families tell us that a gathering of ten to twenty people would be uncomfortable in a large chapel seating one hundred people.  The graveside service is not rushed and allows for more opportunity to pause and reflect on the memories of a loved one.