Tell the Stories That Matter as Part of Funeral Home and Cremations in West Boylston, MA

Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Home is a concerned funeral home and cremation services provider in West Boylston, MA. Losing a loved one is an emotional and difficult process for families. Since 1870 we have been helping the community. We specialize in creating customized funerals that reflect your family member or friend’s wishes so you can honor them with dignity during this difficult time of loss. When you contact our welcoming staff and come into our beautiful location, there will be someone waiting to walk you through all the steps involved as well as answer any questions about our funeral process. Call us today for your funeral home and cremation needs at (508) 835-6500 or visit us at 1 W Boylston St, West Boylston, MA.

If you are facing the planning of a loved ones’ funeral home and cremations in West Boylston, MA, you have more options than you might guess. The professional staff at Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Home has a wonderful system to support the creation of meaningful Life Celebrations. Working with experienced and competent experts will make the process of designing custom services beautiful and straightforward.

While typical funerary services offer opportunities to share stories and grief, a Life Celebration focuses on the stories that you feel matter most. As you make use of personal mementos and photos, each part of the service is tied together with detailed and nuanced touches that make them truly remarkable. This effort to remember the whole life, not just the end of life, can be wonderfully supportive to the bereaved.

A Gamut of Services for Funeral Home and Cremations in West Boylston, MA

As you might guess, standard funeral services are fully supported by Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Home. The Life Celebration portion of services can be beautifully interwoven into a traditional funeral or memorial services. This celebration could also be held after the deceased has been laid to rest. A full spectrum of events can be planned with a funeral. This can include a public viewing if the closest family members desire it.

Because funerals are held with the remains of the deceased present at the service, most often, funerals are put on within a few days or weeks of the death date. Embalming is not usually required by law but may be necessary if a public viewing will be held. The funeral director will have all of this information available to help you understand your options. It can be good to know that both a funeral home and cremations in West Boylston, MA, can be held for the same person.

Memorial services may be an excellent alternative if more time is needed to plan the services or gather the family for the event. Memorials are generally held after burial or cremation has already taken place. If cremation was chosen, it is appropriate for the ashes to be displayed at the memorial service.

Services for cremation can be held without any services attached (such as with a simple or direct cremation). Very often cremation is held in conjunction with some type of funerary or memorial service, though. The process of transforming a deceased, intact body into a small collection of fine ashes makes the final placement of the remains more flexible. Ashes might be scattered in a cremation garden or a much-loved place in nature. They can also be buried in a traditional cemetery or displayed in a funeral urn at home.

When it comes to those who are seeking green burials, the solutions are growing around the country. There are certified burial grounds that aim to leave a very light footprint when it comes to final disposition. Like traditional cemeteries, in most green burial grounds, there are precise rules that must be followed for burial to be allowed there.

For instance, natural burial cemeteries often will not allow the disposition of embalmed bodies. Bodies must be buried in biodegradable shrouds or caskets. In some cases, the graves are marked with stones and foliage that is native to the area. Traditional grave markers may not be supported at some of these sites.

If a green burial site is not a suitable place for your loved one, consider that many traditional cemeteries can do things to support more natural burial. It is essential to ask questions early in the process to understand what is and what is not allowed at your chosen site.

Even more important than where burial takes place is that you do, in fact, find a place for permanent memorialization. Grief experts around the world agree that having a place to go to remember and feel close to your departed loved one is a powerful coping tool after loss. This can be an enormous support on special dates or just when you long to feel close to your departed loved one.

In some situations, holding a public funerary-style service doesn’t make sense. In that case, a graveside burial can be a very appropriate solution. Graveside burial services tend to be less formal and quite intimate. The experts at Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Homes have all of the skills and understanding of how to help you plan this goodbye ceremony in a way that feels right to you.

If the time has come to make arrangements for funeral home and cremations in West Boylston, MA, don’t hesitate to contact the qualified experts at Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Homes. With compassion and experience, they will guide you to design a beautiful goodbye.

How long may a body be kept before being cremated?

There is absolutely no federal law that dictates how long a body must be held before burial or cremation, but most states say the timeframe cannot be shortened to less than 24 hours after death. The public health can determine if exceptions will occur in cases of infectious diseases and other hazardous epidemics.

Can you watch cremation?

Family members have the option of watching as a loved one is cremated if they choose. The family can watch their loved ones through a viewing window, or from inside an adjacent room with glass windows on all sides.

What should a funeral service include?

Traditional funerals often include elements such as prayers/eulogies/readings with music in the background to accompany them; afterwards they will transport your loved one's body from where it was viewed by all those who came out for support on their way to being buried.