Drive-Thru Funeral Home Offers Mourners Convenience

Funeral home offers roadside viewing for disabled, fearful or busy

Funeral Home Offers Drive-Thru Service


A Michigan funeral parlor opened a drive-thru window for viewings Wednesday hoping to offer the bereaved a more convenient mourning experience.

The drive-thru is being offered at no additional cost to families by Paradise Funeral Chapel in Saginaw, Michigan. The drive-thru works like this: once the funeral home has closed, mourners drive up and drop a memorial in a box outside the building or sign a registry book. The casket is cloaked behind a curtain which opens when a sensor in the drive-thru detects an approaching car. The curtain opens for three minutes to allow mourners to pay their respects.

The service could allow disabled, fearful or just plain busy mourners a chance to say their final farewells. Ivan Phillips, owner of Paradise Funeral Chapel, told WNEM TV 5 that the drive-thru service has been criticized as being undignified.

"We've been getting a lot of negative feedback because most people don't know how it works," Phillips told WNEM.

Another drawback; the drive-thru is activated when anyone, not just friends and relatives, comes up to the funeral home.


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