Service, in the older sense of the word.
We do four things, and we do them the way they have been done at this chapel since 1848. The names have changed; the procession has not. A funeral is the structure that holds a grief. A memorial is the structure that holds a memory. A cremation is a different way of saying goodbye. And a pre-planning conversation is the gift you give to the people who will one day have to make all of these choices on your behalf.
What follows is an overview of each. Each links to its own page, where the full text of the service is laid out — what it includes, how it is arranged, what it costs, how to begin.
Traditional Funeral
The traditional service is the structured grief: visitation, prayer, eulogy, procession, committal. The structure is the medicine. We arrange the chapel, the music, the ministry, the cemetery, the limousine, the program, the flowers, and the meal that follows. The family arrives. The family is held. The family is sent home.
Veterans honors, parish-coordinated services, and live-streaming for distant family members are all included at no additional charge.
Read more about traditional services →Cremation Services
For families who choose cremation, we offer the same care, the same chapel, the same program of remembrance — only the disposition changes. Our crematory has operated on the premises since 1974. You will know who handled the cremation, where it took place, and when. The certificate comes from our hand to yours.
Witness cremation is available by appointment for families who wish to be present.
Read more about cremation →Memorial Services
Sometimes the service does not come in the days after the death. The memorial — held weeks or months later, sometimes at a cemetery, a garden, a home, a chapel of the family's choosing — gives the grief a different shape. We attend the planning, the program, the readings, the music, and the gathering with the same care we would bring to a funeral the day after.
Read more about memorial services →Pre-Planning
Choosing the readings, the music, the casket, the burial plot, the disposition of the estate — choosing while you can — is a gift to the people who will one day be left to choose for you. We sit with families at the kitchen table or in the parlor of the chapel, and we walk through what the day might look like. There is no obligation. There is no cost. There is, however, a great deal of relief.
Begin a pre-planning conversation →We brought my mother to Hartwell because my grandmother was buried from Hartwell, and her mother before her. There is a way that some places hold a grief the way a chapel holds a song.
The Donnelly Family · April 2026