Gately Funeral Home

At Gately Funeral Home, we encourage families to create very personalized services. It is important to acknowledge that life that has been lived and to offer to the community a way in which to celebrate that life. By offering services and memorializing features that are personal and special a unique life can be remembered and honored in an individualized way that is comforting to the family and friends. Since 1889, Gately Funeral Home has been dedicated to providing the people of Melrose and the surrounding area funeral services unsurpassed in caring and quality. When death comes many families are not prepared emotionally to handle all the details of the funeral service. Please call upon the funeral directors of Gately Funeral Home to provide comfort and practicality during this trying time. A funeral represents a purposeful opportunity to reflect on the meaning of a life that has been lived and to determine the impact of that meaning for the family and friends. It is a time for human sharing in its deepest sense. You and the ones you love are at the very center of the process and the choices you make will determine its significance for you. As you participate in the planning of the funeral service, you help create a meaningful experience for everyone. It is the goal of Gately Funeral Home to help people complete the relationship with the one who has died and to provide a climate that encourages each person to give and receive emotional support. During the funeral service, family and friends have the opportunity to relate to each other at the deepest levels and find mutual strength. Traditionally, the funeral will be a Complete Funeral Service. This includes a family or public viewing of the deceased. Following this will be a service typically in the church or at the funeral home. This would be followed by the earth or above ground burial of the casketed remains. Caskets selected may cost from several hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on the material the casket is constructed of. Many cemeteries require that a minimum grave liner be used to encase the casket when earth buried. These minimum liners are constructed of concrete and are designed to hold the weight of the earth maintaining the cemetery property. A sealed vault may also be used. The vaults are also constructed of concrete and are designed to not only protect the grave site but are manufactured with inner liners that not only restrict the entrance of grave side elements (water and earth) but increase the strength of the vault. The Graveside Service can be another selection. This many times would follow a time of visitation at the funeral home. The casketed remains would then be transferred to the cemetery where a grave side ceremony could take place followed by the burial. The Complete Cremation Service is another type of selected offering. This service will be just like a Complete Funeral Service except cremation will follow instead of the casketed burial. This can be accommodated by the use of a cremation casket (casket that is designed to be cremated) or even a rental casket may be used. Following the viewing, service or ceremony and eventual cremation the cremated remains can be buried properly scattered or returned to the family for safe keeping. Urns are used to hold the cremated remains. Urns can be constructed out of basic materials like cardboard or plastic or constructed out of more protective materials like basic and semi-precious metals, ceramics and woods.