When the loss of a loved one occurs, it is truly important to have a ceremony of remembrance to allow people time to join together in grief, talk about the life and best times and happy memories of the one you have lost, and simply be together.
Over the years, churches have been the site of funeral services, with visitations held at the funeral home. However, our lives have changed so much in the past 30 years that no longer is there any usual means or place to celebrate the life and legacy of those we love.
Since opening our new Funeral Center, Callaway-Jones has become a preferred site for hosting both visitation and funeral services together for those without a church. Our lobby and Bluebonnet Community Room are often filled with photographs, mementos, and items of special importance to the family. Guests who come to pay respects can see sides of your family member that they might not have known about from working together on a job, or living out of state. It’s a way to show all that was important to the individual’s life in one easy to reach location that has great parking.
Often, we receive family members who have recently relocated in the Brazos Valley to rejoin their children here, after three or four decades living out of state. When they arrive, they may attend the church where their children belong, but they have left behind the clergy and members of their own home, those who truly knew them. Naturally their children want to celebrate their life and receive their friends and family as visitors. That’s when our excellent Bluebonnet Room serves as the perfect site for a funeral service.
Our Certified Life Celebrant can work with our funeral directors and your family to create exactly the kind of service your loved one would appreciate, from a traditional religious service to a unique period of music, memories, and dove releases, balloon releases, and more. We regularly host services with full military honors for your loved ones here and at the cemetery.
At Callaway-Jones, you have a choice. Watch this brief video to see more about your choices:
If you’ve grown up in a particular faith all of your life, and had the chance to attend worship services weekly, you very likely want to hear the rituals of service that have been connected to funerals you’ve attended there. This is both understandable and very welcoming to hear. However, now more than before, the rituals of funeral services are so familiar in what is said, heard, and done, that it’s possible to miss out on sharing with your friends and family the parts of your loved one’s life that made them unique.
Perhaps they loved riding their motorcycle on carefree weekend trips, while holding a very responsible position in suit and tie during the week. It’s not likely that a favorite song like “Born to Be Wild” would be played by the church pianist or organist. In our funeral center we have a vast music library where our Life Celebrant can craft, working directly with you, or in conjunction with your regular minister, on songs that mark special moments in your loved one’s time on Earth. We also have a full electronic keyboard if a family member, friend, or accompanist wants to offer gifts of song for you, either before, during, or after the service during a meal.
Rather than traveling together to find a table in a reserved room of a local restaurant, our convenient room design has sections that can be closed or opened to have your guests enjoy a light meal together, even with COVID-times seating very convenient to arrange and set up for. Plus you don’t have to worry about bringing covered dishes and clean up afterwards.
Our Life Celebrant, Dawn Lee Wakefield, is a licensed minister (outside of standard seminary training) who has worshiped for many years in different denominations, wherever she lived, among Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Methodist churches. She also spent years in Baptist Bible studies, so the ceremony itself can include as much ritual from a longtime faith that you prefer, or she can work with a minister you might want to invite from your loved one’s hometown to design a service that satisfies all family members as to “how religious” you want it to be. It’s your call to make.
When our Celebrant officiates your Life Celebration, she will create a custom service of music, memories shared by family members (in person or in message), talk about the best days of your loved one’s life as she tells their story in her unique and personal way, and to bring laughter and quiet smiles of happy times to balance the natural sorrow that happens when you lose loved ones. That’s what a Storyteller does. Then, she is versed in a variety of genres of music from the 1940s through present-day beats and can suggest many songs that would help in telling the story of your loved one’s life.
That’s what happens inside our funeral center. Outside, in the porte cochère, we regularly include dove releases, butterfly releases, and balloon releases as final goodbyes in our Life Celebrations. We also arrange for these to occur at graveside services. There is such a sense of tribute that one feels as you join together in setting a group of balloons on their journey together. It’s such a simple action but it is so important and positive among our tributes.
Another benefit to having a Life Celebrant at a graveside service, particularly during the days of the pandemic, is if you’d like to have other people speaking, in addition to your Officiant, whether Minister or Life Celebrant, and if you want to incorporate music, special displays of a loved one’s life present for all to see, or other unique elements that go beyond traditional chair setup with viewing of the casket (open or closed) or the urn present with a photograph nearby.
The sometimes routine services that most of us have come to know have become more known in addition to cherished services performed by longtime family ministers. Where we see people without a church home, or those who have not belonged to one in some time, you can always incorporate as much faith as you wish into any service we host, no matter where the services take place.
We’ve had people come visit our Funeral Center and see that we have beautiful crosses for Christian services, as well as various other standard things that you find comfort within a church sanctuary to see.
Where the family knows that the deceased would want no faith elements as part of the service, including scripture, in a funeral, you would not want to use a church building as the funeral setting. Again, our Funeral Center comes again to the forefront of usefulness. Religion is a very personal matter and we respect individuals’ choices that bring the most comfort and healing when a loved one has passed. We also are experienced in Jewish faith rituals and others not listed here.
With over 100 years as a local family-owned business, we are proud of all of the families we are able to serve. As always we appreciate your putting your faith and trust in us. We are here for you, however and wherever you need us to be.
Cody D. Jones ‘02
Owner & Community Member
