Are you thinking about pre-planning your funeral? Pre-planning is the best way to choose how you're remembered, to ease the emotional and financial burden on your loved ones, to protect yourself from rising funeral costs, and to let your family know your final wishes.
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Ordering flowers from our site ensures that your order will reach us or the family in a timely manner, and your gesture of support will remain acknowledged in the Book of Memories™ for future generations. We only work with local florists so we can maintain the sense of urgency and quality of your selections. We thank you for helping to support the family during their time of need, and will fondly remember your kind gesture.
We respect the sensitivity and dignity that comes with ordering tribute gifts from the funeral home. It is for this reason that we have attempted to design our online Sympathy Store with the utmost respect to the family and the deceased. We hope you find this service helpful during your time of need and would welcome any comments or suggestions you might have to help us serve our communities better.
We are very excited about being able to serve families and offer a room for catered receptions following funeral, graveside and memorial services. "We realize that being the areas preference is a hard thing to earn, only because people by nature are skittish to try something new. That is why we invite you to stop by and see us and to see how comfortable our facility is."
We are available 24/7 to help comfort and care for your families, and to answer any questions about the choices you have regarding funeral or cremation services.
For Nathan and
Colleen Harrison, love blossomed in a funeral home. They met the day after
Colleen returned to Grays Harbor to work at Whiteside Funeral Home, where
Nathan had been working. “It’s
a great feeling when you meet someone and you love someone and you know you’re
going to spend the rest of your life with them,” Nathan said. It
was a love-at-first-sight moment, but it took him a few months to ask her out
(he’s shy and a few years older than her). They married in late 2003 and in
2008 opened their own funeral home: Harrison Family Mortuary. It’s
been a longtime dream of Colleen’s to run her own funeral home. Ever since the
funerals of her grandparents were handled in Montesano with such loving care
when she was in college to be a nurse, Colleen felt, “I could do this and help
people,” she said. She
attended mortuary school at Mesa Community College in Arizona, where she lived
at the time, and a few years later found her way back to the Harbor and her
future husband. For
the Harrisons, the funeral business is about love, family and service. “That’s
just who we are,” Nathan said. They’ve both been caregivers in their personal
lives as well, taking care of their parents, by turn, at home during their
final years. Colleen’s
great-grandparents settled in Aberdeen in the late 1800s. Her grandparents
retired to a Montesano area farm in 1960, where they lived until their deaths
in the 1980s. Colleen, who grew up in Vancouver, Wash., spent every summer with
them on the farm. Nathan’s
parents moved to Hoquiam after World War II. His dad died in a 1960s logging
accident and his mom raised him and his brothers single-handedly. He
worked at a camp for disabled children right out of school, but went to other
careers before finding his way back to a career of service 13 years ago. “The
feeling of helping people always brought warmth,” he said. “We’re both
caregivers.” When
a family loses a loved one, it is a difficult time. The Harrisons do their best
to help families navigate through the paperwork and emotional challenges that
accompany death. Each
family has different needs, and different budgets. A funeral director can help
survivors — and individuals who choose to pre-plan their own funeral — choose
the funeral that fits. “Our
goal is to make it easier,” Nathan said. “When a family member gives you a hug
afterward, it’s a great feeling. It’s wonderful.” Colleen
is a licensed funeral director and licensed embalmer; Nathan is a funeral
director intern and handles most of the funeral planning discussions at the
funeral home. They always do house calls together. When
a family member is grieving a loved one while trying to plan a funeral, it can
be difficult. That’s why the Harrisons say they try to craft a tasteful funeral
that fits both the personality of the deceased and the family’s budget. But
caring for Harbor families goes beyond the funeral. The Harrisons enjoy
visiting with families in the community — at the grocery store, post office or
when people stop by to visit. Many times, the relationship developed during the
funeral process continues beyond the time of need. “We
really do care about them and each person we serve,” Colleen said. “We treat
them like family and friends.” They
did the majority of the remodeling work on their funeral home themselves and
worked hard to make it a bright, modern and homelike place. They
even brought the pews from the former Trinity Lutheran Church in Aberdeen,
where they were married, into the chapel. Recently,
they became the only funeral home in Grays Harbor County to be a member of
Veterans & Family Memorial Care, a national organization specializing in
veteran funeral care that admits only qualified members. As
part of their veteran services, the Harrisons help families navigate the
federal red tape to find burial-related benefits for veterans. They also
participate in several veteran-related activities each year. For
example, May is Military Appreciation Month and the Harrisons will collect
unwanted cell phones to donate to soldiers. The phones are recycled and each
donated phone pays for an hour of free talk time for soldiers stationed
overseas. There
also is a Memorial Day balloon release, another Cell Phones for Soldiers Drive
in June and July, Patriot Day observation Sept. 11, a Wreaths Across America
event in October and November, Sweaters for soldiers in November and Christmas
Stockings for Soldiers in November. “Somebody
needs to help our soldiers, our veterans,” Colleen said. “They need to know
they’re appreciated and loved and somebody appreciates the sacrifices they’ve
made for us.” Both
their families have connections to the military. Colleen’s grandfather and
father were in the Coast Guard, her other grandfather was in the Marines and
Army during World War II, her brothers served during Vietnam in the Navy, a
nephew is going to retire from the Navy and her son is in the National Guard
and Reserve Officer Training Corps; Nathan’s father was a Navy Pearl Harbor
survivor and his cousin was a Vietnam helicopter pilot. Those
personal connections helped cement their awareness of the importance of
honoring loved ones in a way that helps survivors deal with their grief.
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