Situated in a highly visible and accessible location on Munson Avenue at the front of the East Bay Plaza, Life Story Funeral Home will offer a different take on marking the end of a life.
Scheduled to open later this month or in early February, owner Vaughn Seavolt had been hearing from consumers over his 20-year funeral home management career a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approach. Determined to focus on the deceased person's life, not the death, his facility will offer less funeral and more celebration.
"We're actually going to be telling the story of the person who's died, from birth all the way through their entire life when they died,” said Seavolt. "We're not focused on death and grieving, we're focusing on life and memories.”
Like traditional funeral homes, Seavolt said that Life Story will still care for the dead. Families can choose to have the remains present, as in traditional services, or have more of a memorial feel to the service.
His focus either way will be on the family and friends left behind.
"We're here to take care of the living and help them move on — to help them take those steps to get back on to their life,” Seavolt summarized. "When you come into the funeral home, you will actually go away knowing that person's life story.”
The emphasis on celebration extends to Life Story's décor, which frowns on the heavy, muted or dark colors and textures that comprise traditional looks and atmosphere. Instead, the interior of the renovated restaurant will have tile floors, high tech projection systems and cheerful colors. The space may be used for one large service or dividers can create two more intimate rooms.
"The funeral business is evolving daily and everybody's trying to be part of the grief business but for me, personally, I just wanted to do something different than be in a large funeral home group,” said Seavolt.
At the cutting edge, Life Story also taps high technology and the Internet to capture a person's life. An interactive web site will allow visitors to both read and post photos, notes, poetry and stories.
Citing research showing client distaste for the process, Life Story eschews a casket showroom in favor of technology. A computer set up on site allows clients to select a price range and then from among a handful of complete funeral packages within that range, casket included.
"This allows me to focus on helping people with their grief,” noted Seavolt of bypassing these sales duties.
The model of Life Story was developed during the 1990s and rolled out four and a half years ago by two downstate veterans of the industry. Seventeen independent funeral homes in Michigan now offer the Life Story concept, which Seavolt first learned of three years ago from attending a funeral anchored in that paradigm.
"I felt there was something more out there, I personally had some very tragic losses in my family: three nephews in three years,” said Seavolt of his quest for a better approach to funerals.
A Charlotte native who has a psychology degree from Olivet College and a degree in mortuary science from Wayne State University, Seavolt "fell into” the industry his senior year at Olivet. Oddly enough, a series of high school career aptitude tests had previously matched his personality and interests with that direction.
"There's a passion to this, a ministry, being able to be a part of helping people during their losses,” he added. "It's very, very rewarding. It's hard to explain what you get from helping people, it's a really great thing.”
For more information on the Life Story Funeral Home in Traverse City, call 941-9034 or see the web site www.lifestorynet.com.