Nalley-Pickel & Welch says demand rising

Honoring a loved one’s wish for cremation just got easier.
Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home recently began offering cremation at its Midland funeral home, which the Big Spring-based family-owned business opened two years ago, Midland general manager Tom Jordan said Monday.
No Permian Basin-based funeral home has an on-site crematorium, Jordan said.
Jordan said steadily increasing demand for cremation in Texas and nationwide, plus a change in long-standing state law, prompted the family-owned business to offer the service.
"A law passed in September 2003 allows crematories to be on site at funeral homes. Prior to that, the law read that they must be at a cemetery," Jordan said.
Before last week, the closest crematorium was Trinity Memorial Crematory in Big Spring. Any area funeral home could use the facility but usually didn’t because of the additional cost, Kasi Welch-Baker, Nalley-Pickle’s office manager in Midland, said.
For instance, three funeral homes in Odessa — Hubbard-Kelly, Frank W. Wilson Funeral Directors and Odessa Funeral Homes — use crematoriums owned by their parent corporation, Alderwoods of Cincinnati, Ohio, Hubbard-Kelly general manager Ronny Albritton said. Those crematories are located in San Angelo and Abilene, Albritton said.
Jordan said when Nalley-Pickle decided to build a funeral home in Midland the plans included a crematorium, a "first for the Permian Basin," he said.
The design of the crematory includes a viewing window from which family members may observe the process from an adjoining room, he said. Cremains are available in about four hours.
Nalley-Pickle can accept cremations from any funeral home, Welch-Baker said.
A family that doesn’t want the body of a loved one taken to another city for cremation may request Nalley-Pickle’s services, Jordan said.
"Certainly they have to use a funeral home (for cremation), but they can request their loved ones be brought to Midland instead of so far out of town," Jordan said.
Albritton said he didn’t think having a crematorium in Midland would adversely affect business. "Families choose the funeral home based on who has served their family in the past normally and who they are confident will be able to take care of their services in the future."