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Cole Funeral Chapel is a family-owned funeral home committed to caring for your family.   An independent funeral home in Chelsea, Michigan, our mission is to meet your needs whatever they may be. We provide a wide range of services, from sitting down with you to discuss future needs to grief counseling after the death of a loved one.
 
Our funeral home was founded in 1898, and was purchased by Donald Cole in 1977.  His son, Allen, bought the funeral home from his father in 1999, continuing the tradition of service to the Chelsea area.
 
We know that making funeral arrangements can be difficult, so let us help you every step of the way.  We have a professional staff equipped with many resources that can provide assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Please feel free to call anytime, or e-mail us at staff @ ColeFuneralChapel.com

 

 

 

 

 

We offer choices in cremation service, including:

  • direct cremation with no services
  • cremation followed by a memorial service or visitation time
  • a complete viewing and funeral followed by cremation

We want to help your family choose services that fit your needs. We will walk you through your options without pressuring you, and we will help you to compare the costs of different options.  Regardless of your choice, we will treat your loved one with respect, we will help you write and place obituaries, we will obtain death certificates promptly, and help you chose the final resting place for your loved one's ashes.  We will not try to sell you services or merchandise you do not need.

 

Standard Cremation Package

Cremation with Public Viewing & Funeral

Cremation Packages - Price list

 

Read more: Cremation Services

We understand how difficult it is to plan funeral services, so our staff is available to help you in any way that we can.  Please call us and we will walk you through every step of planning, and we will offer choices to  make the services just right for your family.  To help you understand the process, here are some of the steps you can choose to do ahead of time:


Funeral Planning

    ☐ Fill out basic pre-arrangement information sheet.  15-20 minutes, no charge. This provides the basic information we need to write obituaries and fill out the death certificates.  It gives us some information about the type of services you want. Click here to download the Pre-Arrangement form

    ☐ Fill out funeral service information sheet.  10-15 minutes, no charge. This provides information about the funeral / memorial service you would like: who should lead it, type of music, readings, etc.  Click here to download the Funeral Service Information Sheet

    ☐ Itemize funeral goods and services.  30-60 minutes with funeral home staff, usually at the funeral home, no charge. You choose the goods and services you want, and we will create an itemized funeral bill so you can know the anticipated costs. This is an estimate only, but lets you make many of the decisions in advance, and guides us and your family as to your wishes.

    ☐ Pre-pay your funeral invoice.  15-30 minutes with funeral home staff. After itemizing the services you want (see previous choice), you may pay for the funeral in one lump sum, or in payments, and lock in the prices for your funeral bill.  This saves your family from worrying about paying for your funeral.


Memorial Planning

    ☐ Choose your cemetery marker.  30-60 minutes, cost vary greatly. You may choose the type of stone or gravemarker you want, and lay out the exact design for your stone.  You may wish to save the information until after the death, or have the stone cut and delivered.  

    ☐ Plan a memory slideshow.  30-60 minutes, $95. Choose 30-70 photos to be put into a slideshow that can be played at the visitation and/or funeral.  You may put sticky notes on back to indicated an order to the photos if you wish, or to label slides. You may choose to narrate the photos in your voice.   

    ☐ Write a letter to your loved ones.  No cost, time will vary greatly. You may write a letter to your spouse or children to be read and re-read after your death.  It could be read publicly, or just given to those you choose after your death.  We will be happy to file it with your pre-arrangement.  Please put in sealed envelope with the name of the recipient on the outside.

A cemetery marker is not just a way to mark the grave, but it can tell the story of that person's life.  We enjoy helping you design a special cemetery marker to remember your loved ones.   We also recommend families place a stone on their graves before it is needed, so you can plan your design together.  We work hard to create quality monuments for the families we serve, and offer many choices, and easy ways to personalize the marker.  Let us make a design and give you an estimate with no obligation.

Patten Monument web site

Recent Obituaries

Bonnie J. Lausted


At the feisty age of 97, Bonnie Jean slipped away peacefully in the night, Tuesday, December 11, 2018, at Atria Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was born November 23,1921 in Kewanna , IN, the daughter of Don & Edna (Smith) Nafe. When her parents moved to Michigan to work in the Willow Run Bomber plant during WWII, Bonnie was in nursing school in Indianapolis, Indiana. When she graduated she too moved to Ypsilanti where she met Gwen Carl Morhous. She was a young nurse at the old Beyer hospital and he, the supervising architect of the new.

Bonnie was a very bright, independent woman who in some ways was way ahead of her time. She found her intellectual love as an emergency room nurse supervisor, where the excitement of a busy emergency room kept her energized and passionate about great emergency patient care. She had amusing stories to tell and if anyone ever needed emergency care, they’d want her on their team. In another lifetime, she might have become a very successful doctor. She was very proud of her nursing career having worked at one time or another at all the local hospitals. She even worked at the Chelsea hospital at it’s beginning when it was just one building with an emergency clinic.

Read more ...

Esther Kuelske

of Chelsea, Michigan, formerly of Flint, Saginaw, and Rochester Hills, age 81, died Monday, December 10, 2018 at her home in Chelsea. She was born April 9, 1937 in Flint, Michigan, the daughter of Morris C. & Rita V. (Wiggins) Cummings.

Esther graduated from Flint Technical High School in 1955. She was a member of St. John Lutheran Church in Rochester before moving to Chelsea, and was currently a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Chelsea.

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Katherine “Kitty” Randall Moore

 Kitty passed away peacefully on Friday, December 7th, 2018 with many of her family members by her side. She was preceded in death by her parents, William H. and Lena Mae Kelly as well as her three sisters: Loraine (Roy) Robine, Ruby (Fred) Andris, and Patricia (Harold) Acker. After Kitty graduated from South Eastern High School in Detroit, she applied for employment with the State of Michigan in Ypsilanti. It was there that she met her future husband, Kenneth Bernard (Bernie) Randall. It didn’t take them long to know, they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. They were married on December 20th, 1947.

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Dr. Robert Bruce “Bob” Glenn

Age 91, died peacefully after several months of loving care in the Assisted Living residence of the Silver Maples of Chelsea. Born July 9, 1927, in Kalamazoo to Winfield Church and Helen Grace (McCarty) Glenn, Robert was a 1945 graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School and the first of his family to graduate from university, having paid his own way through school as an improvisational pianist for a dance band. He graduated from Western Michigan University in 1950 with concentrations in Chemistry, German, and English studies; that same year he married co-ed and love of his life Rosemary Ann Kent. Robert spent one year as "the Worst Chemist in the World" before enrolling at the University of Michigan for graduate studies in English Language, Literature, and Linguistics. This time his tuition was paid by Rosemary's teaching salary, and he never forgot the debt he owed for her influence, good faith, and sacrifice toward his successes.

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Ihla Rosalie Donaldson

Of Chelsea, age 100, died Thursday, November 29, 2018 at Chelsea Retirement Community. She was born June 15, 1918 in Holland, Minnesota, the daughter of Horace and Myrtle (Gilfillan) Lynn.  Ihla married Paul Donaldson, a career Navy man, on Nov. 21, 1938 and they lived all over the country, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico. However, they moved from Minneapolis, MN to Cheverly, MD in 1957, and they lived there until moving to Holiday, FL in 1974. After her husband’s passing in 1986, she remained in Florida until 1997. She then moved to Saline to be closer  to two of her daughters, and lived there for 5 years, from there she moved to the Chelsea Retirement Community where she has lived until her death.  Ihla loved golf, bridge, gardening and canning. She loved spending time with her children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren. Before moving to  Chelsea, Ihla was very active in the Saline United Methodist Church attending bible studies,  working in the fair kitchen, volunteering in the office, attending one of the Ladies Circles and Adult Sunday School.

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