SAGINAW, MI — Businesses from banks to fast-food restaurants have long served patrons by offering drive-thru windows. Now a Saginaw funeral home is offering the convenience of drive-thru viewing.

Paradise Funeral Chapel, 3100 S. Washington, has installed a drive-thru window allowing people to drive up to pay their last respects.

Funeral home President Ivan E. Phillips said he's had the idea for years, but an incident last year made him turn the idea into reality.

That's when an elderly woman who was in a nursing home could not make it inside the chapel to visit her husband or attend his funeral, Phillips said.

"She would've got a chance to see him if we had this, so I knew we had to move forward," Phillips said.

Phillips said the drive-thru allows others to pay respects to the dead who might otherwise not visit the funeral home.

"Considering the elderly generation that we service, so many people are afraid of funeral homes. So why not be able to do it from your car?" he asked.

Drive-thru viewing is not a new concept. There are at least three funeral homes in other U.S. cities that offer it.

Chicago's Gatling's Chapel recently stopped offering the service after more than 20 years, according to Jeanette Williams, an operator for the chapel.

Unlike Phillips' drive-up, where the body of the deceased is displayed through a window of the building, Gatling's relied on projector screens and cameras.

"You just pull up to the screen and push the button to the chapel that has their body in it," Williams said. "It was extremely popular for the young people who would come through late at night."

But Gatling's said numerous instances of vandalism of the projector screens has led the funeral home to shut the service down.

Focus on dignity

Phillips said he spent a lot of time developing the Saginaw funeral home's drive-thru in order to respect the deceased.

It's up to each family to decide if they want to use the window as part of a funeral viewing. For those who do, the drive-up window is only used when indoor visitation is not taking place, he said.

The viewing area can not be seen from the inside of the funeral home and the window is covered by curtains until a vehicle drives up. The curtains then open to reveal the deceased in their casket as music plays overhead.

A guestbook appears from a retractable door allowing people to record their visit and there is a slot where they can leave memorial contributions.

People in the vehicle have 3 minutes to pay their respects before the curtain closes.

Drive-thru and a horse-drawn carriage

Phillips and his wife, Sharise Steele-Phillips, a licensed funeral director, employ 38 people at Paradise Funeral Homes in Saginaw and near Lansing, 3137 S. Pennsylvania.

Phillips grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, before moving to Saginaw and taking a job in 1983 as a custodian at Browne's Mortuary.

"The owner, Harry Browne, saw something in me," Phillips said, adding that he began to learn all he could about the business.

With only a high-school education and about a year at Delta College, Phillips said it's the knowledge he's gained working in the industry that drives his business.

"After 27-and-a-half years with Browne's, God gave me a vision and Paradise was born," he said.

Phillips was licensed for business in 2008. His Saginaw location has four chapels and one sanctuary and serve as the funeral home's headquarters.

In addition to the drive-thru, Paradise uses a silver, horse-drawn carriage to convey the deceased to nearby cemeteries, for those who request it.

The carriage recently led a motorcade during funeral services for 6-year-old Elijah Dillard, a Saginaw boy who died from child abuse.

On Sunday, Sept. 14, the public is invited to an open house at Paradise to see the new addition. The drive-thru service is being offered after Sunday.

"We want to give them an idea of how it works," Phillips said. "We want to service the family in a professional manner."

Bob Johnson is a public safety reporter for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-395-3295, by email at bob_johnson@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.