BY STEVE BIGHAM

REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

PROSPECT — Prospect Memorial Funeral Home has opened its new, 10,000-square-foot facility, just down the road from its previous location along Waterbury Road.

CONTRIBUTED
Mike and Kimberly Palmerie of Prospect Memorial Funeral Home outside their new facility, which opened this past week at 122 Waterbury Road in Prospect, just down the road from its previous location.

The more modern, more welcoming Shaker-style building falls directly in line with the vision of owners Mike and Kimberly Palmerie, who also live in Prospect. Kim Palmerie was born and raised here.

“We wanted people to feel like we were opening our arms to the community with our look and feel,” Kim Palmerie said.

With the new, standalone structure at 122 Washington Road, the couple designed wide open spaces and a more public, yet soothing feel. The floor plan that creates optimal flow for families holding visiting hours and services for their loved ones, the Palmeries said.

“People come in now and say how they don’t feel like they’re in a funeral home, and how comfortable they feel here,” Mike Palmerie said.

Most importantly, the funeral directors said, there is a feeling of warmth and compassion.

“I want people to enter our building and feel like they’ve been hugged. I want people to come in here and feel like they are going to be cared for and they are going to be sheltered throughout the whole process,” Kim Palmierie said.

The couple, both in their early 60s, left their previous careers to attend mortuary school seven years ago.

“It’s really never heard of. Usually it’s a business that is handed down from one generation to generation to the next,” Mike Palmerie said.

Kim Palmerie was a registered nurse and had a long career of bedside experience caring for patients and their families, which, she says, is a valuable asset in the funeral business.

The new funeral home also has improved parking.

Prospect Memorial also provides offsite cremation services, using an outside vendor.

The Prospect Memorial Funeral Home can be reached at (203) 758-6008 or by email at office@prospectmemorial.com.