One-stop funeral home in Antipolo

There is always a special reason why people go into the funeral parlor business.

It’s really not an easy option for some. Mention the prospect of going into the business of the dead to entrepreneurs and chances are, they’d rather choose a restaurant or real estate business than foray into the “death car e industry.”

Engineer Myra Pineda Torres thinks otherwise. Personally, she has sentimental and special reasons why she built The Haven of Angels Memorial Chapels and Crematorium (HAMCC) in Antipolo City a year ago.

As a young woman, she remembered taking care of all the needs of her relatives who lost their loved ones. It was thus natural for Torres to open a typical funeral home but she wanted something special.

The HAMCC is a one- stop funeral home. This is something that Torres has envisioned, to be a one-shop shop that has everything you could possibly want when you’re dead or what the family wants in giving their last respects to their dead. From the relaxing chapels to the crematorium to the caskets to the urn, HAMCC has it.

The Haven is not built like a typical, spooky funeral home where you’d feel out of sorts or intimidated the moment you step in.

First of all, it is perched atop a hill in Antipolo where you have a breath-taking view of the whole Metro Manila.

“It has a high- ceiling and grand lobby, six elegant WI-FI-ready chapels that welcome clients from any religion, a mini-playground for young ones, a receiving and family room, big and modern embalming room and the pollutant-free Portacoelli oven that completes the cremation process in one hour. We really want a place na hindi morbid,” Torres said, who runs the chapel with her daughter Opalyn, a licensed mortician.

Aside from the traditional wake, Torres said they also get a lot of requests for cremation.

Torres said they have a Korea-made Portacoelli oven that uses German technology, which they bought for more or less P5 million. She said cremation costs range from P10,000 to P40,000.

Their caskets are imported from the US and China. Some are sourced from a Pampanga-based coffin maker.