ROME TOWNSHIP — For the 12th year Hall Funeral Home will reach out to families who must face the holidays without their loved ones.

The annual Memorial Service is held in memory of those who died during the past year.

“Our mother, Clorinda, came up with the idea,” Evan Hall said. “She’s kind of been organizing it for the last 12 years.”

This year the main speaker will be Dr. Gary Patton, oncology counselor at St. Mary’s Medical Center. He will speak on grief and the healing process and how to cope during the holidays.

Pastor Brady Lipscomb of Eastwood Baptist Church in Barboursville, W.Va., will conduct the service and offer the prayers.

“We send a personal invitation to everyone who has lost a loved one,” Hall said. “Some people have come every year and every year it has seemed to grow in numbers. Every year we get blown away by the number of people who come.”

During the service the name of each loved will be read and a family member is invited to come forward to place an ornament on the Tree of Life in memory.

“People bring an ornament that symbolizes their loved ones,” Hall said.

After the hour-long service there will be a reception at the funeral home.

“Families we have talked to say they were apprehensive about coming, but when they leave they feel uplifted,” Hall said.

The service begins at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hall Funeral Home, 625 County Road 775, Proctorville.