Online funeral services a growing trend

If you can't attend a funeral service, you might be able to pay your respects by watching online, as more services are being recorded or streamed live on the internet these days.

At Lyle Reeves Funerals in Calgary, Craig Snodgrass says all services are video-recorded for the family to take home, and many of the videos are then posted online.

Snodgrass said some families are skeptical about the idea at first.

"As soon as I bring it up to a family, they instantly kind of back off and 'Why would I ever want to watch that again?'" he said. "But you start talking about it more and it's for … people that can't attend the service."

At Heritage Funeral Services in Calgary, director Brett Wilson said they transmit services via Skype to people all over the world who aren't able to travel.

"Families that can't attend ... get to see what took place. They do feel part of the services," he said.

Two years ago at Wilson's company, they had just one request for a Skype service. Now, he said, they have one request a week.

Snodgrass said a couple of families have even asked him to place a web cam on a casket to livestream the receiving line during a wake.

"Just because you're not prime minister or somebody, doesn't mean your service can't be recorded, right?" he said.