{"id":825,"date":"2018-05-14T03:11:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T03:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/?p=825"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:38:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:38:57","slug":"funerals-a-unique-family-business-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2018\/05\/14\/funerals-a-unique-family-business-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Funerals as Business: A Noble family business case"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>A lot of people get into funeral service for different reasons. Some, it\u2019s because they\u2019ve had a loss in their family and they see it as something they want to do. I think initially people get into it to help others, they just have that nature of wanting to help someone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For Jeff Thackeray, co-owner of Memento Funeral Chapel in Bonnyville, Cold Lake, and St. Paul, it was the satisfaction of knowing that a job well done meant helping a family during a difficult time in their lives. The Thackeray\u2019s have been working in the funeral service industry for over 50 years, and in April, they were recognized by the Alberta Funeral Association for 50, 40, and 25 years of service.<\/p>\n<p>It started with Jeff\u2019s father Don, who at the age of 18 worked at a funeral home in Saskatchewan. Over the course of 50 years, he continued his career in the industry in one way or another. In 1975, Don and his wife Elda purchased their first funeral home in Bonnyville. Before their son Jeff had decided on whether or not to get into the family business, Don and Elda took a short break. Don explained, \u201cTwenty-eight years ago I took a sabbatical and worked for another funeral home in British Columbia to see if I wanted to continue, because Jeff wasn\u2019t involved at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t long before Jeff and his wife Teresa felt the same pull to help others as Jeff\u2019s parents once did. In 2009, the couple purchased the family business, expanding into St. Paul in 2016. Even though Don and Elda no longer own the funeral chapel, they remain steadily involved in its daily operations.<\/p>\n<p>Growing up, Jeff remembers his father often leaving during hockey games, birthday parties, or other family functions in order to respond to a tragedy. At the time, Jeff admits he didn\u2019t realize the impact his father\u2019s work was having.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw all of the bad stuff like my parents leaving in the middle of the night or my birthday party because someone passed away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This was why he hadn\u2019t shown much interest in the family business, until he grew up and saw the real reason his parents just couldn\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was young, I saw the bad parts of the business, later on I learned to see all of the good parts,\u201d expressed Jeff.<\/p>\n<p>The family is first to admit the funeral business \u201cisn\u2019t for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don said, \u201cIt\u2019s like every occupation, there are good days and there are bad days. You hope that you can be in a good mood all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Maceachern, Meagan., May 8, 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bonnyvillenouvelle.ca\/article\/unique-family-business-20180508\">https:\/\/www.bonnyvillenouvelle.ca\/article\/unique-family-business-20180508<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of people get into funeral service for different reasons. Some, it\u2019s because they\u2019ve had a loss in their family and they see it as something they want to do. I think initially people get into it to help others, they just have that nature of wanting to help someone. For Jeff Thackeray, co-owner [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Funerals as Business: A Noble family business case - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2018\/05\/14\/funerals-a-unique-family-business-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Funerals as Business: A Noble family business case - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A lot of people get into funeral service for different reasons. 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