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Rod Abrams Funeral Home celebrating 50 years of serving the community

August 31, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Staying in business for 20 years is a real achievement.

Remaining in business for 30 years is a stellar accomplishment.

Rod Abrams Funeral Home in Tottenham is celebrating 50 years, and it has all been under the same ownership.

Rod Abrams founded the company in 1973 when he purchased the Anderson Funeral Home on Mill Street and changed the name. He had previously worked at a Toronto Funeral Home for several years in Toronto.

The building was small and had limited parking, so in 1987, construction was started on a new building on Tottenham Road on the south end of town. It became the first building you would see when driving into town from Highway 9 and opened in 1988.

Rod’s son Scott joined the business after graduating from school and became a Licensed Funeral Director in 1998.

Working in a funeral home is a demanding job – especially in a small town where you are the only funeral home in town.

“Dad’s been on-call for 50 years, 24 / 7,” Scott explained. “He’s on the phones every night.”

Since people die any time during the day, it is a 24-hour business, and people call them at all hours of the night for their services.

Over the years, they have seen the funeral industry change quite a bit. The times of two or three days of visitation followed by another day for a service are pretty much gone and replaced by one day for visitation followed by a service, or all on one day. Other people prefer to have a memorial service at a later day.

More people are now opting for cremation over burial, which has also changed the way things are done.

“Our main focus is trying to give families exceptional experience above and beyond what they would consider normal,” Scott explained. “We enjoy helping people when they need it most. We know we can do things to make it easier for them. By us making things easier, they can focus on their own grief. We can take care of things like the service details, the arrangements, and all those things so they can focus on being together as a family and going through the grieving process without having to worry about all those other things.”

The funeral home expanded just over three years ago to include a 3000-square-foot reception centre to add another dimension to their business.

Running a business for half a century is quite an accomplishment, and Rod Abrams Funeral Home continues to serve the region at a time when people need the most help.

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