:: Stephanie J Mason ::

Over the years Funeral Directors' premises have gained the reputation for being dark, shadowy, scary places to be avoided if at all possible; places that children run past and older folk cross the road to avoid. Funeral Directors themselves have been seen as very strange people indeed.

Well let me tell you a little about this particular Funeral Director. Firstly I’m a mum (of five children), an ordinary woman now the wrong side of fifty! My first home was in Castle Bromwich and later my family moved to Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield. So there’s not much out of the ordinary there is there? I trained and worked originally for Ian Hazel Funerals in Four Oaks and decided five years ago to work for myself. I opened my office in Ownall Road, Shard End in 2001. Since then we have been able to help many local (and not so local) families at a very difficult time in their lives. Last year I signed the lease on our new office on Bradford Road, next door to the HSBC bank, and a new phase in our lives began. This year I am delighted to announce the opening of further premises on the corner of Kingsbury Road and Cottage Lane, Minworth.

We would like to take the opportunity to open our doors to anyone who would like to look around and maybe ask a question or two. Our ‘open door’ policy epitomises what Joanna (my eldest daughter) Gillian (my sister) and I are trying to achieve. We strive to make funeral directing accessible, not veiled in mystery. We are well aware that, when someone comes to us to arrange a funeral they are enduring one of the most traumatic times of their lives. They may be upset or angry and find it almost impossible to talk. We are there to listen, to take away the burden of the practical arrangements of the funeral and, hopefully, allay their fears. We know it is a privilege to be invited into peoples' lives at such a difficult time and to be trusted to make such important arrangements is an awesome responsibility that we never underestimate or forget.

Thirty-two years ago a young nineteen-year old girl watched as the Funeral Cortege made its way slowly towards her house on the Chester Road. It stopped outside. The fear and grief she felt mixed together into the strangest emotions, the like of which she had never felt before. She knew it was irrational to be scared of the coffin but it didn’t make any difference, she was terrified. Eventually the funeral service and burial took place and slowly things settled down again. The funeral was for her Great Grandmother, a tiny old lady of nearly one hundred years of age with the personality and strength of character of a giant. The scared nineteen year old? Well, it was me Stephanie!

If anyone had told me that thirty two years later I’d be the proprietor of Stephanie J Mason Independent Funeral Directors, I would never have believed them! So when someone tells me they’re scared of Coffins or Chapels of Rest I really do understand how real that fear is.

So if you should find yourself facing the need for a Funeral Director, please remember we are an ordinary mum, daughter and sister, here to help, and please don’t be frightened like that young nineteen year old all those years ago.


	Over the years Funeral Directors' premises have gained the reputation for being dark, shadowy, scary places to be avoided if at all possible; places that children run past and older folk cross the road to avoid. Funeral Directors themselves have been seen as very strange people indeed. Well let me tell you a little about this particular Funeral Director. Firstly I’m a mum (of five children), an ordinary woman now the wrong side of fifty! My first home was in Castle Bromwich and later my family moved to Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield. So there’s not much out of the ordinary there is there? I trained and worked originally for Ian Hazel Funerals in Four Oaks and decided five years ago to work for myself. I opened my office in Ownall Road, Shard End in 2001. Since then we have been able to help many local (and not so local) families at a very difficult time in their lives. Last year I signed the lease on our new office on Bradford Road, next door to the HSBC bank, and a new phase in our lives began. This year I am delighted to announce the opening of further premises on the corner of Kingsbury Road and Cottage Lane, Minworth. We would like to take the opportunity to open our doors to anyone who would like to look around and maybe ask a question or two. Our ‘open door’ policy epitomises what Joanna (my eldest daughter) Gillian (my sister) and I are trying to achieve. We strive to make funeral directing accessible, not veiled in mystery. We are well aware that, when someone comes to us to arrange a funeral they are enduring one of the most traumatic times of their lives. They may be upset or angry and find it almost impossible to talk. We are there to listen, to take away the burden of the practical arrangements of the funeral and, hopefully, allay their fears. We know it is a privilege to be invited into peoples' lives at such a difficult time and to be trusted to make such important arrangements is an awesome responsibility that we never underestimate or forget. Thirty-two years ago a young nineteen-year old girl watched as the Funeral Cortege made its way slowly towards her house on the Chester Road. It stopped outside. The fear and grief she felt mixed together into the strangest emotions, the like of which she had never felt before. She knew it was irrational to be scared of the coffin but it didn’t make any difference, she was terrified. Eventually the funeral service and burial took place and slowly things settled down again. The funeral was for her Great Grandmother, a tiny old lady of nearly one hundred years of age with the personality and strength of character of a giant. The scared nineteen year old? Well, it was me Stephanie! If anyone had told me that thirty two years later I’d be the proprietor of Stephanie J Mason Independent Funeral Directors, I would never have believed them! So when someone tells me they’re scared of Coffins or Chapels of Rest I really do understand how real that fear is. So if you should find yourself facing the need for a Funeral Director, please remember we are an ordinary mum, daughter and sister, here to help, and please don’t be frightened like that young nineteen year old all those years ago.