Few people still choose to live above a funeral home, but that has been the reality for Tom and Linda DeBurger for the last 35 years.
Now, the Dresden couple is closing up the Tom DeBurger Funeral Home, with the hopes of getting to do some of the things being in the funeral business hasn't allowed them to.
"It's time for us to retire," says Tom. "We want to do some travelling, we haven't seen very much of Canada and it's a beautiful country. Just relax and be away from the ties of the business."
Tom says he was roped in to the funeral business when he was in Grade 12. After working at a local funeral parlour part-time, he decided to enroll in an apprentice program and earned his licence in 1967 from the Canadian School of Embalming.
DeBurger, along with William Alexander and Timothy Cummings, bought the funeral home on Cross St. in 1975. He took sole ownership of it in 1979.
Tom says he'll miss the day-to-day interactions he gets to have with community members the most.
"That's the whole part of the funeral service, interacting with the people you serve, and with the staff you have. We've rubbed shoulders with a number of fine people over the years," says DeBurger.
The funeral home's website will stay online for another year, so individuals can still post condolences to their loved ones' memories.
The doors officially close on Friday.
Thomas L. DeBurger Funeral Home in Dresden, September 29, 2016 (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)
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