Congratulations, Drew, on your first 30 years!

It’s hard to believe it, but Drew Green, our General Manager, Funeral Director, and great friend and colleague to many, has been with us for an incredible 30 years! We’re planning a big celebration early next year, when we can get all the team together without holidays and family commitments in the way, but Vicki couldn’t resist the opportunity to sit down with Drew to chat to him about his first three decades with John Fraser & Son, and the changes he has seen over the years.

We suggest you make yourselves a cuppa and join us for the chat!

Tell us how you started with us, Drew:

I left school at 16 – I wasn’t that into school to be honest - and followed my Dad into the printing trade. It wasn’t really doing it for me, though, and one day I saw an ad in The Inverness Courier for a trainee funeral director.

I had an inkling that it might suit me, but it was a tough interview. Your Dad was very thorough, Vicki, as you would expect! He wanted to know my whole life history, from the very beginning, and explained very clearly what my duties would be. He told me more than once that this wasn’t a career for just anybody. He told me that I’d be dealing with some awful situations, and with people at the worst time of their lives, but I thought I’d be ok. And I have been, really.

What was it like when you first started?

I remember my first day really clearly. I was just 22 and had no real idea what I’d be letting myself in for. I was just told to turn up wearing a black suit, so I did. The first thing I was asked to do was drive a minister to Kilvean Cemetery.

It’s only a couple of miles, but it felt like a very long, nerve-wracking journey, and it was almost completely silent. I didn’t know what to say and thought it best to wait to be spoken to. Also, the car was a Jaguar and an automatic, I’d never driven either of those before!

But you got into the swing of things?

I did! I was initially helping out with funerals, making sure the cars were clean and ready, and preparing for funerals behind the scenes, but your Dad Ian encouraged me to start training for a Diploma in Funeral Directing right away. It was a correspondence course, so I had to spend ages listening to interviews on cassettes and writing essays. I had to post the essays to my trainer down in England somewhere.

It all sounds so old fashioned now, but looking back, it was actually great training. My trainer really took me under his wing, and I was learning on the job here every day too.

What happened after you qualified as a funeral director?

As soon as I qualified, I started meeting families and arranging funerals, and I really enjoyed that. Working with your Dad, Vicki, and with Eric Riddle, it was great to be able to meet the families and start getting to know them.

But your Dad had more ambitions for me, and said I should keep learning. He encouraged me to start training to become qualified as an embalmer. That was another two years of intense training, both studying at night after the day job, and going away to get the clinical experience. Within six years of first stepping through the door I was a fully qualified funeral director and embalmer. It was hard work, but worthwhile. But you could say that about my whole 30 years here.

In your three decades with the family firm, what are the biggest changes you have seen, Drew?

At the start of my career, funerals were much simpler. Then, most of them took place in a church, with a minister, an organist, and a hymn book. There was a lot less to arrange than there is today, but less time to arrange it, too. Most funerals took place within four or five days.

We saw the start of a change in the late 90s, with people wanting the occasional track played on CD - Rod Stewart was a favourite.

Now, more funerals are non-religious, with Humanist funerals becoming popular. We’re holding more and more funerals here in the service room too.

That means families can personalise services with readings and poems, and with their loved one’s favourite music. With the service room being fully multi-media, we can show video clips and photos of happier times.

And one of the main differences is our screens and the connectivity. As well as being able to live-stream funerals to anywhere in the world, people who can’t get to Inverness for the funeral can also take part, doing a reading or delivering a tribute from wherever they are.

It does mean that the job is more complicated than it used to be, but the service can be more meaningful for the families. And there’s more time to get organised, as it’s now often eight days or more before a funeral takes place.

What impact does all of that have on you, Drew?

Seeing the photographs and video clips during a funeral can be very moving, as you see the person as they were during their life. And hearing people’s stories is touching too. It makes me think the last 30 years have gone in a flash, and that I’m not ready to go yet. It makes me enjoy life while I can.

So, what are the best bits of your job?

That’s easy. Helping people through the worst times of their lives. Families come in to see us, and they trust their worst moments to us. I have built up a lot of friendships with people over the years, often conducting more than one funeral for their family. It means a lot when people come back.

So is it the job you expected when you walked through the door 30 years ago?

Not at all! I hadn’t expected it to be so high profile for a start!

But I also hadn’t expected that it would open my eyes to so much. I often wonder how life can be so cruel to take someone so suddenly. Certain funerals, certain families, certain situations, they pray on my mind, I’m only human. But as you know, we support each other here, and I’m pretty good at leaving the job at the door. When I go home, I’m just Drew. I have to be like that. I think we all do.

So, after arranging countless funerals for other people, how would you like to be remembered?

My funeral? Oh no – not you as well! People ask me about that all the time! I have no idea, other than I’d like it to be rocking. I’d make people listen to my favourite music for a change, get a bit of my own back. I’d have Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ on repeat for half an hour!

If you could go back, what would you say to your younger self, on your first day in the job?

That’s easy. Just that it will be an incredibly rewarding career, helping people at what is the worst time of their lives. I’d tell him what your Dad told me; It won’t suit everyone, but if it suits you, you might still be there in 30 years.

Thanks, Drew. We can’t imagine life at John Fraser & Son without you. On behalf of us all, here’s to the next 30 years!