Gillotts Funeral Directors
Gillotts Funeral Directors interview with Anthony Topley. Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
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00:00 [Music]
00:29 I like to think we're progressive and forward-thinking, but we're a family business,
00:35 so we're still the traditional type of business. We're not a huge national company.
00:41 We know all the staff and all of us are known to families within the towns we serve,
00:50 so we feel like we're part of the community, and we like to think that the families and the community
00:59 think of us as theirs, as their funeral directors.
01:03 So I wouldn't say we are inventing anything any different.
01:13 I think it's just a matter of approach and attitude, that you're willing to listen to what a family has got to say,
01:21 and you're accessible to them, so they don't feel that they're asking questions they shouldn't,
01:27 and they're able to express themselves and we can understand it and give them what they want,
01:34 and not question it, but say, "Yeah, well, if there's a way of doing it, then we'll do our very best to do it for you."
01:43 [Music]
01:50 Yeah, I think diversity of staff, young, male or female, old,
01:57 it brings all different elements of what this world is today.
02:04 So when I look at, in comparison to me, and say Dani, who's 30-odd years younger than me,
02:13 she has a different outlook on life and the world to me.
02:18 So when we come together and talk about things, I can learn from her, she can learn from me,
02:25 and we do regularly talk about modern topics and modern ways of looking at life,
02:35 and how someone might look at what happens when they pass away.
02:41 So, you know, Dani will look at it differently to what maybe I would.
02:47 So having that within the staff, it gives a broader aspect, I think, of life as it is now, today,
02:56 as opposed to what it might have been in the 1980s, let's say, when Dani wasn't born.
03:02 So, yeah, I again feel it's a good thing for us as a business to have that range.
03:12 If it was all older people in the business, as it used to be all those years ago,
03:19 you'd just have one set of rules, almost.
03:24 So, yeah.
03:25 We certainly do, yeah.
03:35 We've again embraced as much of everything that's available as we can,
03:40 and we're still learning, even now, more and more things that we can do.
03:45 So we've certainly had different vehicles for the family and the deceased.
03:54 We've recently had a Subaru hearse to carry the coffin, so that sounded amazing.
04:03 You could hear it coming from miles away.
04:07 We've certainly had flatbed lorries carrying coffins, tractors and trailers, steam rollers,
04:16 proper traction engine stuff, things like that, which is, again, it's just amazing to see it,
04:24 to be involved in that and be part of arranging that.
04:28 For me, it makes the job so interesting.
04:34 It's a challenge because there are things you're going to say,
04:37 "Well, I've never done that before," but we'll make it happen.
04:41 We'll find a way of providing that stuff for you.
04:44 So, yeah, that's certainly stuff we've done, yeah.
04:56 Yeah, and I think back to, as an example of the funerals we did 30, 40 years ago,
05:06 happened very quickly, so within a space of days and maybe a week.
05:12 Funerals now maybe are a couple of weeks from start to finish and actually get into the day,
05:19 in some cases maybe three weeks or more, but it allows us time to create this event.
05:29 And by doing so, you can put so much more into it.
05:34 You spend the time and it gives the family the chance to consider all what they're going to want on the day,
05:46 so that when we get to the day, you can walk away from that and think,
05:50 "Yeah, that was perfect," because that was that person absolutely to a T.
05:57 So, yeah, like I say, I love being involved in all of that
06:02 because I like to help the family get to that point.
06:06 And then when we come away from the funeral, if the family say that was everything we wanted,
06:12 then as far as I'm concerned, that's the biggest reward, knowing that we've done that for that family.
06:18 I think so, yeah. It lightens the mood. It doesn't look the same.
06:34 It's a characteristic of the person. Again, it reflects that person.
06:41 So, rather than it being a coffin in dark wood with brass handles on it
06:48 that wouldn't necessarily reflect that person in life, the wicker coffin would more so.