New Funeral Director and a Facelift for Benson Funeral Home

Karen Graham

It was time for a change.  After a difficult year with the health struggles and untimely loss of his wife Maggie, Patrick Benson was looking for a fresh start. The change began serendipitously during his wife’s prolonged illness, when hereceived an offer of help from friend and fellow Funeral Director Shannon Clancy, who has recently joined the organization as a full time staff member.

The Benson team is ready to serve: Administrative Assistant Linda Adams, Florist Fern Armstrong, Funeral Director Shannon Clancy, and Patrick Benson in front of the newly painted building. Photo: Karen Graham.

The Benson team is ready to serve: Administrative Assistant Linda Adams, Florist Fern Armstrong, Funeral Director Shannon Clancy, and Patrick Benson in front of the newly painted building. Photo: Karen Graham.

Clancy’s career in the funeral business began early.  As a high school student in Oshawa, she took a co-op term at a local funeral home and instantly felt it was a good fit.  She continued to work there after graduation and met Benson who was also employed there at that time. Their philosophy about the business was consistent: they shared a view of how people should be treated and recognized that the service they offered was for the living.  Soon after, they parted ways, Benson moving back to his home town of Millbrook and Clancy switching to a Toronto firm, but they hoped they would work together again in the future.

The funeral business runs 24/7, so for Benson to have a licensed funeral director on staff opens up a whole new world for his working life.  With every other weekend off, he plans to invest time in his boys and in the community service clubs like Minor Hockey, the Lions and the Legion which he feels he has neglected during the past few years.  Further evidence of his new-found freedom is the fact that he no longer lives where he works:  Benson has moved his family to a home in Cavan.  Physically leaving work when his day is done should help him relax and enjoy his time off, and when the phone rings at home, chances are it will be a personal call.

While getting a fresh start at home, Benson also undertook some renovations at work which had been scheduled for a long time.  Gone is the fairy tale pink and yellow paint on the King Street location; it has been replaced with a more business-like grey and black façade which lends a gravity to the surroundings and is consistent with the nature of his business.  To ease the entrance of his older clientele, Benson also took the opportunity to pave the parking lot so people with mobility issues had an easier time entering the premises…

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