Pittsfield Funeral Chapel returns to its Roots
Independent & Family-owned
By Brenda Seekins
Sebasticook Valley Weekly 
      
PITTSFIELD - The well-known Donald Shorey Funeral Chapel is under new management, beginning last spring. And with that move, it went back to its roots as a family-owned, independent funeral home.

As new owners, Glenn and Rachel Nichols couldn’t be happier, and their pleasure has been reflected everywhere they turn in their community.

“It has been huge,” Glenn Nichols said. “People tell us all the time. They want to see the same person when they are dealing with one of the difficult times in their lives.”

As part of Service Corporation International, Nichols witnessed the business-like approach to handling funerals, often with multiple people helping families through the process. 

“Under the corporation, I worked 40 hours a week and that meant taking two days off,” he said. “I would start working with a family, but when they came for visitation or services they might find someone else here because I had to take my two days off.”

Despite that policy, the Nichols were able to bring the Pittsfield chapel from ninth in customer service to first place just before electing to buy the facility. He admits in the last months under the corporation he ignored the policy to stay with families through their services, and took his time off later.

“I was scheduled to get an award for that customer service the same night we got word we could buy the chapel,” he said.

Nichols and his wife, Rachel, served the local chapel in two different time periods.

“We fell in love with the community,” he said, explaining he first moved to Pittsfield to work part time for the corporation and also as an associate minister with a Bangor church. “Ultimately they (the corporation) wanted a family here, and the community had responded well to our family. So they asked us to return.”

Since returning and eventually taking over as owners, the Nichols have come to know many of the funeral attendants who worked with their predecessors, and learned more about those owners.

“We’ve made it our thrust with local ownership to also do business locally, and we’ve learned many of the people have served the funeral chapel in the past,” Nichols said.

Nichols has always worked “in service to the public,” he said, first as a licensed EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and began his work in “death care” as an extension of that work when the company he worked for also assisted funeral homes with body retrieval at homes and hospitals.

“The company actually had three hearses,” Nichols said. “With the ambulance service and being an ordained minister, it was a natural lead in to caring for folks who lost a loved one.”

Nichols and his wife hope to build on the legacy of Donald Shorey and the many great funeral directors who have served the facility. Learning that Shorey once operated an ambulance service in conjunction with the funeral chapel, Nichols is hoping to find a picture of the Shorey ambulance if anyone in the area has something to offer.

There is one more member of the Nichols team in their nine-year-old daughter Mikaela.

“I wanted my daughter to be exposed to the service and not fear death, and I think she is comfortable. She helps a lot during visitations, especially when children come. She talks with them or takes them to an area where we have some toys.”

To maintain the legacy and build on a good reputation, the Nichols also opted to keep the Shorey name as part of the new name Shorey-Nichols Funeral Home.