Honouring memories
Jono Gibson of Cambridge Funerals believes funerals are for the living, and the industry is becoming more innovative every day.
Sharing a person’s life story and keeping their memory alive is what funeral director, Jono Gibson, likes best about his job. “It’s an honour to tell someone’s story. You don’t get a second chance, so it’s important it’s done right.”
Jono’s interest in the funeral industry was first piqued in his early 20s, when he lost a good friend to a car accident. “The funeral process was new to me. It was very sad, but also fascinating. I spent time wondering about the journey my friend had taken from being in the car, to lying in a casket in front of me. I filed that in the back of my mind as something I’d like to investigate one day.”
After spending the first decade of his career in the radio business and sales, Jono eventually took some annual leave and spent a week doing work experience at a funeral home.
“When I joined the funeral industry in 2013, TV shows like Six Feet Under had glorifed it. A lot of people were entering the industry, but it’s a job you really need to be passionate about. You soon learn if you’re cut out for it. Thankfully, I was.”
Today, Jono is the funeral director at Cambridge Funerals in Cambridge, Waikato. Owned by Tauranga’s Legacy Trust, the Cambridge branch has recently been modernised, refurbished and will soon be renamed in keeping with the Legacy brand. Legacy Funerals has plans to expand further into the Waikato this year too, with a new office in Hamilton.
Jono offers the Cambridge community the same compassionate care that Legacy Funerals is known for. And like its sister company in Tauranga, profits from the business are gifted back to the local Cambridge community.
For Jono it’s the people, the families of those who have passed on, that make the job rewarding. “I believe the funeral service is for the living; the people who are left behind. Making funeral services really special and memorable for them is my aim.”
Thankfully, Jono says, the industry is becoming more innovative, so a service and the venue can feel more personalised. Alongside the newly renovated Cambridge funeral home, the world is your oyster when it comes to places to hold a funeral with Legacy Funerals.
“Instead of a traditional church service, people now are choosing to farewell their loved ones in different ways. I’ve organised several funerals on the beach, services held at wedding venues, a hearse driving a lap of a horse racetrack, and arranged for an opera singer to sing hymns at one funeral so attendees didn’t feel pressured to. Making the whole process unique and relevant to the person concerned and their family is what matters most.”