This year your long time local Funeral Service provider, Kapiti Coast Funeral Home, turned 30. It was the winter of 1990 the owner and operator of the Paraparaumu Funeral Home, Collins Opie, contacted Andrew Malcolm and arranged a dinner get together. He organised the Local Anglican Minister and their respective spouses to also join. This dinner had a secret agenda, for them to ‘check out’ Andrew Malcolm and see if he was suitable to manage or run the business, as Collins Opie was not well. The request to manage the operation never got further than a few discussions until the time Collins Opie’s health took a rapid decline at which time the business was then put up for sale. It was suggested that Andrew get first option to purchase, and so on 19 May 1992, Andrew & Merryn Malcolm, along with a silent partner, sat with the accountant and lawyer and signed the sale and purchase documents. A name change came at the same time to signal a fresh start as the old business traded out, and so KAPITI COAST FUNERAL HOME was born. There were other Funeral Homes in the area, Prosser Funeral Home in Waikanae and Tudor Funeral Home in Paraparaumu. There still are three funeral homes in the area of differing ownership today. Kapiti Coast Funeral Home is a family owned business with a staff of 8, the largest in the area. With the desire to give the best possible service and prices to client families in their time of need, we expanded to include Kapiti Memorials, Kapiti Katering, Kapiti Crematorium and are the founding trustees of the Kapiti Loss & Grief (aftercare) centre, making a complete care service for those in need.
Reflecting on 30 years in Kapiti, Andrew Malcolm has put together a 35 page book in the form of a high quality Magazine, free to anyone interested. This booklet took many hours of writing to ensure it is full of factual and helpful information. The book has two purposes, firstly to give a brief history of the last 30 years here in Kapiti and secondly as a practical guide to assist you in pre-planning for the future.
It includes simple planning guides, and for many who have been involved in the area for part of the 30 years, this is a lovely ‘special addition’ way of recording your funeral wishes. This recording area is towards the back of the book where there are also some blank pages as an option to record either your own personal connection/s with the Funeral Home or your community involvement and connections to the area for the years you have lived on the Kapiti Coast. The book sections, therefore, include the following sections:
– History of Funeral Home site over 30 years
– Standards Quality Care statement
– Current facilities and Services, chapels and crematorium
– What to do check list
– Helpful Elements of a Farewell
– Burial versus cremation & cost
– Pre planning guide and planning questionnaire
– Helpful guides on Grief
– Post Funeral Care
– Loss and Grief support service
This is a full gloss magazine in A4, easy to follow and of high quality. To make this free we have had very generous sponsorship through advertising in the Magazine, and we thank those wonderful sponsors. If you wish to avail yourself of a copy, please feel free to drop into the Funeral Home, just over the railway line on the corner of Kapiti Road and Hinemoa Street, Paraparaumu during office hours and collect a copy from reception. For a free electronic copy go to www.kapiticoastfuneralhome.co.nz/preplanning/funeral-guide-book/
