Highland funeral director clocks up 30 years with John Fraser and Son
Drew Green has just celebrated 30 years with Highland funeral director John Fraser & Son.
Now the firm’s general manager, Drew was just 22 when he started working with Ian Fraser, current proprietor Vicki’s father. On his first day, wearing his own black suit, he was tasked with driving a minister to Kilvean Cemetery.
“It felt like a very long, nerve-racking journey and it was almost completely silent too,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what to say and thought it best to wait to be spoken to. Also, the car was a Jaguar and an automatic, I’d never driven either of those before!”
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Sitting comfortably behind his Chapel Street desk, today’s Drew is sharply dressed in his John Fraser & Son tailored suit with a touch of Fraser tartan.
He’s also eminently more qualified than he was when he first walked through the door, having been encouraged to start training for a diploma in funeral directing right away. A correspondence course, it involved listening to cassettes and posting off essays.
“Looking back, it was actually great training. My trainer really took me under his wing, and I was learning on the job here every day too.”
As a qualified funeral director, Drew started meeting families and arranging funerals but was encouraged to keep studying. After two more intense years he qualified as an embalmer.
“It was hard work, but worthwhile,” he says. “But you could say that about my whole 30 years.”
Leaving school at 16, Drew had followed his dad into the printing trade before noticing an advert in The Inverness Courier for a trainee funeral director.
“I had an inkling that it might suit me, but it was a tough interview,” Drew explains, wincing at the memory. “Vicki’s dad was very thorough, wanting to know my life history, but also explaining what my duties would be. He told me that I’d be dealing with some awful situations, and with people at the worst time of their lives, but I thought I’d be OK. And I have been, really.”
In his three decades with John Fraser & Son, Drew has seen a real change in the type of funerals that families want for their loved ones.
“At the start of my career funerals were much simpler,” he explains. “Then, most took place in a church, with a minister, an organist, and a hymn book. There was less to arrange, but less time too. Most funerals took place within four or five days.
“We saw the start of a change in the late ‘90s, with people wanting the occasional track played on CD - Sir Rod Stewart was a favourite.
“Now, more funerals are non-religious, with Humanist funerals more popular. Families can personalise services with readings and poems, and with favourite music too, and show video clips and photos of happier times.
“People can be dialling in from abroad to deliver live tributes on screen, and we live-stream services too. It’s more complicated, but there’s also more time to get organised, as it’s now often eight days or more before a funeral takes place.”
So, what are the best bits of the job? “Helping people through the worst times of their lives. Families come in to see us, and they trust their worst moments to us. I have built up a lot of friendships with people over the years, often conducting more than one funeral for their family. It means a lot when people come back.”
So is it the job he expected when he walked through the door 30 years ago?
“Not at all”, he laughs, shaking his head. “I hadn’t expected it to be so high profile for a start!”
But he becomes more serious when he talks about the impact the job has had on him.
“It has opened my eyes to all aspects of life. I often wonder how life can be so cruel to take someone so suddenly. Certain funerals, certain families, certain situations, they pray on my mind, I’m only human. But we support each other here, and I’m pretty good at leaving the job at the door. When I go home, I’m just Drew. You have to be like that.”
He adds: “Seeing the photographs during a funeral can be very moving, as you see the person as they were during their life. And hearing people’s stories is touching too. It makes me think the last 30 years have gone in a flash, and that I’m not ready to go yet. It makes me enjoy life while I can.”
Which brings us on to how he would like to be remembered.
“My funeral?” Drew asks. “People ask me about that all the time. I have no idea, other than I’d like it to be rocking. I’d make people listen to my favourite music for a change, get a bit of my own back. I’d have Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ on repeat for half an hour!” At this he is laughing.
So what would Drew say to his younger self, on his first day in the job?
“That’s easy,” he smiles. “Just that it will be an incredibly rewarding career, helping people at what is the worst time of their lives. I’d tell him what Ian Fraser told me; it won’t suit everyone, but if it suits you, you might still be there in 30 years.”
