To look after someone aged over 100 years of age is still a rare occurrence, even though people are living longer, but this week Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Directors have had the privilege to look after two funerals of ladies who have reached that milestone and more! Mrs Phyllis Taylor passed away on 23 September aged 106 and Mrs Hilda Ward passed away on 7 September aged 105. What also makes this even more special is that both ladies spent their final days in the same care home, Streets Meadow in Wimborne, where they were so well cared for.

Dorset has statistically the highest average age in the UK and BH21 is classed as one of the postcodes with the longest life expectancy and these two amazing ladies have done their part in this.

Well done Phyllis and Hilda for your amazing life and achievement!

For more information on the funerals we are conducting or any of our other services, please visit www.oharafunerals.co.uk

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Directors this month celebrate 45 years of serving the local communities of Wimborne and surrounding since the company started in 1974, by Nicholas, with his parents, Pat and Brenda, in its current head office location at Somerleigh Court on Rowlands Hill in Wimborne.

The business has evolved greatly in these 45 years with many family members also having been involved and currently three generations work together. The business also expanded in the 1980’s  to opening funeral homes in Verwood and West Moors to serve these and their surrounding communities also.

One constant from day one has been the ethos of giving the best levels of service to all the families the family business has been honoured to care for. For the family, the constant reinvestment in their funeral homes, the facilities they have, the team of staff they work alongside and making sure the quality of all that they do is of the highest standards has seen the business both grow and gain the reputation of being one of the elite funeral businesses in the south of England.

The family are very proud of what has been achieved so far and Anthony, Nicholas’ son and manager of the business today, reflected on their past “before me and my sister came to work in the business over 22 years ago, we had no real idea of what our parents actually did. We both learnt about our roles quickly from them, but what we learnt even more, was the dedication, love and enthusiasm that they both had and still have today in the continued work we do. We say how privileged we are to work for this great company and together we all share the same aim of care, service and standard that has been our benchmark and will continue to be for the future ahead. We are very proud of where this business came from and where it is today, and our family and team will always work to these beliefs”.

To learn more about history, our team or about the services we provide please visit www.oharafunerals.co.uk

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Directors are for the third year running supporting the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal through the sale of Funeral Plans in association with Golden Charter.

This support continues throughout the year, but we are all more focused at this time in remembering those who gave their todays for our tomorrows. Since October 2017 Golden Charter has donated £280,000 to the appeal and we play our part by donating £25 from every funeral plan sale.

For most families, they will have a relative or loved one, who has served in a war time conflict and for many also a loss of one of these brave people. For our own family business, we especially remember Alfred (Pat) O’Hara, Nicholas’ father and co-founder of our company who served so bravely during WW2 in the jungles of Burma.

For more information on our funeral plans that support the RBL Poppy Appeal please contact us on 01202 882134 or visit www.oharafunerals.co.uk

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Directors have proudly won for the 4th year running the Wimborne In Bloom award for Best Small Business display.

The family business would like to thank all its staff that help create and maintain the lovely flowers around its head office in Wimborne as it creates a really lovely scene as families approach the building and have had so many lovely comments about how stunning the flowers are.

The award will be presented to the business in September at the annual prize giving event.

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas and Jackie O’Hara are proud to announce that their two children, Anthony and Natalie, have become Directors of the family business.

Both children started working for the company during 1997 undertaking different roles with Anthony training as a funeral director and Natalie starting in the office. Their main jobs today continue much the same with Anthony also head of funeral planning and Natalie leading the office but now the four family members share the responsibility of leading and shaping the future of the business.

Nicholas said “we are very proud of our children and both have developed so much, both taking active roles in leading the company in different ways that it became an obvious thing to make them Directors as we prepare for the future direction of the company”.

Both Anthony and Natalie have seen funerals change so much from when they first started and the company grow to now employing 22 staff including other family members “we are so lucky to come to work each day not just with our parents but also a great team, we always say we’re even luckier for the vision, dedication and effort our parents put in from day one to make our funeral homes special and to give most importantly the highest levels of support and care to the families we look after during their hardest of times. We know we have to simply follow their example in this and continue to develop, evolve and invest in the work we do to continue to make our business a success and stay renowned for the highest levels of standards it always aims for”.

When we say our family is here for your family it really is

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara are pleased to launch the latest addition to their new funeral stationery options with beautiful Canvas pictures.

This new product will also be supplied by the company that create our beautiful order of service so we are sure of its quality and also delivery to us prior to the funeral.

A picture by the coffin or placed in a Church or Crematorium for the service is becoming a more popular idea, but many do not have the time or know where to start in getting this done, so we now can offer this service and also a family will have a lovely keepsake to use at home after the funeral too.

The Canvas prints are available in 3 sizes: Small (12″x16″), Medium (16″x20″) and Large (20″x30″) and can be finished in colour or black and white.

These beautiful prints along with the order of service, condolence books, memory pins and other funeral stationery we can now offer we feel offer both choice and value to the families we care for and the feedback received already has been so positive.

For any information on these products then please do not hesitate to contact us.

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara are pleased to launch their new stationery products now available to all families we care for.

The new products start with orders of service which are now professionally printed and designed for us. The new printing allows all order of service to still be personally designed as well as the option of some beautiful template ideas, up to 16 pages are included at the same price as 4 and all are printed on high quality 350gsm card following the approval of each family. The first sets of these have been used by families this week and all are so impressed with the finish, quality and look.

The new products now include condolence books, attendance cards, memory cards and keepsake bookmarks all in the same matching style as the order of service.

Then for all families which have an order of service, we will provide them after the funeral with a memory box to hold all these items, as well as a memory folder which we will include the tribute from the service (as provided by the celebrant, minister or family member) and other items such as a copy of the visual tribute (if chosen) on DVD to keep. Once the donations list is closed the list of donors will also be supplied in a format to go into the memory folder.

We are so excited about these new products and feel they offer greater choice, value for money and most importantly quality to each family as they are lasting keepsakes and memories of the funeral day.

Later this week we will be launching the final part of our new range so watch this space!!

For any information on these products then please do not hesitate to contact us.

“Our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara head embalmer Ian Smith last week spent the week at the European School of Embalming college in St Etienne, France for a course in specialist restoration and learning and developing some new techniques.

Ian said “it was a great experience and a chance to learn some great new skills and techniques that will aid the work we do. I also will be able to help pass on this knowledge to our trainee embalmer Shannon (Nick’s granddaughter) and some of the students that also come here from around Europe for further training. It’s always nice to also experience how things are done in other areas and also makes me very grateful for the amazing theatre and mortuary that we have at our head office in Wimborne as these facilities are second to none anywhere I have been and trained.

Ian is pictured receiving his course certificate from Philippe Dubresson, head of the embalming college.

The family business see it as vital for all staff to have the opportunities for further training and gain new experiences which improve themselves and bring new ideas back to us, which we can help improve a part of what we do in the care of those we are asked to help.

“our family are here for your family”

Nicholas O’Hara are proud to continue their support to Wimborne Musical Theatre with their latest production of The Wizard of Oz starting tonight at the Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne and continuing each day this week with two performances on Saturday, including a Matinee where the family funeral business have invited residents and carers from the local Streets Meadow Care Home to attend as their guests.

Nicholas and Anthony are pictured meeting some of the cast during their final dress rehearsal. They said it was great to meet the cast and the behind the scenes team and see the huge amount of effort that goes into creating such a brilliant production. It’s great to have this happen in our home town of Wimborne at our lovely local theatre too.

Part of the cast is one of our very own Funeral Directors, Phillip Evans, who plays among other characters the Wizard himself!

Tickets for each performance are still available via the Tivoli Box Office.

“our family are here for your family”

**NEW PRODUCT**

We are pleased to now present one of our new range of products we are launching called Memory Pins.

The idea behind the product is to allow people to wear a memory pin to remember someone special and for families to share with each other and friends to show the love and remembrance they have for that person.

The pins are available in 20 different styles to cover many themes from music, sport, animals, flowers and also nationalities such as Irish, Scottish and Welsh.

The pins can be purchased at either the time of the funeral through one of our funeral directing team or after at one of our funeral homes which all hold the 20 different styles in stock. For every pin purchased we will make a donation of 25pence to a local charity and will do this quarterly to support some of the smaller local charities based in our communities.

If you would like more information on these or to view the 20 different styles please feel free to contact us or visit us at one of our funeral homes.

“our family are here for your family”