Historic Goodfellow’s FH hits a new Milestone

Jeff Green | Jul 15, 2020

When it was announced on June 12 that David Goodfellow had sold his funeral home to Derek and Tracy Maschke of Milestone Funeral Home in Northbrook, no one in the local community was particularly surprised, because the sale had been in the works for several months. Derek and David had been helping each other out for years, so the sale was a natural progression.

In recognition of the Goodfellow families’ history in Parham, Goodfellow Funeral Home will continue to be operated, as before, out of Parham, under the Milestone umbrella.

Goodfellow Funeral Home might be the longest continuously running business in what is now the township of Central Frontenac. The only exception could be a family farm or two. It was established in 1884 by David Goodfellow. David’s father John had arrived in Canada from Ireland in 1860, and both he and his brother John moved to Parham and became farmers. David branched into undertaking in addition to farming. When David died, one of his sons remained on the farm, and the other, William Lambert Goodfellow, moved the undertaking business to the location where Goodfellow’s Funeral Home remains to this day.

William Lambert’s son, Arthur, took over after World War 2. He added a chapel to the funeral home, and also started up the Parham Ambulance service.

Young David Goodfellow, who was born in the mid - 1950’s, was the only boy out of five children.

“The way things were back in the 1960’s when I was growing up, the business was pretty much a male run business,” he recalled when interviewed last week.

“I started working in the business when I was ten years old, helping my dad. Back then children were not part of funerals at all, so whenever there was a funeral. I was off to a neighbour’s house. When I learned to drive, I started driving the funeral coach and sometimes the ambulance. I was part of the business ever since I can remember.”

David went off to Toronto for a course at Humber College, and he received his funeral directors license in 1976. While in Toronto, he met Ann, and they began dating.

“At some point while were dating, I let her know that my future was going to be in Parham, and she was ok with that, being from a country background herself.

David worked at a funeral home in Toronto for a short time, and after returning to Parham, with Ann, he worked at Robert Reid’s in Kingston before taking over the family business in Parham. After their two children were born, Ann started Goodfellow’s flowers in the 1990’s, and they operated both businesses for the next 25 years.

“I’ve seen many changes in the funeral business over the years. Back when I was a kid, wakes were often held in the home and the body would go straight to the cemetery, and then when I grew up and started in the businesses, we held services in the chapel at the home much of the time, before burial. Now, I would say it is 80% cremations,” he said.

What hasn’t changed, however, is one key factor for Goodfellow’s Funeral Home, customer relations.

“It’s always been mostly a people business. It is about listening to people, trying to get a sense of how they are reacting to a situation that is totally new for them, and making them feel comfortable,” he said.

One element that is not obvious is humour.

“Sometimes, people can find a way to laugh a little bit, and it makes it easier,” he said.

Over the past few years, life has changed for the Goodfellow’s. Ann sold Goodfellow’s flowers, which has since been re-sold and is now operated by Rimpy Kaillon at Ram’s Esso in Sharbot Lake, and their daughter Jennifer, who is a trained funeral director, became established in Newmarket and was not interested in taking over the family business. The Goodfellow’s were beginning to think about retirement, when Ann took ill with cancer. She died early in 2019.

“We were thinking about retirement together, and we were talking to Derek and Tracy about whether they wanted to buy Goodfellow’s from us. Everything changed for me when Ann died, but still by early this year I was ready and Derek was also ready.”

Derek Maschke opened what was then known as Maschke Funeral Home in Northbrook in 2004. He has since changed the name to Milestone FH and has also opened Milestone Monument and Cremation services in Napanee. Derek and David began to support each other, sharing resources when necessary and eventually looking after each others clientele during vacations. Over time, Derek has become familiar with the community in Central Frontenac.

“David asked me a few years ago if I was interested and I said I was, and it was left at that for quite a while. Finally, I said to him, if you are ready to retire you have to give me a price. We’ve been working on this for 6-8 months, and David has been very fair with me along the way.

The arrangement was in place by January of this year, but between securing financing, and the COVID-19 outbreak, it took until June 12 for everything to be completed.

Since then, some work has been done at Goodfellow’s.

“We’ve spruced things up inside a bit. We’ll never be done doing that, trying to make things look better, try to provide a better service. But the big thing for us, taking over a business with that much history in a community, is to let the local families know that we will carry on the tradition of service and commitment. We are honouring all of the pre-paid contracts that people had with Goodfellow’s, and while we know it will take some time, we look forward to meeting new people and becoming a part of this community as well as our home base in Northbrook.

Jordan Lowry is continuing to work at Goodfellow’s and either Derek, his wife Tracy, or his father or son have been at Goodfellow’s every day since the changeover.

“This is not just picking up another location for us, the two businesses were about the same size, and we will serve both communities fully,” he said.