Aiming to give ‘the best experience during the worst time’ | The Homepage

Q&A with funeral director of House of Paradise Cremation and Funeral Care on Second Ave.

Shamiah Coulverson is the funeral director of House of Paradise Cremation and Funeral Care at 5106 Second Ave. Photo courtesy of Shamiah Coulverson

By Managing Editor Juliet Martinez

The new owner of the funeral home at 5106 Second Ave. at the corner with Dyke Street got an unpleasant surprise on Aug. 31. Someone vandalized an outer wall, writing “My dog loved the trash ... jokes on you.” The previous owner, Patrick Vereb, was accused last year of accepting payment and pet remains for cremation but dumping the animals’ bodies at a landfill.

After buying the funeral home in June, Shamiah Coulverson hopes to change people’s associations with the building. The funeral director of House of Paradise Cremation and Funeral Care spoke with The Homepage on Sept. 4 about the business that she runs with the help of two family members. The funeral home is now open for business and will have a grand opening event on Oct. 17 at 2 p.m.

Ms. Coulverson’s answers have been edited lightly.

Tell us about yourself and House of Paradise Cremation and Funeral Care.

I’ve been in the industry for about 12 years, in ownership for six. I originally was in Allentown on East Warrington Avenue. That was the old Barry Funeral Home. I was renting the building there while trying to make it my forever home, but the owner didn’t want to sell. So, we were always looking to see if we could find a building that could take care of our needs. We didn’t want to have to do a whole lot of construction to it, because we didn’t want to have too much downtime where we couldn’t serve our families. So when the opportunity came to purchase this building, and funding came along with it, it was just kind of like the perfect match.

Did you know about the association with Patrick Vereb when you bought the funeral home on Second Avenue?

I was a little hesitant just because of the history of the building. But everyone that I talked to was just like, “Well, that’s not you; it’ll be okay. No worries, no worries.” And then when I came to see [the graffiti] on the building, I was like, “This is my nightmare in real time,” you know?

I had “open up a pet crematory in 2027” on my vision board in 2025, but I just want to stay clear of that now that I’m in that building. Maybe down the road I can find a pet crematory to partner with. I just think that [the charges against Mr. Vereb] have left a bad taste in the community’s mouth that I would not want to revisit. So, I’m just going to stick to the humans.

How did you decide to enter the funeral care business?

I got into the industry because when I was younger, we had a lot of death in our family. I remember how the family felt when the funeral home did a really good job. And then I remember what my family felt when the funeral home didn’t do a great job.

I know I can’t save the world from a bad experience. But I feel like the people that I personally can serve, I can pay close enough attention to detail to what they’re asking of me to give them the best experience during the worst time of their life.

I don’t feel like I got desensitized to death at a young age, but I feel like I had a respect, a different kind of respect as a young person that would allow me not to be fearful of it.

So, this work was just something that kind of pulled me, you know, as a young person who happened to experience death a lot. That’s why I got into the business, to try to give back to the community in the best way possible.

What do you want people to know about advance planning?

I think the best gift you can leave the people you leave behind is having your affairs in order.

I like to talk to different community centers and senior citizen facilities and just educate them on the tools they need to help them to plan.

I would like to have a couple of death cafés eventually, just so people can come and ask me questions. You know, death is always so taboo. There are a lot of people who don’t mind talking about it, but they don’t know who to talk to. I want to open our doors to do a death café to answer some questions people may have.

Oftentimes people think when you start talking about your death expectations or the things you want for your services, that you’re going to die. Like, that’s not really how that goes. Whenever your time is, your time is. Talking about it is not going to make it come any faster, but it will prepare the people you’re leaving behind so they can grieve a little better knowing that this is what their loved one wanted. They don’t have to struggle or argue with family. What did Mom want? It’s already taken care of.

One of the other reasons why I got into the industry is that people go to funeral homes when the passing of their loved one has just happened. They’re very emotional. They make emotional decisions. Oftentimes funeral homes are a little bit price-gouging because they’re giving you things that you don’t really need.

What else do you want people to know about House of Paradise?

We are huge in community involvement. In Beltzhoover, you would see us bringing water down to the football league or the basketball league down the street from us. A lot of churches would invite us to their events.

I like to educate the community. I also go to schools to try to inspire students to consider the funeral industry as a career.