The diverse qualities the team behind Reflections Picture Caskets bring to their work are reflected in the captivating caskets they create and in the mana they show in their service.
Founder Anneke Campbell was a registered nurse and husband John Harris (AJ) had 47 years in the police force, specialising with the armed offenders squad, before they embarked on this unexpected terrain.
"We’ve both been working in the field of helping people, we’ve seen life and death in our line of duty so if we see people needing assistance; we want to be there for them," she said.
The couple lead an eclectic team including photographers, graphic designers, casket makers, funeral directors and an embalmer.
Kath Hunter worked as a practice manager in the medical field for 13 years before becoming involved in the funeral industry.
She recalled how a Reflections casket helped an older man come to terms with his terminal illness.
"At first he was reluctant to take part in providing any input.
"Then as we started to get to know him he ended up taking over and specified exactly how he wanted his casket designed and how his funeral would be run.
"Through choosing what he wanted on his casket he ended up finding peace before he died."
Reflections Picture Caskets offers pictured caskets, ashes caskets and scattertubes in conjunction with its funeral service arm, Distinct Funerals.
Ms Campbell has become a pioneer of pictured and environmentally friendly caskets in the South Island since 2015.
She spent time in the United Kingdom doing casket production training before bringing that knowledge to Aotearoa and starting the Reflections Picture Caskets division of the wider funeral business.
Her innovation continues to emerge in the development of shroud caskets for those who wanted something different for "direct to cremation".
"People have come to us and asked if we can do caskets without lids because some of them say they don’t want to feel closed in and then we have people from different religions who prefer to be cremated in just a shroud."
Some people felt that after passing, being draped in the simplicity of a shroud will give them freedom and for others a pictured casket will give them peace.
Reflections Picture Caskets was about "changing the perceptions around funerals" for "those who’ve passed on" and for those "that are living to move forward".
"When people see a picture that reminds them of that person, like the steam train, or the Scrabble letters, and they start touching the casket – they find a positive way to grieve," Ms Campbell said.
- By Nina Tapu
