Our family
Three generations of steady hands.
Since 1962 a Merriden has answered this phone. Not a brand, not a rolled-up group — one family, one house, and neighbours who trust us with the worst week of their lives.
Ruth Merriden
Funeral director · third generation
Ruth has directed services here since 1989. She quotes prices herself, at the table, and has never once been wrong to the dollar.
David Merriden
Funeral director & embalmer
David keeps the night phone most months and looks after the people in our care. He is the reason families say the 2am call felt like calling family.
Ellen Merriden
Director of services · fourth generation
Ellen runs each service day and prints every order of service herself in the back room — twice, if the paper deserves better.
We're open about how we care for the dead as well as the living. Ask, and we will walk you through every room in this house — including the ones most firms keep locked.
It isn't bravado. It's the simplest proof we have that nothing here is done carelessly, and nothing here is done to a stranger.
Built for quiet, kept for company
The chapel seats 90 under the leadlight; the two viewing rooms hold as few as one chair, on purpose. Nothing in this house is grand, and nothing in it is shabby — which is roughly what we'd say about a good funeral.
Three generations, one phone number
1962
Albert and May Merriden open the doors at 41 Chapel Green Road and hang the price list in the front hall — where it still hangs.
1987
Their son Gerald rebuilds the chapel to seat 90 and adds the garden room, insisting the house never feel like an office.
2019
Ruth's daughter Ellen joins full-time — the fourth generation learning the same first lesson: answer the phone.
Come and meet us before you need us.
Most people never see inside a funeral home until the worst week of their lives. You're welcome sooner — for the tour, the price list, or just the tea.
41 Chapel Green Road, Fairview · (555) 010-1962