INSPIRED TO CARE
People are the true heart of MPG
When Pamela Bussoli told her high school teacher that she wanted to work in a funeral home for her co-op work credit, her teacher tried to talk her out of it.
But she was having none of it — she felt drawn to the profession, even as a 16-year-old growing up in an Italian-Argentinean household at Keele and Sheppard.
She joined MPG in 2014. Now, as a funeral director at The Simple Alternative Funeral Centre in Mississauga, a part of the Mount Pleasant Group (MPG), she views her role as an essential community service. And something she is uniquely qualified to perform, which she does with well-earned empathy.
Bussoli also embraced the technical aspects of her profession, learning everything from microbiology and physiology to the humanities, and the art of embalming, at a two-year program at Humber College. She became particularly fascinated with the restorative arts which, as it sounds, is about reconstructing the body for the viewing.
“You are learning to be creative,” she says. “So, what they had to do to help my brother… I said, I need to do this and it’s okay. Good things can happen.”
For Stephanie Lobel, who has been with MPG 16 years full-time and two years part-time, the industry has provided a way to serve an extended community, in that she has worked at several properties across the GTA and surrounding areas.
Lobel has worked a variety of roles, from Receptionist and Funeral Director’s Assistant to Crematorium Operator. In fact, she was one of the first female operators at the time. She is now the Family Service and Cremation Centre Co-ordinator at Thornton Cemetery in Oshawa, where she was born and raised.
“My workplace is important because I’m with my local people. I bump into them at grocery stores, hardware stores, school assemblies. People I’ve gone to school with will come to me when their parents have died. It’s an interesting feeling going back into your childhood,” she says.
As recognized in thank yous from so many of her clients, Lobel specializes in making people comfortable during a stressful time. And to that end, she tries to alleviate any discomfort by inviting people to drop in any time and see what Thornton is all about.
“I tell people to just call us, come visit us, even for a visit or walk around. Not to be afraid. We are so non-pressuring.
I tell people to just call us, come visit us, even for a visit or walk around. Not to be afraid. We are so non-pressuring. I think people fear that they will be pressured, and they also fear asking questions that they think may sound silly. Their questions are never silly. How can we help address their uncertainties if they don’t ask?
I think people fear that they will be pressured, and they also fear asking questions that they think may sound silly. Their questions are never silly. How can we help address their uncertainties if they don’t ask?”
The property itself, she says, is designed to be inviting, and once people discover it, they feel more at home.
“Our property at Thornton is one of the youngest. We have over 50 species of trees. We have deer, fox, cardinals, crows… and it’s beautiful. And our pond, the koi fish come to the top. So, I tell people: Come for a bike ride, or walk around. There’s so much to read and see. It’s for the living — and it’s really a unique place to be because every tombstone, every boulder, every plot, has a story.”