Brooke Burkhalter
Mindy Mckenzie/sdg Newspapers
COVID hit, and everyone worked from home. So, that was rough,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter shared she enjoyed working from home, but really missed being around people.
“I loved being a nurse and I loved what I was doing, but I truly missed that people connection,” Burkhalter said.
Unfortunately, Burkhalter lost her job with Ohiohealth.
“When I lost my job at Ohiohealth, Catherine Turner messaged me and mentioned me going and getting my funeral director license. She said she thought I would be amazing at it. I was flattered that she thought that, but I had zero intention of doing that. I even told Jake about it. That was in July of 2022,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter explained she really struggled because she had worked with Ohiohealth in some capacity for 27 years.
“Here we were going through it, I was just gutted. I had people reaching out saying they had jobs for me. This community is amazing, and people were trying to look out for me. There was so much going on and it was a bit overwhelming,” Burkhalter said.
Last August in 2023, Burkhalter explained she
Brooke Burkhalter never imagined where her path would lead her. However, throughout all the obstacles she has endured she has found the most perfect and very unexpected fit for herself working alongside Jake Penwell at Penwell Turner Funeral Home.
Burkhalter was born and raised right here in Shelby where she graduated from Shelby High School in 1992. From there, Burkhalter went onto nursing school.
“I went to nursing school over at Mansfield General, it used to be a two-year program. So, I graduated from nursing school in 1994. I’ve been a nurse for almost 30 years,” Burkhalter said.
Throughout her nursing career, Burkhalter shared she worked in many different aspects of the field including emergency room, surgery, and pre and post op. Around 2004, Burkhalter moved to the IT world of nursing.
“So, I was building the electronic health records and things like that. I did that at Mansfield and then when Ohiohealth merged with Medcentral at the time is when I went to Columbus. It got to the point that I could work remotely at Mansfield and then it slowly transitioned and then we started working from home. Then,
found out Penwell was down a funeral director.
“I knew he was busy, and I told him if he needed me, I would help out. In my mind, I was thinking I would open and close the door for people when they came. It slowly became working nights and weekends and then if he needed help going to see a family, he would call me. Everything that has happened has truly fell into place,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter and Penwell have a long-standing bond that goes back many years.
“I have known him his entire life, I used to babysit Jake when he was an infant. Our families are very, very close. It goes back to his grandfather. My dad worked for his grandfather and now I’m working for Jake,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter got another nursing job at Summa Health in Akron after Ohiohealth, although ultimately, she found her fit at Penwell Turner Funeral Home permanently.
“I am no longer doing anything with nursing. I just left from that three weeks ago and now I am here full time,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter officially became a full-time associate at Penwell Turner Funeral Home at beginning of February 2024.
“I had worked at Summa Health in Akron, and I was working remote. I loved a lot of the people I worked with there, but this just really morphed into something special,” Burkhalter said.
One thing that made Burkhalter feel fulfilled was being able to take care of people again.
“It’s the completely opposite spectrum. I had dealt with a lot of death and dying working in the emergency room, but this was different. A lot of this just transitions from you care for the person who has passed away immediately and you’re taking care of everything to prepare them, but a lot of it is caring for the family again. It is shifted from the patient as it used to be to now an entire family,” Burkhalter said.
So far, the goal for Burkhalter is to go back to school starting in the fall online for mortuary science where she hopes to obtain her funeral director embalming license. For Burkhalter
Mindy Mckenzie/sdg Newspapers to complete her schooling, it will take approximately 12-16 months.
“That depends, too because there is an apprenticeship after. The nice thing is with him being a licensed funeral director I will just be able to do a lot of it here. The majority of it can be done online. I honestly feel like I will have a step ahead because I am helping and watching him do what he does. He is such an amazing teacher; he takes the time to explain everything. A lot of this is completely foreign to me, but a lot of it isn’t because there is a lot of anatomy and things like that so it’s the same from a nursing standpoint,” Burkhalter said.
When it comes to going back to school, Burkhalter said she was a little scared, but was ready for the challenge.
“I’ve done online school before, for me my kids are all grown up so I will have time,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter shared how Penwell has helped her throughout this experience.
“He puts people at comfort. They know he genuinely cares. I have heard him say so many times he thanks the families for trusting him to care for their family member and then he says I thank you for your friendship. I hope people feel just as at ease with me as they are with Jake. We really do, truly care. I cannot say that I have not enjoyed coming to work every day because it has been such a blessing,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter explained she has received an enormous amount of support from her family during this transition of careers.
“My husband has been absolutely
supportive and so have my kids. My kids knew that I wasn’t in the best place once it all happened. They knew I ate, slept and breathed Ohiohealth. I believed in everything and that was very hard for me, and they saw that. It (Ohiohealth) is a great place to work, and I am sad that I am not a part of it anymore, that was what the hardest thing. I think getting out of healthcare made it able for me to let that go. My mom and dad and sister have genuinely been supportive as well as Jake’s family,” Burkhalter said.
As far as what Burkhalter has enjoyed the most, it all comes back to the people she gets to be around.
“I have gotten more hugs in the past three weeks. Over time, just more and more people kept saying they felt comfortable with me taking care of their family member. I have absolutely loved people walking through the door and they hug me, and we talk about things. I so missed that, and now it’s my life every day,” Burkhalter said.
Looking to future, Burkhalter explained she hoped this would be her retirement job.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere or doing anything different. My hope is that I will get that funeral director embalming license, that is what the goal is with the schooling. This is a family here, and I want people to feel that when they walk through the doors. My hope of accomplishing is that when people walk through these doors, they feel like they are at home. People don’t like coming here and it is a terrible thing, someone is experiencing a loss. The biggest goal would be to help lessen that feeling of loss by just being there and caring for people. I really care for people, and I want to make them comfortable and happy even in a bad situation,” Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter shared the main reason she wanted to try out this new career was because she didn’t want to have any regrets later on in her life.
“I don’t want to look back on my life and think I should have done that. I don’t want regrets, I just felt like at that point in time life is too short to be unhappy and there are things that I can do for other people and things I can be good at with. Caring for people and having that connection with people, I can do that, and I like doing it. It is a blessing, it has been a journey,” Burkhalter said.