Pauline and Roger Paterson. Photo supplied.When Roger Paterson started nearly 40 years ago, he had one hearse, one chapel, one office and six caskets.

He thought that would be enough when Paterson Funeral Services opened for business on December 1, 1982. But he was wrong.

“We were ready to go but didn’t expect the response,” Roger said.

The day before he opened his doors, he received his first client and, by the end of December, he’d conducted 13 funerals.

“I was working eight to five and building caskets at night,” he recalled.

“From then on we never looked back.”

Roger and Pauline Paterson were very relieved.

For six months prior to opening, they’d lived on $100 a week as they finalised the business, developed the A-frame garden centre as a chapel and contended with resource consents and red tape.

Roger wasn’t new to funeral directing.

When he left Hakatere College, he became an apprentice to cabinet maker and furniture restorer, Arthur Stephenson.

But it was only a fill-in job. While he was gifted with his hands, he preferred them to hold handcuffs, a baton and arrest society’s hoodlums.

“I wanted to be a policeman. I was tall, interested in mysteries and the police had a basketball team that competed annually in Australia,” he said.

“Arthur decided to concentrate on boat-building, so I accepted a job as a casket maker, while I waited for the next intake at Police College.”

Roger described his job as making wooden overcoats for people. However, he was casket maker for Baker Brothers and O’Reilly for one day only.

The next day he was holding the feet of a dead body as it was loaded from a stretcher on to a hearse at Ashburton Hospital.

“It didn’t faze me at all,” he said.

“I started to learn all aspects of the job and qualified as a funeral director and embalmer.”

For 15 years he worked for the family firm, then decided to go out on his own.

“It was one of the hardest decisions we had to make,” Roger said.

He was offered funeral homes for sale both on the West Coast and Central Otago, but the Patersons were committed to Ashburton.

Roger even declined a job as funeral director and paid basketball referee at Fresco University in the United States.

They’d travelled around the world for three months ending up in America when he was shoulder tapped. Pauline was included in the package, being offered a position as theatre sister at the local hospital.

“We lay on the beach at Hawaii making the decision,” Roger recalled. But it was home that appealed.

After 53 years, Roger is still an active funeral director.

He sold the business to Lamb and Hayward a few years back but, while semi-retired, he’ll still assist if families request him.

“People looked after us and we looked after them. It’s still a real pleasure to help families in their time of need.”

Pauline worked alongside Roger as partner in the business, administrator and even helped out in the mortuary.

“As a registered nurse, I knew the anatomy of the body.

“I prepared the deceased for viewing which sometimes had its challenges following a post-mortem,” she said.

If Roger wanted to become an after-dinner speaker he could tell many stories about funerals, many amusing, some quirky and several tragic.

He recalls the death of Tuarangi Home residents who’d been abandoned by their families.

Only the officiating minister, the sexton, the Tuarangi Home manager and Roger, were at the graveside. Just four people to commemorate a life.

But there were also hilarious moments to cherish.

Roger tells the story of a father and son who couldn’t get along.

When the father died the son agreed to be a pallbearer just to ensure his dad had popped his clogs.

During the committal, the board holding up the casket broke and the son plunged into the grave with his father on top.

“I’m sure dad had the last laugh,” Roger says.

At 74, he has no thought of retiring from funeral directing or any other of his interests.

“I’ll keep the buzz going for a few more years as long as I’m fit and able,” he commented.

Mid Canterbury would be the poorer if Roger and Pauline relinquished their involvement in the community.

Their commitment to Mid Canterbury is a story in its own right.

Roger has had a long and distinguished career in basketball. He was a representative player and referee from his teenage years until the age of 60.

“I never missed a season,” he said proudly.

Pauline also played and refereed basketball, she was an administrator and still referees mini-ball and wheelchair basketball.

Roger’s been a District Grand Master of Masonic Unity Lodge and the district benevolence officer.

He’s chairman of the Ashburton Trust Event Centre, vicar’s warden at St Stephen’s, long-serving member of the Ashburton Licensing Trust, patron of Mid Canterbury Basketball, president of Ashburton Lions and builder of the Lions playhouse for its annual Christmas raffle.

Pauline is a member of County Lions and secretary and treasurer of the NZ Basketball Foundation. The list goes on.

“We were brought up in families to assist other people and that’s been our contribution to the community,” they both say.

There’s certainly no time to build caskets at night.

By Malcolm Hopwood © The Ashburton Guardian - 4 February 2021