casket t0 the church where the minister, Rev. Somers, had a brief ceremony before the remains were placed in the cemetery. Aunt Ethel Fell Giddins was visiting the family from England, and when the quarantine period ended, she took the children to the woods to spend the day while the house was being fumigated.15

Today the black door wreath, the black armbands, and black clothes are no longer used as signs of mourning, and schools and stores seldom close. Visiting hours are limited to afternoon and evening at the funeral home and the funeral is held from either the funeral home or the church. Graves are not dug during the winter; instead, the casket is placed in a receiving vault and burial takes place in the spring.

When William Chisholm retired, his son James became the morti— cian.James was succeeded in 1939 by his son Heath. Heath opened the ground floor rooms of his parents’ part of the house as a funeral home in 1953. Funeral parlours were in vogue and the practice of embalming was just beginning. This new facility offered families a choice of having funerals from the Chisholm Funeral Parlour, their own house, or the local church. Heath be- came proficient at embalming and ably assisted by his wife, Ruby, oper- ated the funeral home and ambu- lance service until

his death in 1977. Heath did not in- herit the nervous V temperment of his grandfather. Mi- chael Cutcliffe, a neighbour to the Chisholms, re- called as a young lad hearing Ruby calling from the back step to Heath in the shed “You're wanted on the phone, Heath.” Heath, known for his slow pace and dry whit, would re- ply, “Is it an emer-

gency, RUbY! or are Heath Chisholm and Ruby Carter Chisholm. Helm Arprey coL they dead?”. lection.

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