LEBANON, Tenn. (WTVF) — In moments of profound grief, it's often the staff at funeral homes that help us cope. But in Lebanon recently, the roles reversed, when it was a funeral home grieving a loss.
"The community’s been great, they’ve been wonderful to us," said Jnae Partlow Spears, a Funeral Director at Partlow Funeral Chapel.
When the sun rose on March 3, 2020, the Partlow family saw their family business torn apart by the tornadoes.
"We had a lot of roof damage," said Jason Partlow, Jnae's brother and another Funeral Director at Partlow. "It collapsed the front awning on the hearse and had to dig the hearse out that morning."
For a time, the family considered demolishing and rebuilding, but they just couldn't part with the building their late father designed.
"He built it in ‘79, and I just couldn’t bear him not to be a part of it and be here, so we decided to renovate," said Jnae.
Renovation may have been the right decision, but it wasn't a fast one. It would take them another four years to rebuild the inside of the building, which received considerable water damage in addition to wind damage.
"Some code issues, upgrading the building with wiring, insulation, flooring, all of those things, then COVID hit," said Jason.
Help from the competition
In the meantime, they needed a temporary space to keep the business running. Their solution came from someone they least expected — their direct competitor Ligon and Bobo Funeral Home just down the street.
"And when he called about that, he said we have a space called the Partee House, we want to maybe take a look at that, if it would help you," explained Jason.
The family used the Partee House for more intimate services and area churches for larger remembrances. As a result, they got really good at logistics; prepping remains in one space while holding services in others. "We would take TV monitors," said Jason. "We’d take lighting and mics."
"Lots of flowers, lots of flowers moving back and forth," said Jnae.
The new building opens
Finally, after four long years, they're back in one unified place.
"We had to take it down to the studs, so all the drywall is new, all the ceiling tiles are new, this was essentially a brand new building once we got in," said Grant Partlow, Jason's son and a member of the third generation in the family business.
Visitors will notice new furniture, high-tech touches, and even a nod to what they've been through.
"This was actually the flag from when the tornado came through and it was pretty torn up and ragged," said Jack Partlow, another one of Jason's sons, as he showed us a display case containing the tornado-ravaged flag from 2020.
But the Partlow family hopes, that what hasn't changed, is the same compassion they've always provided.
"Our dad, we know he’s looking down on us and is very proud of what we’ve accomplished over those last four years. I know he is," said Jnae.
Earlier this month, the Partlow Funeral Chapel was able to celebrate their 45th year in business. They hope with future generations already working at the funeral chapel, that number will only continue to grow.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
