‘I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be’

Jotham Koslowsky worked at a drugstore for 10 years, followed by a decade-long stint at an IT company, but it wasn’t until he entered the family business that he found fulfilling work.

Koslowsky joined the staff at Friends Funeral Service Inc. in Winnipeg in 2017. Today, he and his cousin, Danielle Froese, own the business and serve as two of its funeral directors.

“I always wanted to have a career where I can make a difference in people’s lives,” Koslowsky says. “My other two jobs just (weren’t) that fit. But now I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

Headquartered on north Main Street near Kildonan Park, the staff at Friends organize between 220 and 240 funerals annually. The business established itself serving the city’s Mennonite community, but today has customers from a variety of backgrounds.

A misconception about the industry is funeral directors want to do as much upselling as they can, Koslowsky says. It’s not how Friends employees conduct business.

“I think some people come in here with their guard up,” says Froese, 34. “(We tell them), ‘It’s all your decisions — you don’t have to purchase anything extravagant,’ and then the guard comes down a little bit.”

“We’re here to give the families all the information they need, and the decisions are theirs, whether we’re making a ton (of money) or not,” adds Koslowsky, 43. “We’re funeral directors — we’re not salespeople.”

Offering fair prices and acting as compassionate guides to grieving families who are making funeral arrangements has been the approach at Friends ever since Koslowsky and Froese’s relatives started the business more than two decades ago.

“We’re here to give the families all the information they need, and the decisions are their… We’re funeral directors; we’re not salespeople.”– Jotham Koslowsky

Walter Klassen, their great uncle, started the business in response to requests to provide funeral services after he retired from Klassen Funeral Home. He made arrangements with another funeral chapel that if family or close friends called, he would be able to use its facility to do the funeral.

Word spread Klassen was still available to assist families in need and he brought Harry Froese (Danielle’s father) on as a partner. The duo organized 50 funerals without a name, address or phone number. To advertise the funeral in newspaper obituaries, they put “Friends of the Family in care of arrangements.”

That inspired the name Friends Funeral Service when they incorporated the business.

In Sept. 1, 2005, the company opened its doors at 2146 Main St. in a 4,000-square-foot building previously occupied by a fitness centre called Heavenly Bodies. (Froese says her great-uncle and father used to joke they could have kept that name for their business.)

Jotham’s father, Harold Koslowsky, joined the partnership that same year.

Danielle Froese, who grew up living in the apartment suite above Klassen Funeral Home, never envisioned working in the family business but joined the staff as a funeral attendant in 2015, when she needed a part-time job.

She found the work meaningful and enrolled at the Canadian College of Funeral Service. She and Jotham Koslowsky graduated from the two-year program in 2018 as licensed funeral directors and embalmers.

Walter Klassen retired in May 2010; Harold Koslowsky did the same at the end of 2018. In July 2022, Danielle and Jotham took over ownership of the business. Harry Froese retired this year.

Sitting in the office they typically use to make funeral arrangements with families, Froese and Koslowsky say some of the things they learned from their fathers include how to listen to families and how to be a patient, caring presence.

Their fathers also taught them having a sense of humour and being able to crack a joke at the appropriate moment can be useful.

“Families think they’re supposed to be serious and it’s a time of sorrow and sadness, (but) there’s been plenty of times where families have been belly laughing in this room, and that’s fine,” Koslowsky says. “It’s a good coping mechanism. It just breaks the stress that some families are dealing with.”

Friends employs 11 people. In addition to the arrangement room, the company’s headquarters includes a 100-seat chapel and reception area. There’s also a room that displays a variety of urn and casket options. In an effort to support local businesses, all of the caskets — save for a steel option manufactured in Asia — are made in Canada.

Funerals have become increasingly personalized in recent years, Koslowsky says, so people have many options when making arrangements. While it’s important to honour the wishes of the deceased, he adds a primary function of a funeral service, memorial service or celebration of life is to provide a space for those who loved the deceased to grieve.

“A good funeral director’s goal is to find the right fit for you so you can say goodbye to someone you truly cared about, because funerals aren’t the end of the grieving process… they’re usually just the beginning.”– Kevin Sweryd, president of the Manitoba Funeral Service Association

“As long as it’s a gathering where you’re sharing stories, sharing memories, honouring the memory of the person who’s passed … it can take on many different shapes, forms, sizes, venues, genres — whatever you want it to be,” Koslowsky says.

Funeral arrangements can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 depending on what the consumer wants, according to Kevin Sweryd, president of the Manitoba Funeral Service Association. (Froese describes Friends as “probably about mid-range.”)

Sweryd has worked in the industry for more than 30 years and is one of the owners of Bardal Funeral Home & Crematorium.

In most provinces, there’s one funeral home for every 100,000 people, he says, but in Manitoba, the number of funeral homes per capita is much higher.

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba counted just shy of 1.5 million residents in October 2024; meanwhile, there are more than 30 funeral homes in the province.

There are no right or wrong decisions when planning a funeral, Sweryd says, but there are around 80 questions people have to address within 48 hours of their loved one’s death. That’s where trustworthy professionals can be a boon.

“A good funeral director’s goal is to find the right fit for you so you can say goodbye to someone you truly cared about, because funerals aren’t the end of the grieving process — they’re usually just the beginning,” Sweryd says.

The staff at Friends Funeral Service are exemplary, he adds.

“If every funeral home in town held the same standard of professionalism and care that Friends had, I would have no concern about people being in good hands,” Sweryd says. “Their outlook on funerals is similar to mine … We genuinely care a lot about what we do.”

Froese and Koslowsky are hoping to organize a community barbecue to celebrate 20 years in business on Main Street. It will take place this fall or next spring.

The duo aren’t just cousins and business partners — as the name of their company suggests, they’re friends, too. They’re looking forward to many more years of working together.

“(We want to continue) to serve families as we have been in the past,” Froese says. “We want to keep those values and that tradition going.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca