An employee dedicating 50 years of loyal service to one company is not something you see every day.
But, this week, John Fraser and Son of Chapel Street in Inverness are celebrating the long career of their funeral director Eric Riddle.
Mr Riddle, 71, works as a consultant for the firm after stepping down as manager two years ago.
He was brought up in Dores, where he still lives today, and started work on the same farm where his father was employed.
However, at the age of 21, he answered an advert for a funeral assistant and driver with the Frasers.
Mr Riddle said: “It was good to start at the bottom and work your way up. I wasn’t drawn to being a funeral director. I just fancied the driving – we were all over the country and I thought it would be great working everywhere.
“Then I slowly got into furnishing coffins, doing removals from hospitals and houses and then eventually sitting down with people and arranging funerals.”
He became the manager of the firm in the 1980s after gaining his diploma in funeral directing.
He added: “You get so much satisfaction from the job. You meet so many people and go from shaking their hand when you first meet them, to getting to know them, and, by the end of the funeral, you are almost friends with most families.
“A good funeral director is someone who is understanding of how someone will feel when they lose someone.
“They should have a nice calm nature – it is very important not to get excited if something is not running according to plan and just work through it.
“It is important not to thrust your beliefs on to someone else. We have got such a variation of people in Inverness now with different denominations and everyone has their own beliefs.
“It is nice meeting the people and I enjoy the working environment. It is a family firm and we are treated as family.
“Everyone gets treated the same whether you are the funeral director or the person cleaning the cars.
“As it says in the bible, it’s like a watch in the night. You look back and think, where has the time gone?”
He has four sons, Eric, 49, Kevin, 47, Craig, 32 and Neil, 30.
Frasers will celebrate his 50 years service with a night out at the Kingsmills Hotel tomorrow night.
Vicki Fraser, proprietor, said: “He is a fantastic employee, 50 years of service to a company rarely happens these days and it can’t happen without loyalty and a very dear friendship.
“He has been a vital part of the business. He worked very closely with my dad, Ian Fraser, for 48 years before he passed away. He has been a real anchor in the Fraser family’s life.
“We are having a celebration for him to say congratulations and particularly to say thank you for all he has done.
“We are marking this milestone, but we hope he will be with us for a long time in the future.”
