Mahatma Gandhi once said “My life is my message.” This is true for all of us, and as a funeral director, Angie Sirrine knows how important each life message is. For Angie, it is not about mourning the death, but celebrating the life and sharing that message.
Born in St. Johns, Michigan, Angie shared her childhood with her two brothers and one sister. She loved sports, especially football and basketball, but her greatest love is golf. In fact, if you happen to visit the Clinton County Country Club, you might see that Angie was the Club Champion, not once but twice.
After high school, Angie enrolled at Lansing Community College for her pre-mortuary studies. Her father, Robert Sirrine, owned Osgood Funeral Homes in St. Johns and it just seemed natural for her to follow in his footsteps. But Angie will tell you that she didn’t choose to be in the funeral service, it chose her and became her life’s goal. To achieve this goal, Angie continued her studies at Wayne State University, graduating in 1976 with her degree in Mortuary Science.
With degree in hand, Angie began looking for a job. Her boyfriend wanted her to stay in the St. John’s area, and working in the family business sounded like a pretty good idea, so, as they say, the rest is history. Angie is the fourth generation of her family to work in the funeral business and is dedicated to providing grieving families with the care and compassion they deserve.
In 1998, Angie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, limiting her physical abilities but certainly not affecting her ability to meet the needs of the families she serves. Coming to work everyday, Angie tends to the day-by-day duties of a funeral director, but sees her real purpose in giving each family the complete attention and care needed to celebrate the life of their loved one. After the death of her good friend, Nancy in 1986 and then the passing of her beloved father in 2003, Angie came face-to-face with how important what she does is to grieving families.
Proud to be part of the Life Story family of funeral homes, Angie knows that Life Stories change the funeral service from mourning a person’s death to celebrating and sharing the message that was that person’s life. For her, Life Stories help to ease the family through one of life’s most difficult times.
Stan Willis loves his work—guiding people through the death of a loved one has significant emotional rewards that most people never realize. Some professionals enter a field for the wrong reason; that is not Stan, you see he lost his father when he was only eight years old and he knows the pain of loss. As Stan looks back now, his entering funeral work only seems natural. His ability to empathize and create a meaningful funeral service comes from having walked in the shoes of a grieving person.
Beyond this life changing experience, Stan’s accommodating personality and manners that suit his life’s work come naturally from being reared in the genteel environment of the south, Atlanta specifically. Stan was born and raised in Atlanta and his mother and younger sister and brother still reside there. Growing up in a single parent home with three young children Stan learned a can-do spirit from his mother who spent her working career as a nurse. Stan’s school years were filled with participation in a variety of sports, his favorite being soccer which he played from an early age through college. Stan graduated from Lakeside High School in Atlanta in 1984. He attended Georgia State University for a while before entering the work force, but his instincts led him back to Gupton-Jones College where he completed his degree in Mortuary Science in 1997.
Entering funeral work not only led him to his calling but it led him to his future wife. While working in Marietta, GA Stan met a fellow worker Bridget Sirrine, they soon started dating and married in 2001. Shortly after, they returned to St. Johns to bring their joint expertise to the family business. Stan shares his home with his funeral director wife Bridget, four children, Georgia, Max, Austin and Christianna and the family pets Sally and Jenny. When Stan isn’t at work you will find him playing with the kids or riding his motorcycle, but look fast—the kids and the cycle both move quickly.
Stan looks forward to every day at work because he knows the mission of the funeral home to provide meaningful services at a reasonable cost will send him home at the end of the day knowing he has helped another family through a difficult time.
Some people pursue a career because it is their passion, others because it is the family business. Then there are people like Bridget Sirrine Willis who had the unique combination of both. Bridget helps people at a time of loss by not only providing compassion but by creating an experience that helps them move past the loss and view their family members’ life as a wonderful gift, a gift that will be treasured and remembered.
Bridget’s early life had a few quick stops due to her father’s Navy service during the Vietnam War. She was born in Charleston, SC then moved to California and Illinois before settling in St. Johns, Michigan near her extended family. St. Johns public schools provided Bridget’s initial education; she graduated from high school in 1989. Academics weren’t really the thing that drove her. Her strengths were the social parts of growing up; celebrations, gatherings, planning family events and school functions, anything fun—that was her enjoyment.
The Osgood Funeral Home was a place she always was around and it was a comfortable safe place for her. After all, for four generations before her the family had taken care of the people of the city who had lost a family member. Bridget’s social skills would prove valuable as she moved into the profession of funeral directing. Bridget attended Western Michigan University and the Gupton-Jones College of Mortuary Science in Atlanta, completing a BS degree in education and her degree in Mortuary Science.
After school in Atlanta she decided to stay there for employment to take the challenging path and prove to herself that she was a funeral director because of her passion and not because of her birth. The funeral home in Atlanta also gave her exposure to a larger more complex operation, where she gained valuable experience. It also would be the place where she would meet her funeral director husband, Stan Willis. Stan was drawn to her not just because she’s attractive, but also because of her wit and competence. They dated, fell in love, and now they’re married—and raising a family.
With two funeral directors in one family it was time to come back to the family business in St. Johns, MI. Stan and Bridget manage and are part owners in the family business and are continuing the fifth generation of the family owned funeral home. Along with Stan, Bridget’s blended family includes, Austin, Christianna, Max, Georgia and the family dogs Sally and Jenny.
More than providing compassionate care, Bridget wants to make sure her clients leave with a head and heart full of memories with the help of Life Story Network. For you see Bridget knows death is difficult but being forgotten is a tragedy.
There is incredible value in service to others, a value that Dave Hudgens recognized early in his life. Whether serving others through ministry, sales, or the funeral business, Dave has always cared for the needs of others.
Growing up in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Dave was the baby of the family. With two older sisters and two older brothers, there was always activity in the Hudgens home. Dave was involved in sports, music, and especially enjoyed his church and spending time with his friends. Going into the funeral profession was not part of his plans.
After graduating from high school, Dave attended Michigan State University, studying education for the next two years. From there, he studied at the International School of Theology, majoring in Biblical Studies. He finished his education at Spring Arbor University, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Organizational Development. With such a background, Dave was ready to handle whatever life had to offer.
For eight years, Dave shared his thoughts and his heart through vocational ministry, using all the skills he had learned through life. He also spent many years working in sales and sales management, and in both instances, Dave found that the joy came from meeting the needs of those he came in contact with. Ironically, this led to a life of service in the funeral business.
In caring for grieving families, Dave has made it his personal mission to make the difficult time of dealing with the death of a loved one, a time of understanding and compassion. There is a time for grief but there is also a time for celebrating the life that was lived, and as a funeral director, Life Stories are a natural and moving way to share that life. Each story allows Dave to minister to the family and help to make a lasting difference in their lives.
Dave has lived in St. Johns, Michigan for the past 12 years with his wife Lori, and their five children, Brenan, Mason, Sam, Camden and Erin. He is still very much involved in his church and likes nothing better than spending time with his family.
The truly great opportunities to help others seldom come along but the small ones surround us every day. As a pre-arrangement counselor, Sharon Terrill uses these small opportunities to provide client families with the service, compassion and integrity that is the tradition of a Life Story Funeral Home.
Sharon grew up in Dewitt Township, north of Lansing, Michigan, along with her older sister. Besides school, most of her time was spent playing sports and spending time with her friends. After graduating from Eastern High School, Sharon went on to Lansing Community College to study art. Although her father was friends with Bob and Dorothy Jean Sirrine, owners of Osgood Funeral Homes, Sharon had no interest in the funeral business.
However, she soon found herself working for a funeral home in Lansing. Wondering why she was driving all the way to Lansing when there was a funeral home in St. Johns where she was living, Sharon went in to talk to Angie Sirrine at Osgood’s Funeral Home. She has been there ever since.
Sharon sees it as her mission to treat client families as she would like to be treated in the same situation, with friendship and compassion. Being around death every day puts life in a different perspective and Sharon knows that Life Stories emphasize the life that was lived and tell the reader what a blessing this person’s life was.
When not helping others, Sharon spends her free time with her husband Jack, their son Jordan, and daughter Emily, who is away at college. Also part of the family are the family cats and goats, and if Sharon has her way, a donkey. Blessed with a creative trait, she likes antiquing, gardening, sewing and baking cupcakes. How does she find the time!!!
Life Story and Sharon Terrill are a good match and together, they help each family celebrate life.