SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — It is ironic that when director of Doyley’s Funeral Home, Carlton Lloyd Doyley was a boy growing up here in his native town, he was so acutely afraid of coffins that he would cry and run at the sight of one.

“I always run when I see coffin. I didn’t know I would (later) handle coffin so (much), like using my knife and fork,” quipped Doyley on Friday, the day he celebrated the 80th anniversary of his birth.

In fact, when Doyley left the Savanna-la-Mar Elementary School and decided to acquire the cabinetmaking skill, he did not have the slightest clue that it would be the toddling steps on his path to allaying his phobia for coffins and becoming the operator of one of the most successful funeral home establishments in the parish of Westmoreland, on the same street where he was born and raised.

The unassuming Doyley, who reflected that he is from a humble background, also recalled that he was first introduced to the trade at “Mr Bravo’s” small workshop in the community, after getting the go-ahead from his parents, Lester and Clara Doyley.

“When I was told that this month is my last month in elementary school, I went home and told my parents and they sat me down and asked me what I wanted to do. And I told them I wanted to be a cabinetmaker. Well, there was no objection,” Doyley recounted.

Following his sojourn with Bravo, he soon moved on to a larger workshop in another section of the community, where he quickly honed his skills under the watchful eyes of the foreman, Henry Shippey.

He recalled that during those days, in the absence of morgues, persons would lay blocks of ice on corpses until funeral day. Caskets would also be built and sold by cabinetmakers.

As fate would have it, as his talent in the trade began to show marked improvement and his boyhood fear of coffins significantly waned, a boy who was living next door died.

This would prove to be the final nail in the coffin for his fear of the box in which a dead body is buried, as he was requested to build one by his neighbours. He passed that litmus test with flying colours.

“I got 100 per cent marks for my neighbour’s own (coffin) so they said yes man, he can build it. So that is where I started,” he disclosed.

Doyley soon branched out on his own by establishing a small workshop at the back of his parents’ house.

“I said to my dad, ‘Papa don’t you believe I can start on my own?’ He said ‘Why not build a shop around the back of the house and start?’” he proudly remembered.

But, as word of his furniture-making prowess began to make the rounds and the demand for this work grew, he had to approach his father, who was a fisherman and who saved at a building society in the town, for financial assistance to upgrade his tools and establish a bigger outfit in the town, where he employed four workers to assist him.

“Gone to John Public now; people passing and hearing machine running,” he remarked with a smile.

Then around 1979 — as his reputation as a cabinetmaker, including his manufacturing of boxes peaked, and persons sought alternative morgues from that at the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital — he was given the first preference by the St George’s Anglican Church to start a funeral home on a parcel of the church land along Darling Street, around the same time that one of his nephews graduated as a mortician.

“A lot of people didn’t want to use the hospital fridge, so the St George’s Anglican Church proposed to me — seeing that I am in this thing — they proposed that the choice is mine to lease me the land here and that is how I got the opportunity to operate the first private morgue in Savanna-la-Mar,” Doyley fondly remembered.

Now, the Doyley’s Funeral Home, which provides a 24-hour service, employs 36 workers. The establishment also provides services to Government agencies, including the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“God is to good to us, and to me personally, to live to see 80 years and with just a little pain in the knee. My family… all happy,” he remarked, giving much appreciation for his family’s support.

Doyley, who is a devout member of the Savanna-la-Mar Seventh-day Adventist Church, is also renown for his philanthropy.

Not only does he store corpses free of cost for the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital and the Savanna-la-Mar Infirmary, “until relatives determine which funeral home they decide to bring their loved ones’ bodies”, but he is known for providing back-to-school treats and providing bursaries for students, up to the tertiary level.

“I feel I should give back to the community,” the seasoned funeral home operator reasoned.

Doyley — who was recognised by the Government in 2012 with an Order of Distinction Award for his outstanding service to the nation — is also venerated by his workers.

According to Cheryl Foster, she has never seen him fire a worker over the nearly two decades that she has been employed at the funeral home.

“Working for Mr Doyley is like (attending) a university. Although he is stern, he is not a boss who is pushy. He is someone who like sit with you and coax you to get it done. I don’t see anybody like Mr Doyley. I don’t think he has ever fired a worker. He is a man gives you chance and is very compassionate,” Foster lionised the veteran funeral home operator.

A portion of a citation for Doyley read: “Carlton Doyley discovered why he was born: first to serve the Lord and secondly to serve his fellowmen. He had a dream like Martin Luther King to serve his fellowmen from the crib to a casket”.