Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of North Atlanta
Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
EP #70: Sandy Springs Chapel, Funeral Directors with Jordan Scott
Unveiling the heart behind the headstones, Jordan Scott from Sandy Springs Chapel Funeral Directors joins us to paint a vivid picture of compassion and community service. With over 55 years of serving Sandy Springs, Jordan shares the evolution of their services, an emblem of dedication within the funeral industry. Expect to shed the veil of misconceptions as we discover that their chapel, often mistaken for a wedding venue, is a sanctuary of solace providing full-service funeral care. Jordan's narrative breaks the mold, portraying funeral professionals not as cryptic characters but as pillars of support in life's most trying chapters.
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Grizzly.
Speaker 2:Hello friends and neighbors, welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor podcast. For today's episode, we're here with Jordan Scott from Sandy Springs Chapel Funeral Directors. Hi, jordan, so happy to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:You are very welcome. We're just going to jump right in and have you tell our listeners a little bit about your business. Tell us about Sandy Springs Chapel.
Speaker 3:Right, so we are Sandy Springs Chapel. We are a funeral care provider here in the Sandy Springs area. We do full service funerals all the way to full service cremations. We love to take care of our community.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. And you are right here in the center of North Atlanta, there in Sandy Springs, yes, yes, well, so let's go, let's tell our listeners if you will tell us about your journey, or you know the journey of Sandy Springs Chapel, or a combination of both Tell us all the journeys.
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it, so I'd like to brag a little bit on the facility that I'm currently sitting in. We have been a part of this community for over 55 years. Oh wow, closer to 60. We actually have a gentleman who has been in this facility his whole career. He actually started 58 years ago. So we have a part of the community taking care of the community for a very long time. We have expanded and grown in this area. We are a part of the Dignity Memorial Corporation, so we have another location here in Sandy Springs as well, and the Arlington Memorial Park Cemetery is a part of ours too.
Speaker 2:Well, wonderful. I don't usually share this, but I was well. I'm an Atlanta native. I don't know about that, but I lived in Sandy Springs as a kid, so very nice, very nice, very nice.
Speaker 3:You're part of our community too.
Speaker 2:That's right, definitely part of the community, and I love that you shared that you guys really have been a part of the community for so long and that community is important to y'all and that you've been servicing you know, serving the community for gosh. And so you said the person that is there, that's been there 58, since 58 years ago, is he still playing an active role? That is amazing. Yes, that's fabulous.
Speaker 3:It's a testament to the community that we share. It's a funny story. He actually grew up across the street from the funeral home, so really my radius his whole life.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Okay, so I did branch out from Sandy Springs a little bit here and there, but I'm back and I live in Dunwoody, so far away Absolutely Well. Are there any myths or misconceptions about your industry or your business that you would like to clear up with our listeners today?
Speaker 3:Oh, myths about the funeral industry. Yeah, plenty, plenty to talk about, but this one in particular I would like to bring up is the fact that our name Sandy Springs Chapel. A lot of people when they see it in. You know about, say, the yellow pages. We don't use those anymore but when people see us on Google and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:They think that we are essentially a wedding chapel. A church Funeral home is the kind of last thing that people that don't know us think about us. But, as I said earlier, we are a full service funeral home. That is our heart, that is what we do here. We love to take care of people in their time of need, but we also have done in the past a few weddings here as well. Our chapel is very state of the art, one of a kind, essentially in the Atlanta area. We like to show it off and let people come see what we have.
Speaker 2:Wow, so do you? You've done a few like weddings for you know exceptional people or people that are in the loop. Or is that open? Is that something, a service, that is open to everyone?
Speaker 3:I think it's people that are in the loop, people who have been here in the past in the funeral. You know they've seen our actual chapel, like the Ruhemar Chapel, is very, very unique in its own right. I don't want to give too much away because I want people to come and see it in person. It's quite breathtaking. Yes, people have had weddings here. We had one this year actually.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Well, that's a good multi-use facility then.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, so shipping gears away from work for well, actually, you said there were lots of them. Were there any other misconceptions about the funeral industry you wanted to clear up, or was that just? Was that the main one? Yeah?
Speaker 3:How much time do you have Stacy?
Speaker 2:So we go ahead and give us at least another one.
Speaker 3:As a funeral professional man I remember. So I started in this fresh out of high school we're talking 12, 13 years ago at this point and when I told my friends back home in South Carolina that I wanted to be a mortician, they kind of laughed it off, a couple of them kind of shrugged and a couple of them backed away from me. So I think the misconception that our new generation of funeral directors service practitioners have kind of gone away from is that funeral directors, morticians and bombers are weird people. I am not, and the majority of the staff here. We don't have caskets in our living rooms. We don't drive around the hearse yeah right, so we don't drive around the hearse all day. We're just normal people who love to take care of people in their time of need. So we have hearts of gold in the industry.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say, you know, and I've only known you, for we're going on maybe half an hour now with a preview interview included, but you seem very normal to me.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you. That's a ride of passage.
Speaker 2:I should. Maybe even more fun than just normal.
Speaker 1:I love it, thank you.
Speaker 2:Great energy.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, Okay. So well, now that we have cleared up that morticians and funeral directors are your great fun people as well, tell us what you're doing for fun outside of work, jordan, if you're not working what are you doing?
Speaker 3:Right, right. So I you know the typical answer of people saying yeah, I like to stay at home and play with the dogs and that sort of thing. Yes, that is my my jam, but I also like to spend time with the battery Little North Atlanta situation. Love the brave. Love it. The atmosphere out there the green. I have a few friends that work at a couple places out there as well, so it's a nice little family for us up there.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, so I love the battery too. Man, it's just a. Really that's a very cool setup over there.
Speaker 3:One place to be.
Speaker 2:I agree completely. Well so shifting gears from fun and this is always the most serious part of the episode. But is there a life challenge or hardship that you have gone through that you can say now, for having been through that experience, you're stronger for that and better for that today?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. As you and listeners know, life is a challenge. The further you go, the more you have to talk about. There are a few things that came to mind, but there's one that actually is still fairly recent on my heart. Last year my mother passed away and you know, aside from thinking, aside from you know the family dog passing or anything like that that is the closest person that to me that has passed away.
Speaker 3:In this particular field, we all care. We all, like I said earlier, have the heart to go with. This is what we do, this will be decided, dedicate our life to, but you don't necessarily have the empathy until you go through it. So now that I sit on the other side of tables with families, someone who has lost a mother, a grandmother, a sister, whatever I can share the true feeling that I had sitting in the chapel here at Sandy Springs Chapel Watching the staff of this facility take care of me and my family and our time of need. So my mom passing away has definitely brought a new light to the job and a new, a new way to take care of families.
Speaker 2:And I would. I would think, in your profession especially, maybe more so than any other, that empathy is a crucial piece. You know, I am so sorry about the loss of your mother, you know, thankful for the families that you serve, that you did gain some empathy through that, you know, and being able to truly relate, because of course you have sympathy for someone. You know those situations. But but to be have empathy is a different thing entirely. It really means helps them to be able to relate to you and and that is something that you can tell immediately if it's authentic or not Like I said, I'm sorry, so sorry, about the loss of your mom, but I'm so glad to hear that you're using that experience to help others and their time of need. So very commendable.
Speaker 3:I applaud you for that, Jordan.
Speaker 2:And you use the Sandy Springs Chapel in the loss of your mother. So you got this really safe firsthand.
Speaker 3:Connected to the community, you Sandy Springs Chapel, and then also she's buried in Arlington Memorial Park, which is right down the street. So Sandy Springs is that hard?
Speaker 2:Wonderful. I really appreciate you sharing that, that story with us. Well, jordan, is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about Sandy Springs Chapel before we wrap up?
Speaker 3:I think it's easy to see what the facility is. It's a beautiful building, it's a funeral home, but I think the thing that you can't see, whether that's online or when you pull up, is the hearts of each and every person that's here. I've been a part of this team for seven years now. Many members of the team, including the gentleman I mentioned earlier, have been here a little longer than I have. Everyone here. Everyone here does this because they care. So I think if there's anything that I can say on this podcast right now to let you know about St Spring's Chapel, we care about what we do. Our Google reviews, our Yelp reviews, et cetera our testament to it. We pour our hearts and souls in these services to make families' days in the worst part of their life easier and better than it was when they walked into the door. So we try and take care and love on people here.
Speaker 2:Well, that shines through with authenticity and I'm sure it's gonna come across loud and clear to the audience as well. It has just really been a pleasure having you on, so if our listeners want to learn more, what is the best way for them to get in touch with you, Jordan?
Speaker 3:Best way would be, I would say definitely our phone. It rings 24 hours a day. Someone's picking it up, someone's talking to you. That's 404-255-8511. Second best option, other than stopping by and seeing us, would be our website. Sandyspringschapelcom has great pitches of our facility and a few testimonials of families who we've served in the past.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Well, that is really about it for today. Thank you again so much for being here, Jordan. It has really been a pleasure. I have really enjoyed getting to know you today.
Speaker 3:Basically, the pleasure is all mine. Good Neighbor Podcast. I truly appreciate the opportunity. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:You're so welcome. Well, that's all for today's episode Atlanta. I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor Podcast. Thanks for listening and for supporting the local nonprofits and businesses of our great community.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, Go to GNPNorthatlantacom. That's GNPNorthalantacom, or call 470-946-7007. Room link at lnлятьcom.
