Wendy Taylor will never forget that one, lazy Saturday morning more than two decades ago when her then 6-year-old son came into her bedroom and made a declaration.
“’Mom, Dad, I know what I want to be when I get older,’” Taylor, of Rockledge, recently recalled. “I’m thinking maybe a teacher, maybe a lawyer, maybe a doctor, maybe a preacher. We have preachers in the family. But no. He said, ‘I want to own my own funeral home.’ Me and my husband were like ‘what?’”
At first Taylor and her late husband, Robert, thought it was a phase, something little Jeremy would grow out of. They never discouraged him, but they did encourage him to follow his younger brother’ Jawaan’s passion: football.
Jeremy reluctantly played football, and he was good at it, but he never fully enjoyed it. That nagging desire to work for a funeral home wouldn’t fade as he grew.
Wendy recalled another vivid memory. The family was in the car driving to church. Jeremy was 11 and Jawaan was 9. The two boys were chatting away in the backseat.
“Jeremy was like ‘I have a plan,’” Wendy remembered. “’You go to the NFL, I’ll build us a funeral home.’ Jawaan said, ‘ok.’ They made that pact as kids.”
The mom of two beamed with pride as she told the story sitting in her office at Taylor Funeral Home and Cremation in Rockledge. Wendy is the business’ CEO and cofounder. Jawaan is another co-owner who bought the land and built the facility and who also happens to be offensive tackle for the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs. Jeremy is the cofounder, co-owner, licensed funeral director and embalmer.
“I’ve been hearing about this for over 20 years,” Wendy said. “Jeremy drew up the floor plans for his funeral home when he was 13. To see it come to fruition really makes me a proud mom.”
Taylor Funeral home gearing up to celebrate one year of business
While the idea of Taylor Funeral Home and Cremation has been brewing in Jeremy’s head for decades, the business will officially celebrate its one-year anniversary this September.
Located in Rockledge, Taylor Funeral Home is a state-of-the-art 7,000-square-foot building surrounded by ample parking. In its first 10 months the business has serviced close to 200 families.
The lobby is decked out in light-colored marble with accents of black and gold. The main chapel seats more than 200 and is so inviting some have asked if it can accommodate wedding ceremonies.
“We wanted this to look like a celebration of life center, not a typical funeral home,” Wendy said.
There are two smaller areas to host viewings as well as conference rooms and back areas where bodies are prepped and readied for funerals. This immaculate back area, where Jeremy does his work, is one of the main reasons his mom said the business has been so successful.
“He is like a chemist,” Wendy said. “He has an excellent reputation in this industry as being an expert embalmer, and you can see that in his work.”
Jeremy has perfected a meticulous skill that allows him to provide closure to families, give them one final look at their loved one no matter what the circumstances were around death. It doesn’t matter how gruesome the manner of death was – gunshot, train collision, car crash, burn victims. Jeremy has gone through extensive restorative art training that allows him to transform bodies.
“We have never had to have a closed casket and we’re proud of that,” Wendy said. “Everyone wants that closure, to be able to see their loved one, and Jeremy is able to provide that. That’s what he prides himself in.”
Jeremy Taylor has been working in funeral homes for years
The Taylors have a large extended family.
Wendy, one of seven children, was raised in Brevard as was her late husband. The Taylor boys attended their fair share of funerals while growing up. Jeremy’s interest was piqued.
“He would always find the funeral director and ask for a tour,” Wendy recalled.
When the Taylor boys were little, Jawaan would be the one initiating football games with all the cousins outside. Inside, Jeremy was gathering his relatives to play funeral.
At 11 Jeremy approached the late Jan Stone, owner and founder of the longtime Stone Funeral Homes, and asked for a job. She told him to come back when he was 13. He returned at 13 dressed in a suit and proposed why she should let him work there.
“From the time he was 13 until he graduated high school, he never missed a Saturday working at Stone Funeral Home,” Wendy said. “He did everything from washing cars, to walking the Stone’s dog to assisting at funeral services.”
Jeremy said Stone was a great influence and help to him.
After graduating Cocoa High School in 2014 he attended Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida on a football scholarship where he was the starting center. Wendy cautioned her oldest son to concentrate on his studies and football and to not get a job.
“He couldn’t stay away from a funeral home,” Wendy recalled with a laugh. “He called me and said, ‘Mom, don’t be mad. I just went to the funeral home to see it and the guy hired me.’”
Jeremy graduated in May 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in business management and human resource management. Shortly after, Jawaan left University of Florida following his junior year and declared for the NFL draft. He was selected in the second round by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Jeremy said, ‘My brother needs me. He can’t go by himself,’” Wendy said.
The two boys moved to Jacksonville together. Jawaan played for the Jaguars while Jeremy enrolled at Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service.
Loss of family patriarch pushed the opening of Taylor Funeral Home
After getting his funeral director’s license, Jeremy worked for several funeral homes in Jacksonville, but he often came home to visit his parents. During one trip to Brevard in January 2021, he had just left his parents’ Rockledge home to drive back to Jacksonville when he got an alarming call from his mom.
Robert was in the hospital. Jeremy immediately turned his car around and drove directly to Viera Hospital. It was there they got the news that Wendy’s beloved husband of 27 years and Jeremy and Jawaan’s cherished father had died unexpectedly.
“Jeremy immediately went into business mode,” Wendy said tearing up. “I was in a state of shock. He knew exactly what to do and just took over.”
At 26 years old, Jeremy embalmed his father. He never returned to Jacksonville, instead, he moved in with his mother and took care of her during the difficult time.
About a year later, Jawaan signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Kansas City Chiefs and the building plans for Taylor Funeral Home and Cremation began.
“I shed tears at the groundbreaking of the funeral home. I shed tears at the grand opening,” Jawaan told USA Today Network. “It amazes me every day to see (Jeremy) do what he set out to do. He’s doing a phenomenal job at it.”
Did he think it was odd his brother wanted to be a funeral director from a young age? Not at all.
“One thing about our parents – any goal or any dream we had or brought to them, they always pushed us,” Jawaan said. “We always believed in him, just like they believed in me with my football dreams and goals. We didn’t think it was crazy at all.”
Both boys credit their success to their parents, and how they were raised. They said it was instilled in them to be a part of the community and to give back.
“That’s our foundation, where we come from… and that’s what we love to do, help out the community any way we know how,” Jawaan said.
Giving back remains an important part of the family business. The Taylors don’t like to publicly share exactly what they have done, but their generous actions have been life-changing for some of their grieving clients.
While Wendy said Jeremy is the reason the funeral home has been so successful, her son said she’s a big part of it. Wendy owned her own hair salon in Rockledge for 17 years. She closed her business and decided to help Jeremy run the funeral home.
“He was there for me when I needed him the most, how could I not be there for him?” Wendy said.
She still does hair and makeup, but now, her clients are the deceased. Once Jeremy embalms and dresses the bodies, Wendy does their hair and makeup. She also handles the front office.
“The care and concern she shows families is unheard of,” Jeremy said.
Wendy said losing her husband, and Jeremy losing his father so young helps them comfort clients because they understand how the feeling of loss.
Juggle Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Funeral Home
This will be the first full football season Taylor Funeral Home and Cremation is open.
The staff of 16 helps things run smoothly when Wendy and Jeremy are out of town. The business is truly a family affair with several relatives working there.
Wendy and Jeremy never miss any of Jawaan’s home football games in Kansas City.
To do so, they take a flight out of Orlando about 5 a.m. Sundays and return Monday. If Jawaan has a Monday night home game, the schedule gets adjusted slightly.
“Being able to run out the tunnel on game days and know my family is there to support me, it means a lot to me,” Jawaan said. “It always gives me that extra push, that extra drive on game day to go out there and play my best.”
On his bye week and in the off season Jawaan returns to Brevard. In the summer he puts on a free youth football camp and helps at the funeral home. He’s been known to assist in the office, even to the point of handing out tissues to grieving clients, which often results in a double take.
“It’s pretty funny,” said Jawaan referring to people’s reaction when they realize who is handing them a tissue.
The family is hoping they are at the start of a legacy here in Brevard. They want the funeral home to be the go-to place for the community in their time of need.
“We take great pride in everything we do and want all of Central Florida to know we are here for them during difficult times,” Jeremy said. “Taylor Funeral Home plans to be a staple in the community for many years to come.”
Spitzer is a Trending Reporter. She can be reached at MSpitzer@Floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Chiefs Jawaan Taylor helps brother’s funeral home business dream a reality
Reporting by Michelle Spitzer, USA TODAY NETWORK / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
