Faith guiding Rainey Funeral Home’s mission

Tyler and Breanne Rainey view stepping into owning a funeral home that has been serving families in the area since 1901 as an extension of their faith.

The couple sees their work through the former Fuller Funeral Home in Dale as a way to love people during their darkest moments—it’s become their mission field.

“This is a ministry,” Tyler explained about Rainey Funeral Home. “Everyone on board here agrees it is a ministry and whenever this becomes a business, it is time for us to get out.”

Tyler doesn’t really have an explanation for how he ended up as the owner of the funeral home. He gives his mom a little credit. “The only thing remotely that I can think of associated with this is my mom being big in genealogy,” he explained.

As a child, he was dragged around to different cemeteries—he called it cemetery hopping—while his mom took photos of headstones as part of her genealogy research.

After graduating from Southridge in 2005, he attended college for funeral services but returned home before completing his degree. He didn’t begin working in the funeral industry until Breanne’s grandmother passed away. During the process, Tyler struck up a conversation with the owners of Nass & Sons and was soon offered a job.

He worked there for a decade before being approached about purchasing Fuller Funeral Home.

According to Tyler, he always wanted to own a funeral home. He developed a passion for helping people through the process of final farewells. And he and Breanne are entrepreneurial.

The couple completed the purchase in late June. Since then, they’ve been very busy with funerals and renovations. Through the help of friends and family, they are slowly bringing their vision to life.

Taking over a funeral home that began serving the area in 1902 through five generations of Fullers comes with a certain amount of expectation from the community.

That became apparent as they began painting the exterior of the building.

“It was like a parade,” Tyler said. “People would drive by and give us thumbs up or tell us it was looking great.”

“It was like there was a billboard that said, ‘Go check the funeral home out,'” Breanne laughed.

One mother and daughter drove by to check out the progress. Shutting the car off in the middle of Hammond Street, they stayed and talked with Tyler and Breanne about the funeral home and their intentions. After about half an hour, the mother and daughter prepared to continue their day.

Before leaving, though, the mother wrapped her arm around Tyler’s and told him, “This is where I want to go whenever I pass away, but hopefully, it’s not for a while.”

Regardless of the gifts in this life, we all share in the somber equality of death. With this in mind, Tyler and Breanne meet people with the same compassion and respect, no matter the circumstances, “because you never know,” said Tyler.

The next day, Tyler and Breanne were planning this woman’s funeral; she passed away a few hours after that pleasant conversation in the street.

Anyone coming to Rainey Funeral Home can expect to find a caring, full-service funeral home ready to serve them during what can be the worst moment in their lives. The process can be difficult, and in the midst of many hard decisions, the Raineys don’t want to take advantage of anyone needing their service.

While Tyler works on completing his funeral director’s license, Steve Schwinghamer has been filling in as the licensed funeral director at Rainey Funeral Home.

“Steve has been great, and he’s been sharing his insight from more than 50 years in the industry to help us,” Tyler said.

Rainey Funeral Home is a full-service solution that provides casket sales, funeral arrangements, visitations and personalized mementos for families.

Breanne, who also teaches third grade at Holland Elementary School, has become licensed as a pre-arrangement counselor. She explained that it can be a gift to someone’s family if the funeral arrangements are prepared beforehand.

They accept transfers and can help facilitate those for families wishing to move their service to a different funeral home, whether before or after death.

They will travel anywhere they are needed in the region.

You can learn more about their services here.

The Raineys know they are doing the right thing just from the affirmation they continue to receive from people they are serving. “We were in the parade in Dale and a certain lady just starts screaming and clapping for us because we had helped her when her mom suddenly passed away,” Tylor explained.

Or the one day a lady from the local McDonald’s stopped by with a bunch of the charms being featured in the Happy Meals at the time. “She just wanted to bring these for the kids,” Breanne said.

The care they have for people is being felt and their faith is a stalwart guide for how they treat people.

Even in the darkest moments when a family is in shock, grieving at the loss of a loved one. A moment Tyler has to step into to begin the process of laying their loved one to their final resting place.

He remembers a moment when one family was so lost.

“The lady just said, ‘I wish we could pray,'” he explained. “So we did it right there in the nursing home room. We held hands in a circle and prayed together.”

As the Rainey’s faith has held them together, they hope those they serve can find comfort in that faith as well. It will lead them in all they do.

Tyler and Breanne live south of Holland with their four children, Remington, 10, Canyon, 7, Lakelyn, 5, and Breckyn, nearly 3.

The Raineys will celebrate the opening of Rainey Funeral Home, 109 W. Hammond Street in Dale, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house on Saturday, November 9, at 10 a.m.