BY TRACY AGNEW/SUFFOLK NEWS-HERALD

Tracy.agnew@suffolknewsherald.com

 

WINDSOR—A new funeral home in Windsor is the retirement project of a couple that has always wanted to open a funeral home.

Sterling Brook Funeral Home has been open since March. It is owned by Patricia and Elbert Louis Sr., who have been married for 30 years.

“We sort of see this as our retirement project,” she said. “We’ve been wanting to go into the funeral business, but we had to wait for the time to be right.”

Both grew up in Detroit. He completed a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy, which was spent mostly in Hampton Roads. He is the pastor of Mission of Deliverance Temple COGIC in Ivor.

“We wanted our church and funeral home to be together,” Patricia Louis said.

Owning a funeral home has been a lifelong dream of Elbert Louis. He lived across from a church and would watch the funerals take place from his home.

By age 12, he had talked his way into a job at Hall Funeral Home on Detroit’s legendary Eight Mile Road. He folded programs, carried flowers and cleaned the funeral home. On occasion, he would stay for a visitation.

“I felt so accomplished and proud,” he wrote in an autobiographical sketch. “I was helping people at one of the most difficult times of their lives.”

While in college, Louis got another glimpse into the funeral home business when he worked for the university anatomical laboratory, transporting bodies that had been donated to science.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” he wrote.

Patricia Louis worked in public health for more than 30 years. She shared her husband’s dream.

“It’s been a very long journey,” she said.

They chose the name Sterling Brook because they wanted to portray peace and serenity.

“We want families to feel at peace, even though it’s a difficult time for them,” Patricia Louis said.