Sometimes, funerals, wakes and celebrations of life need some space, and Mullins Memorial Funeral Home & Cremation Service has answered that need.
The company has opened a second funeral home in Fort Myers to provide a more spacious setting where larger crowds are expected.
Shannon Mullins, owner, operator and mortician, along with his wife and co-owner, Sheila Mullins, acquired the previous Anderson Funeral Home at 3654 Palm Beach Blvd. in Fort Myers and officially opened it for business on June 30.
“We were really not looking at going into Fort Myers. An opportunity presented itself with regards to the Anderson Funeral Home that became available,” Shannon Mullins said, “It was such an appealing opportunity that we couldn’t say no.”
Unlike the Cape Coral location, this facility was built specifically to be a funeral home, Mullins said. The facility is nearly 5,000 square feet and has been cleaned, re-decorated and has undergone re-landscaping on its 1.41 acres.
The facility will offer seating for up to 125 guests in its chapel, with plenty of off-street parking, as well as on-site banquet facilities for up to 50 guests that offers a parklike setting. There also is a larger merchandising area.
Mullins said he has continued to fine tune the home.
“The facility needed a lot of attention to bring it up to my standard for the community we serve,” Mullins said. “We repainted the interior, tile is being put in and chairs will replace the pews, and the landscaping has been overhauled.”
The work should be finished in the next two weeks.
All preparation services will be provided at the Fort Myers location. About the only thing the new funeral home won’t have is a cremation facility. That function will be provided at the Cape Coral location, which has an on-site crematory.
“Competitors say my Cape location is small with little parking. The Cape facility is intimate, but not set up for 150 people,” Mullins said. “Our Fort Myers location is, and the facilities are only 10 miles apart.”
Anderson Funeral Home had been run by the Patterson family since 2005, which also had a Lehigh Acres facility. Two months ago, they decided to downsize and put Anderson up for sale, Mullins said.
The Mullins opened their first full-service funeral home and cremation service as a start-up in Cape Coral in 2011. In 2013 they added their state-of-the art, on-site crematory.
They specialize in cremation, traditional funeral services, advanced planning, out-of-state and out-of-country transfers. They can be reached at 288-7000 or online at www.MullinsMemorial.com.
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