The completion this spring of the Yorkton Memorial Gardens Family Centre is the culmination of a longtime dream for Allan Bailey, President of Bailey's Funeral Home in Yorkton.

Forty years ago, he was the manager of Canada's first cemetery-based funeral home, in Winnipeg. The Family Centre, designed to provide families with maximum convenience and comfort at a time of need, fulfills a dream Mr. Bailey has had since establishing Bailey's Funeral Home and taking over Yorkton Memorial Gardens in 1963.

Since coming to Yorkton, Mr. Bailey's dedication to community, innovative leadership and service with compassion have made Bailey's the preferred funeral service provider in the area.

The Family Centre houses a crematorium, an indoor columbarium, a chapel and reception area, and the cemetery offices. It is located within the park-like setting of the cemetery just east of Yorkton.

The Family Centre provides a convenient and comfortable location where the funeral service, the burial or entombment, and a reception or family gathering can be held, relieving family and friends of having to travel to various locations during a difficult time, Mr. Bailey explains.

The on-site crematorium is Bailey's Funeral Home's second involvement in providing that service.

The cemetery has had an outdoor columbarium, a place where cremation urns are entombed, since 1992. The indoor columbarium is the Parkland area's first, keeping with newer practices which allow urns and personal momentos to be available for viewing and visits in indoor comfort.

The Family Centre will also house the funeral home's extensive resource library, available to the public. It will be a second Yorkton location for the funeral home, which will also maintain its longtime facilities at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smith Street.

Yorkton Memorial Gardens is one of only five privately-owned cemeteries in the province. The well-landscaped 20-acre site offers a serene setting for more than 3,000 interments which have taken place there.

The seven Gardens have sufficient space to serve the Yorkton community and district well beyond the next century.

Mr. Bailey was joined in the planning for the new Family Centre by his wife Colleen, sons Boyd, Burton and Raymond, and their dedicated long-term staff of Dean Petersen, Murray Bialobzyski, and Larry German.