By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

Tony Papel received a strange request one day from a member of the Chattahoochee High School PTA – bring a casket to school during prom week and put it on display for the students. So he did.

Papel, manager of the newly opened SouthCare Funeral Home, provided a full casket, complete with memory board. Inside the casket and on the board were mirrors, setting the viewer’s face either inside the casket or being memorialized by the board. It was set up in the cafeteria. A card read “Can you picture yourself or best friend here?”

The point, said Papel, was to help hammer home to the students that drinking and driving are a dangerous and deadly combination.

“The shock value alone of it really drove home to the students to be careful,” said Papel. “Not just for prom but in all aspects of their lives.”

The dangers of drinking and driving are well known, but many don’t think that simply riding along with a drunk driver is just as dangerous. And Papel, as a funeral home manager, knows exactly what the results of drunk driving can be and how they affect families and communities.   

SouthCare Funeral Home is only a few months old but it is the only funeral home in Alpharetta city limits. With top-of-the-line funerary services, SouthCare is well equipped to cater to any funeral needs. They have a kitchen, chapel, rooms for pastors and private grieving rooms as well as a room just for little children. Even a state-of-the-art show room. Because it is family owned, visitors can be sure that their desires will be seen to in every way possible.

Papel intends to continue his tradition of providing some sense of mortality to students in North Fulton. He, along with Southcare, will be participating in the National Day of Prayer, held May 7 at 11 a.m. at Roswell’s Faces of War Memorial.

SouthCare Funeral home is located at 2260 Old Milton Parkway at the corner of Old Milton and Haynes Bridge Road. Visit them online at www.alpharetta-southcare.com.