The future direction of Bermuda’s oldest funeral home is in question. If it is to fully re-open again has not yet been determined.

Decisions on next steps will be made in coming weeks, after almost no trade activity in recent months.

Serving not just the West End, but all of Bermuda, for a staggering 137 years, Pearman Funeral Home is a landmark of Sandys Parish since 1885.

Formerly known as C.W. Pearman and Son Funeral Service, it is now located at 128 Somerset Road.

But new business has been turned away recently as only previously arranged services continue to be honoured.

Jo-Dina Pearman - the fourth generation of family to run the business - is partner with her brother Craig, who lives oversees.

Their popular father, Colin Pearman, a former member of parliament, sailor and director of the West End Development Corporation, ran the business until his death eight months ago.

That, coupled with an illness suffered by Ms Pearman, all but shuttered the business.

But the businesswoman has told The Royal Gazette that she is on the mend, and will have to consider the future of the funeral home in the days and weeks ahead.

She said: “My brother and I will consider the options and make a decision on what we want to do with the business.”

In response to our question, she added: “No, I wouldn’t rule out selling it, but I would have to discuss it with my brother.”

Ms Pearman is a lawyer by profession. She read law at the University of Reading, put nearly five years in the Attorney General’s Chambers and nearly three in at Appleby, before the family business calling had her graded Summa Cum Laude at Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science Inc.

She has been involved in the business full time since them - the last 19 years.

“We’ve had one service since my dad passed,” she said. “That’s been about eight months. We haven’t taken on new business and haven’t been able to help everyone who has contacted us.

“But we get calls for those services that were previously arranged - established well in advance. We will continue to honour those, of course.”

Her father, became the third generation of his family to work as a funeral director of C.W. Pearman and Son Funeral Service in Sandys despite training in college as a teacher.

The family business was begun in 1885 by William Morris Pearman and carried on by his son, Mr Pearman’s father, Charles Wilfred Pearman.