Jo Walsh celebrates 10 years

This month at Tester & Jones, we are celebrating our colleague Jo Walsh being part of the team for ten years, having joined at the beginning of September 2015.

“I can’t believe that ten years have gone past but, looking back, it’s exciting to see how far we’ve come,” says Jo. “In my first year, we were proud to have passed 150 funerals and, today, we are doing upwards of 250 each year.”

Prior to joining Tester & Jones, Jo was a roving bookkeeper, working with a number of small businesses based in towns including Lewes and Tonbridge.

“I had started to look for a more local job – as I wanted to buy my husband a puppy and I needed a role closer to home for our new family dog,” says Jo. “I’d lived in Crowborough all my life and it was my Mum who saw a bookkeeper role advertised by Tester & Jones. I popped my CV in the door and came in for the interview. I got the job and a German Shepherd puppy called Maska!”

Over time, Jo’s role expanded from looking after the management accounts and payroll here at Tester & Jones, to overseeing our memorial business and selling funeral plans. Jo also helps out with funeral arranging, during busy periods, and being on call when required.

Jo has lived in Crowborough all her life and her parents are both still in the town.

“While Crowborough has grown over the years, there’s still a really strong sense of community,” she says. “I’ll often bump into families we’ve looked after or members of our Bereavement Group (the BGs). Living here for so long means that I do sometimes get to support families I know. For instance, I’ve helped with the funerals of an old work colleague and a number of friends’ parents, and I think it helps them to see a familiar face when they first walk in the door; they feel more comfortable to talk freely about how they are feeling.”

When Jo left school, she did a graphic design course at college and, over the years, that’s been beneficial to the work she does here – helping to design orders of service and also supporting families with the layout of the wording on memorials.

“I really appreciate the variety of my role and the opportunity to really help people when they need it most,” says Jo. “Families come to us at a very upsetting and vulnerable time, and they leave with the reassurance that their lost loved one will be well looked after, with any wishes they want for the funeral service fulfilled in the best way possible. All the funeral arrangers and bearers here are just so professional, as well as being really kind and friendly, and everyone supports each other.”

She adds: “Also, our support doesn’t stop once the funeral is over. The help we provide families with afterwards through the BGs is really amazing too.”

When she’s not at work, Jo enjoys gardening - growing a variety of fruit and vegetables - and looking after her chickens. She also loves spending time with the ‘very large’ family dog Diesel – a Rottweiler/Dogue de Bordeaux cross who, she says, is like a ‘big baby’ (Maska sadly died a little while ago). Talking of babies, Jo recently became a Grandmother for the first time, which she’s really enjoying.

Over the last ten years, Jo has enjoyed working closely with Glenys Jones.

“Glenys is just so supportive and caring,” says Jo. “And, she’s so easy to talk to, which is a lovely thing in a boss.”