‘I swapped a career in hairdressing for funeral care at 19 – I found love along the way and met my fiance on the job’

A 23-year-old who swapped a career in hairdressing for funeral care at 19 and met her now-fiance on the job said “it’s quite a nice way of meeting somebody”.

Beth Gilkison, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, met her partner, Jordan Steele, 25, in 2020 after she started working as a funeral service crew member at the same Co-op Funeralcare branch.

A former hairdresser, Beth’s average day as a funeral worker now involves valeting, polishing, preparing and driving a hearse or family limousine for a service, as well as supporting people who have just lost a loved one by meeting with them and bringing them into their care.

Despite working in the same funeral parlour, the couple try to leave their work at the door and if they were to have children in the future, Beth feels their experience in funeral care would help them to open up conversations around grief and death to make it less “taboo”.

“It’s quite a nice way of meeting somebody, it wasn’t meeting someone on a date deliberately and having to try and make things work – we were great friends who ended up falling in love,” Beth told PA Real Life.

“We have so much in common, it was just natural.

Beth looked for a career change at the age of 19 after she was furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic from her job as a hairdresser.

With both her parents working on the front line as key workers – her mother as a nurse in intensive care and her father as a police officer – Beth wanted to pursue a career helping people.

Landing her job at the Co-op Funeralcare branch in Paisley in June 2020, Beth said a few of her friends and family members were “a bit shocked” at her career change.

“A lot of people thought, ‘you’re very young’ and ‘this is very serious’ but as time has gone on, I think they all agree that I’ve fallen into my passion and I absolutely love it,” she said.

Beth first met Jordan in 2020 at the branch where the pair both work as funeral service crew members.

“We built a really, really good friendship and a good rapport.

“We are kind of the babies at the branch, the youngest, so it was inevitable that we were going to end up together.”

The pair began dating after Jordan invited her to a music concert, a string quartet by candlelight, but Beth said she assumed he was giving the tickets away.

Jordan proposed in October 2024 and the pair are looking to elope in August 2026, before having a “massive party” with their loved ones to celebrate.

Beth said their work lives bring a new level of “understanding” to their relationship.

“I think for a lot of people with a partner in the funeral sector, it’s quite difficult for them to understand what it’s like,” she said.

Later down the line, Beth hopes their experience in funeral care will help them to open up conversations around death and grief with any future children, if they decide to become parents.

“If we ever go down that route (of children), it will be an open conversation in our home because it shouldn’t be a taboo subject,” she said.

Beth said she sees herself working within the funeral sector for the rest of her career.

“If I can give back even a little bit of comfort to someone at the worst time of their life, then I go home at night thinking I’ve done a great job,” she said.

“To be part of something so amazing has definitely changed my outlook on life and death.”

To find out more, visit: coop.co.uk/funeralcare.