Lloyd Zimmerman stands in front of his new Zimmerman Funeral Home in Howard and waves at every car that passes.

He’s not trying to drum up business — he’s just friendly, and he knows everyone on a first-name basis.

“It’s so good to be back,” he said as he hosted an open house on Sunday afternoon. “It’s been nearly a year since the fire and my accident, and I can’t tell you how fortunate I am to be here.”

It was early Saturday morning, June 30, of last year when Zimmerman heard the explosion from the upstairs in his funeral home. He later learned the sound came from portions of the electrical system blowing up. When he rushed to the hallway it was already filled with dense smoke and he couldn’t make it down the stairs.

That’s when he broke out a second-story window with a chair and jumped to the paved parking lot below. The next thing he knew, Zimmerman was waking up in a Wichita hospital suffering from a broken back and shoulder, plus head injuries.

He would spend several weeks in the hospital, going through many surgeries and therapy. And all along, he felt the people of Howard and Elk County by his side.

“I want to tell you, all those prayers were so meaningful to me,” he said. “It was your prayers that got me through it.”

After his memory started clearing, he started looking at photos of the landmark funeral home, then he was told the facility could not be repaired.

“I would look at the photos and cry,” he said. “Then, after a while, I turned the corner and started to think about making something good out of the rubble, and we started planning to rebuild.”

The new funeral home is located on the same spot where he old one burned, and it is beautiful in every way. A large entry foyer gives families a spacious place to gather and visit, and the funeral chapel is light and attractive.

“We always want this to be a place where you don’t feel awkward,” he said. “We also have added full multi-media advantages for our families,” he said. “You can give us a stack of family photos and we will scan them into the computer, add music and make a nice pictorial tribute to your loved one.”

The entire facility is much larger than the previous one and he is glad everything worked out to have it rebuilt.

“We have always maintained a sense of community here,” he said. “We lean upon one another through good times as well as those that aren’t so good.”

Zimmerman has an all-new apartment for himself and he will be answering the telephone most of the time, although his mother, “Rose,” will still be heard answering it at times.

“We had more than 600 friends come to our open house,” he said. “It was such a beautiful outpouring of love from my friends throughout Elk County and the area.”

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