More than anything, I know how to celebrate life. Funerals, weddings, bridal showers, birthdays, anniversaries: I have had a hand in manifesting dreams, recording happiness, creating beauty, and preserving legacy for most of my life. For me, my business is not work, it is not a career, it is not employment. It is my mission and, my greatest pleasure.

I started in publishing and entered the service industry, creating an opportunity in videography which led to an opportunity producing bridal shows and expos, which naturally continued into a thriving business in event planning. Moving my professionalism, creativity, and my connection to honoring life and love into the funeral industry was instinctual and pure: I wanted to build a community of homes to serve my community. Based on the principles of forging enduring relationships, mutual respect, and positive experience, I put my name and my own ethics and conviction into the character of Allen Dave Funeral Homes and Crematorium, comprised of three funeral homes, one cemetery, and a crematorium.

Connecting myself to death, dying, and grief means I am also tying myself to conversations about love, living, and life. I am part of people's crisis and sadness, but I am also able to contribute to their celebration and joy. The most difficult moment of my life was telling my own children that their own young mother had died, at age 39. I know how death effects life, and I understand grief. I use my own experiences with death, a childhood spent attending funerals with my grandparents and great-grandparents, and learning from a great uncle who was also in the profession. I grew up in a community in which not only attending memorials, but attending to families was commonplace. The food - the cakes, the pies, the salads and fried chicken - the humor, the stories, the love, the encouragement: it's all still very vivid. This is the kind of caring I have infused into my own funeral business, and the kind of celebratory atmosphere, kinship, and support I offer not only my clients, but my employees every single day.

I want to live a dynamic and prosperous life. Making my own, dear mother proud and taking care of her, trying to give as much as she has given me, the time I share with my wife Micca, delighting in her love, her nurturing soul, and also, her excellent cooking, and also, the time I have enjoyed raising my three children, Barrington, Jasmine, and Alexandria, my pride in their accomplishments, my desire to see them fulfilled, happy, and safe, all of this makes what I do and the time I spend away from them worth all that I give. My wealth is my home. It is my mother, her love and her life. It is my younger sister for whom I attempt to be a role model and also, a leader: she makes me live my very best life. My wealth is Micca, who provides me what I give to my clients every day. It is her compassion, and her sensitivity. My wealth is three beautiful, intelligent, and successful children. My wealth will be grandchildren and great-grandchildren, birthdays celebrated, meals shared, laughter, chatter, and play. My wealth is my church, where I am a deacon and where I celebrate the center of my grace and life's blessings, God. My wealth is also my home and the community I serve. My family and my community prosper with every family that walks into one of my homes and receives the dignity, respect, and commemoration they and their loved ones deserve. We all prosper when we can provide a moment of relief, an occasion for laughter, a moving memorial, or a bit of closure. This is how I was raised and it is also how I will die.

My memorial will be a three-day event, complete with multiple visitations, receptions, and celebrations. Like a true renaissance man, I intend to bring together my family, my friends, my business partners, my employees, and my community, because I live as I want to die, a man who serves fellow man, but who is also humbled by the love, the life, and the prosperity he has been so fortunate to receive.