SCIOTOVILLE — For the past four years, the Nurse Honor Guard of the River Cities has presented an annual award of appreciation to a funeral home in the Tri-State, thanking them for the service they provide to families in their hardest hours.

On Monday, members of the group visited Brant Funeral Home in Sciotoville, where the Appreciation Award was presented to director Jeff Brant.

“The Nurse Honor Guard of the River Cities would like to thank Brant Funeral Home for their dedication to this community,” Dorothy Spillman, president of the group, read in the group’s proclamation. “You have shown love and compassion to many families and respect, while caring for their loved ones. And your staff have gone beyond that by showing appreciation and respect to the Nurse Honor Guard.”

Spillman said Brant did not know in advance of the award and it came as a total surprise on Monday.

She said past recipients of the Appreciation Award were Music Family Funeral Home, in Ashland, Phillips Funeral Home, in Ironton, and Sparks Funeral Home, in Grayson, Kentucky.

The Nurse Honor Guard was founded in 2019 by Spillman and the late Maria Oakes, of Ironton.

In the year’s since their founding the Ashland, Kentucky-based organization has performed services of honor at hundreds of funerals in the Tri-State area for those involved in nursing. They have been a regular participant in the annual Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day parade each year since their founding and have also performed services at events such as wreath layings at public functions.