- November 16, 2025
Nina Guiglotto never thought she’d be working in the funeral business, but she fell in love with it. Now she has opened her own business, Lotus Funeral Services at 460 Palm Coast Parkway SW, Suite 3, in Palm Coast.
After two years of planning and refurbishing the office space, Guiglotto hired Funeral Director Stephen Barreto and opened Lotus, holding a ribbon cutting on Oct. 10.
“I wanted something that could be affordable and unique, which is why this setup is the only one really around that isn’t the large funeral home, but offers all of the same services. But some of them are off-site,” Guiglotto said. “... My location is smaller, but I meet the standards to be a funeral establishment.”
Cremation has outpaced burials in the area, Guiglotto said, as well as throughout the country. According to a National Funeral Directors Association report, cremation rate will more than double burial rate (63.4% to 31.6%) this year with cremations projected to rise to 82.3% by 2045.
Guiglotto has agreements to utilize local chapels in town and an agreement with Hillside Cemetery in Ormond Beach where it can offer space.
It also has an agreement with Palm Coast United Methodist Church where Guiglotto is helping them offer columbarium space to the community. Lotus is also building a botanical memory garden there. It’s going to be the first one in town, Guiglotto said. Lotus offers a living urn, which includes a kit with special soil that can be co-mingled with the ashes of one or more loved ones and it will grow a living tree or flower, which can be planted in the memory garden, or in one’s yard or in a pot.
“They could do a little service in their backyard, and for much less money than having to use a traditional cemetery,” Guiglotto said. “I always say, Your memories can bloom on.”
Lotus offers keepsake urns and biodegradable urns, so they can be dropped into water instead of opening them and scattering the ashes. They also offer memorial videos.
Guiglotto said she got into the funeral business eight years ago, when she and her family moved to Palm Coast. She posted her resume to a local job site, and a funeral home reached out asking if she would be interested in selling funerals in advance.
“One of the previous things I did was save people from foreclosure, and so they thought, ‘Oh, that must be a kind person,’” Guiglotto said. “I thought, ‘OK, this is a scam,’ but I decided to go to the interview anyway. And when I went, I was pleasantly surprised.”
Guiglotto’s father died when she was 19, and she remembered her mother saying, “Well, what do we do?” She saw this as an opportunity to help people plan in advance.
“They sent me to a training course, and that was really very excellent. It was a great way to get an introduction to the industry, and I fell in love with it,” she said. “The more I helped people, and the more thank you cards I would receive from families that did the arrangements in advance and just how it touched them, made me so thrilled.”
She ultimately decided to open her own funeral business, and Lotus is the fulfillment of that goal.
“And then I have the non-profit, Coping with Colors, that is going to benefit families that can’t afford it,” Guiglotto said.
She said it is sad to see families spend and spend because of guilt or fear or sadness. Communication is key, she said.
“I want to make it a subject that people should feel comfortable talking about, if it’s OK to cremate me or scatter the ashes,” Guiglotto said. “Plan it, get excited. A lot of people did a lot of great things in their lives, and this is the moment to shine.”
Barreto has been a funeral director since 1995.
For more information on Lotus Funeral Services, visit lotusfuneralservices.com.
