Thursday And Friday Will Be Busy
We have received four calls in the past three days. Two of those were direct cremation, where we merely take the body to the crematory without any embalming or funeral or viewing of any kind. However, the other two are full service funerals, complete with visitation. One is a burial in the National Cemetery, the other is a cremation. Both families have decided to have their visitations and funerals on the same day. Visitation will be Thursday afternoon and evening, and the funeral services will be Friday morning. One will be in our chapel, the other will be at a nearby church.
Our owner is on vacation, so there are three of us to work funerals, plus the secretary. We've decided to handle Thursday and Friday as follows: The cremation family is having their funeral at the church 30 minutes before the burial family is having theirs in our chapel. So, our only licensed Funeral Director will drive the hearse to the church and stay for the beginning of the funeral. Once that is underway, myself and our errand guy will stay behind and work the conclusion of the funeral and return the body to the funeral home for cremation. In the meantime, our Funeral Director will return to the funeral home and work that funeral, at the conclusion of which the body will be placed in the hearse and taken in procession to the National Cemetery, which is about an hour away from us. By this time, myself and the other guy will have returned to the funeral home and can handle {hopefully} anything that comes up until our third guy returns about three hours later.
This will be the first time I've taken charge of a funeral, or at least the end of one, unless you count the Greek funeral casket-turning incident. I am confident I will be able to handle it, as all I have to do is approach the altar, bow, turn the casket and roll it to the back of the church. There we will remove the pall and exit the church. Since Thursday will be so busy with all of the visitations, I am having to work on what would have been my day off. I don't mind, though, because I love my job and it's time-and-a-half.
Our owner is on vacation, so there are three of us to work funerals, plus the secretary. We've decided to handle Thursday and Friday as follows: The cremation family is having their funeral at the church 30 minutes before the burial family is having theirs in our chapel. So, our only licensed Funeral Director will drive the hearse to the church and stay for the beginning of the funeral. Once that is underway, myself and our errand guy will stay behind and work the conclusion of the funeral and return the body to the funeral home for cremation. In the meantime, our Funeral Director will return to the funeral home and work that funeral, at the conclusion of which the body will be placed in the hearse and taken in procession to the National Cemetery, which is about an hour away from us. By this time, myself and the other guy will have returned to the funeral home and can handle {hopefully} anything that comes up until our third guy returns about three hours later.
This will be the first time I've taken charge of a funeral, or at least the end of one, unless you count the Greek funeral casket-turning incident. I am confident I will be able to handle it, as all I have to do is approach the altar, bow, turn the casket and roll it to the back of the church. There we will remove the pall and exit the church. Since Thursday will be so busy with all of the visitations, I am having to work on what would have been my day off. I don't mind, though, because I love my job and it's time-and-a-half.
posted by Granimore | 10:15 PM
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