Groundhog Day

Remember the movie, "Groundhog Day" where Bill Murray keeps reliving the same day over and over? That was my day today.

I usually arrive at work about 20-30 minutes early. This gives me time to browse the paper, read the funnies, and have some coffee before everyone else shows up. My boss came in about 5 minutes early and says we have a call. So we get in the hearse and make the removal. We get back to the funeral home a short while later, and as we're pulling into the parking lot, my boss's cell phone rings. It's the funeral home calling; we've got another call. So we quickly unload and get the body on a table in preparation for embalming. We put the stretcher back in the coach and off we go again.

So, this morning, I arrive at my usual early time; I'm drinking my coffee and my boss walks in and says, "we've got two bodies to get." I asked him if this was yesterday. However, this time me and my boss went on one call and we sent somebody else on the second call.

The second call will be my responsibility, by the way. The family is coming in Friday morning, and I have been tasked with making the arrangements. We had enough preliminary information to generate the death certificate, so today I signed my first death certificate as a licensed funeral director. My boss seems to think this family may be a little bit of a trial to deal with. I'm not sure; maybe he's just being paranoid. He's trying to give me tips and advice on how to handle them, but he just ended up making me more apprehensive.

I think I'll just go in expecting a normal arrangement and take it from there. One thing in my favor; they are a friend of our secretary. Hopefully things will go smoothly.