Help Enough At Last

We've hired three new people in the last couple of months. We now have a licensed director to work at the new location, a secretary in training for the new location, and another errand guy. Takes A Day Off is on vacation, and I start mine in 16 days. I can't wait. Naturally, since we hired all these people work has slowed to a crawl. We spend most of our days cleaning and looking busy. Occasionally we get a call, but the majority of those have been direct cremation. We do have two funerals coming up, however. Visitation tomorrow at the original location, mass and burial on Friday (my day off). Next Wednesday we'll have services at the new location. Again, burial to follow.

What's Up? My Blood Pressure

We got a call late yesterday afternoon. My boss sat with the family this morning and they want everything done yesterday. Of course, he throws it all on me to complete; the death certificate, the very long obituary, etc. So I call the doctor to see if he can sign while we wait so we can hurry up and get cremation authorization; they made no promises, but I sent my errand guy up there anyway with instructions to wait. Just as I was leaving for lunch, he calls and says the doctor will sign later today or first thing tomorrow. I passed him off to my boss and went home to eat. We'll see how that one plays out. Right in the middle of all of this, he dumps another file on me and tells me to set up the National Cemetery for this Friday at 1pm. I finally get to a point where I can do this, and am told by the National Cemetery Scheduling Office that this has already been set up for this Friday at 2:30pm. I ask who set it up, because nothing was documented in my file. Turns out the family had already taken care of everything. How they did it, I don't know, but it was a surprise.

A Tragedy Of Errors

We had a call late last week, and the owner sat with the family Saturday morning. Sunday morning I get a call from the family pointing out that the obituary is all wrong. It turns out someone who shall remain nameless typed it up all wrong. The last name was misspelled, and the first name was nowhere near correct. So I had to go in Sunday morning and submit a new obit. Tonight was their visitation, and the family asks me where is the cross? I check the file, and yes, there was supposed to be a cross, which we were out of. I called the owner and he said just to note in the file they were due a refund on the cross. The family also wanted the wedding ring back, but when I made the removal, there wasn't one. Now the family probably thinks we're a bunch of inept, thieving boobs, and I've got to escort them to the National Cemetery tomorrow.