And So Begins My New Life

Join me as I embark on a new life and new career in Funeral Services.

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Location: Southeast, United States

I'm a Funeral Services graduate embarking on a new career. I graduated high school in 1981, served honorably in the United States Navy from 1982-1986, been married since 1986, and have one son. I've relocated to a new state and have begun working in my chosen profession of Funeral Services, and I've never been happier.

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

What We Have Here Is Failure To Communicate

Things are going ok at work. My boss and I are getting along ok, but he has one habit that is maddening. He frequently forgets to tell us important things we need to know. For example, the other day he had a service at church which he said he might want me to direct. It was a small memorial service. I would show up with the guest book and memorial cards and guide visitors to the guest book and give them a card. So I show up the morning of the service to find that he has already gone ahead to church and that I was not needed. He could have told me; it would have saved me a trip. Then today I come in to find we have a funeral in the morning, then a viewing and visitation in the afternoon and evening. Our morning funeral was planned to allow us to meet the family at church, have mass, then return with the body and arrange for the cremation. No viewing or visitation at all. While I am on my way home from work, I get a call from my fellow director, who tells me that the family will be in first thing tomorrow morning for a viewing prior to mass, and that I need to put together a guest book and memorial cards. Holy Cow! How long had the boss known this, and why are we just finding out at quitting time? Frustrating.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Not A Good Ending To My Week

It's been an interesting couple of days, and it makes me glad I'm off this weekend. My day off was Wednesday, and I knew that Thursday morning we had a funeral to the National Cemetery, with limousine. I told my wife that I bet no one would clean the limousine Wednesday. Sure enough, I get to work and find it dirty and the trash cans unemptied. Shocker. So, like a good little drudge, I cleaned the car and emptied the trash. Then I see a stack of photos (about 100, give or take a few), with a note that says, "scan for slideshow first thing Friday." It did not mean to scan them Friday; it meant the slideshow should be ready for Friday morning, 8am visitation, with funeral mass at 10am. So I started scanning those and only got a handful done before it was time to leave for the funeral. My boss decided I should go with him to the National Cemetery, driving the limo. I was concerned I would have to stay late to get the slideshow done, because a funeral at the NC is an all day affair. An hour drive up, not quite an hour there, an hour's drive back. On the return trip, I was about 2 miles from the funeral home when the limo blew a tread. I called to see if we could get someone to come down and shuttle the passengers while I changed the tire, but between myself and a couple of the gentlemen in the family, we got the tire changed before help arrived. I got back about 2:30, with about 90 more photos waiting for me to scan and build a slideshow from, and burn a data disc and a dvd. I went straight to work on that, skipping lunch altogether. I finally finished around 4:15, just in time to make my dental appointment. I arrived at work this morning at 7:30 to make sure the slideshow was up and running before the family arrived. They had their viewing and visitation, and I was assigned to help take flowers to church. We had the cars all flagged with "Funeral" flags, then loaded the flowers in the van and took off. The entire procession followed the flower van to church! Not the new shiny hearse with the casket inside, but the crappy, beat up, run down flower van...I found out about this halfway to church; my phone rings and it's my boss fussing at me for letting that happen! What the hell? Anyway, when they got to church I had them park in procession so we would be ready to go the cemetery after mass. They managed to stay behind the hearse for that trip.

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