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, February 06, 2014

Too Busy

What a day! It started on my drive to work. My phone rings and it's the answering service with a death call. I call my removal guy and give him the information. When I arrive at the funeral home he's not back, so I'm relaxing with my coffee when a family walks in. We had picked up their loved one a couple of days ago, but were unable to make any arrangements due to the surviving spouse being immediately hospitalized after we made the removal. So I sit down with them and go over the arrangements. They don't know what they want, they would like to check with the spouse. I at least get permission to embalm, and they leave with a promise to come back later and give us some missing information and sign the paperwork. By this time my guy is back and I have talked to the family, and they want burial, which means embalming, so with permission given I proceed to work on him first. (The other body was in our cooler, so I turned it off to let him start thawing out). While I am working on the first body, we receive a phone call from a neighbor who says her friend just lost a parent and can they come in to make arrangements. So I tell them to come on down, let hospice know we are handling things, and have them call us when they are ready. So I continue working on the first embalming until they show up, sit down with them and make the arrangements. At the very end, after all the services have been finalized, paperwork signed and contract drawn up, signed and given to the family, the "helpful" neighbor says, "Oh, will your son want to see {deceased person}?" Usually this is an extra cost, but I figure I can maybe leave her on the stretcher and give them a free few minutes with the dearly departed. So instead of bringing that body to the crematory, it is taking up valuable space in our prep room, which only has two prep tables and one dressing table. We had the dressing table occupied with our body for tomorrow's funeral, one other body on a stretcher for a funeral Saturday, one body in the cooler awaiting embalming, and our newest call on our other table. So now I have to play "rearrange the bodies."  I then eat a little lunch and get back to work, still working on the first body from the early morning. I get that one done and we pull the other body out of the cooler to work on him. While we are working we get word there is another death call, full service burial, can the family come in today? By this time my boss, who had the day off, had dropped by to check up on everything and help me out. So now I'm looking at a third embalming. Thankfully, the family found there were prearrangements elsewhere and we did not get that call. So our lineup for the next few days is: Funeral Friday morning, with mass and burial, viewing and funeral Saturday afternoon, with cremation, and two potential viewing, visitations and funerals (one burial, one cremation) in the next few days. Thankfully, I am off this weekend and should not have to deal with any of this.

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