As a licensed funeral director and embalmer, and mortuary school professor I am proud to be a member of a community that collectively arranges for and executes with professionalism the creation of meaningful moments for millions of deceased people’s loved ones. This community can weather ANY challenge, together.
Funeral directors know, when someone dies, things can happen quickly and all of a sudden there are a lot of plates spinning in the air all at once. Almost all of the plates stay spinning by the funeral director and support staff, and the precision dance that is a funeral service happens and another life is honored in whatever way the family and friends chose. BUT…
Anticipating problems before they happen virtually eliminate the possibility that they will, in fact, happen!
There’s always a lot of discussion amongst embalmers about the chemicals they use, the cosmetics they like, and the techniques they deploy in restoration. When we think of embalming, we can easily call to mind that related sciences are chemistry, biology, anatomy, and microbiology, but what about physics? Occasionally you will see someone post a …
The best way to meet and exceed today’s consumer expectations is to check our ego at the door of the funeral home. Funeral service could easily go the way of the VHS tape if we don’t evolve and provide what our families really want and need.
Visualize a bon-fire. Envision the flames licking the air and hear the crackling of the wood burning. Smell the smoke and notice the sparks and embers spitting as the fire consumes the logs. Now imagine that instead of logs being consumed by fire it is a dead body in a box. Your mental picture just changed, did it not? Should it have? To understand the differences in these fires (and some might say more importantly, to understand the similarities) is fundamental to understanding what goes on inside a cremator.
Why would someone that works for a living making $50K per year, raising 2 children and 2 dogs buy a Louis Vuitton purse for $3,500? What is the attraction? They aren’t even made of leather!! Why is it also that that person wouldn’t think of spending $3,500 for a funeral if their spouse died. WUT?? I recently had an epiphany on this and decided I had to write about it.
Once the cremation rate hit 50% of deaths in the US, funeral service professionals could become nothing more than body movers.
Crematory Operators! Just because you always did it that way doesn’t mean it’s not the best way to do it!
Because of its black plumage, its eerie croaking call, and the fact that it prefers to eat the decaying flesh of already dead animals, the raven is often associated with death and bad luck. However, its symbolism is complex. As a talking bird, the raven also represents prophecy and insight.
