ALT-21 Nonprofit Service Sector
The live of a mortician is very complicated, tiresome and rewarding. Our life is complicated because we deal with peoples emotions and make money off of their loss. People come to us at the moment when they are most vulnerable and in need of comfort of the soul and mind. Being a mortician is a lot like being a priest, pastor and so on.
At times we also have to play the part of a psychologist. At the time when people lose a loved one is when they tend to come into the funeral home and let their emotions run wild. Our duty as morticians is to comfort them and let them know everything is going to be all right. We have to be very careful of we tell them because at this time they are very sensitive and might take our words out of context. If that happens then we have problem. We get accused of being insensitive and cold blooded.
It has happened to me and every mortician plenty of times. It is so difficult to talk to people while they are grieving that even our body language might bother them. We have to apologize for everything and anything. A morticians life is tiresome because clients call us at all times of the day and night. We actually do not get a good nights sleep. We do not rest really because when there is a death and we get called we have to drop whatever we are doing and go perform the removal of the body.
The removal process can take up to five hours depending on what the cause of death is and the family. Cause of death meaning the coroner and police involved. Family meaning they need time to say good bye at that time and waiting on other family members to arrive. Then the questioning begins. Questions like the cost of the funeral services, floral arrangements, priest or preacher and churches cost including the cemetery plot or cremation urn. You can not just perform the removal of the body and leave.
Sometimes by the time we are finished with that part of the process at the removal site five or six hours have past. Then a few minutes after we leave the scene. People call the funeral home and ask our operators to transfer the call to us for the same questions or to see what time they can come in to finalize the funeral arrangements. Sometimes three or four days pass and we have only had eight hours of sleep. The rewarding part comes when we can put a smile on the family's face and make them laugh. It is extremely difficult to achieve this but we get it done. It feels so good if we can make our clients forget at least for a brief moment that they are going thorough a difficult time.
Me personally, I get a feeling of great accomplishment when this happens. I say accomplishment because I do not know how to describe the wonderful feeling that takes over when I can make a person smile. On a different note why is it that people have no consideration for us we get tired too. We all have families and need our rest. Can't you just save the questions for the time when your appointment is set? Morticians need a break too. Do not get me wrong I am not trying to be rude.
