Legacy Matters

Career day, he hung out at the funeral home

Ever wondered what goes on in a funeral home when a body is prepared for viewing?

Linda's brother-in-law is a funeral director, a mortician and she hung out with him one day where he worked.  Kicking buckets and whistling in the dark.

I never understood why the dead were painted and made to look alive, but now I see that’s not really the purpose. Watching Joe at work, I see that he restores bodies to a restful state, rather than an unnatural one. They don’t look like they’re going to sit up in the casket and say howdy, they look dead. But they look readied for a journey; dressed up, cleaned, and arranged just so. He creates an environment that helps people say goodbye.

I suppose what my brother in law does for a living gives a lot of people the creeps, and sure, there are some creepy aspects to it. It’s not a career for everyone. But when I picture the great web of people he has influenced, whose tears have soaked the shoulder of his suit jackets, whose loved ones’ bodies he prepared for their last reunion, I am incredibly proud to know him. I’m amazed by him, really.

You’ve got to love a guy who once sent out a picture of himself in mortuary school holding up a corpse’s hand in the thumb’s up position, with the text “I PUT THE FUN IN FUNERAL” underneath.

via Growabrain.