[Amber Carvaly] listened to his stories about going to the morgue, setting up for a service, picking up the deceased ”” babies from families, husbands from wives ”” and she was amazed that someone her age could do this work.
Classes started in August and are designed to give students an edge when they take the state and national licensing exams. If Carvaly graduates in three semesters, she will have paid a little more than $5,000 to learn how to embalm and to arrange a funeral. Some have called the profession “the dismal trade,” but she sees nothing dismal about it.
“We can’t appreciate life without appreciating death,” she says. “I want to help people realize this.”
My wife’s father was a funeral director. He and my mother-in-law were people of great faith, and he taught my wife that his vocation was a “ministry to the living.”
I have nothing personal against undertakers. Somebody has to attend to certain things when people die, and they are certainly entitled to reasonable compensation. But I am appalled by American funerary customs. The expense is outrageous. How can someone seriously sleep at night after selling someone a metal box with a foam rubber mattress silk lining, sheets and pillow, for thousands of dollars… all to just put it in the ground?
There are so many added and unnecessary expenses, most of which you are forced to accept, (like plot vaults) that it is a scandal. Whatever happened to a plain wooden coffin and a hole in the ground with a suitable marker? Family and friends used to take care of everything except digging the grave and making the box.
When my great-grandfather passed, he died at home and the wake and viewing were held in the front parlor. Family members kept vigil over his body until it was time to head to the church. The only thing the undertaker was needed for was to wash and dress him, provide a coffin and the hearse and open the grave.
And then there is embalming. That hideous practice, which most undertakers insist on, is so repulsive that it should be condemned as the desecration of human remains and outlawed except in cases where a body has to be moved long distances or can not be be interred in a reasonable period of time. In most countries embalming is done only rarely, unless specifically requested.
Sadly in some states the funeral industry has even managed to get laws passed which actually mandate licensed undertakers to handle most or all aspects of the funeral! And since their services are mandated by law they are in an excellent position to pressure grieving people into signing onto services that are unnecessary and often hugely expensive.
What a racket.
2, in fairness all professions like licensing to keep out the competition.
Re #3
Br Michael
I am not opposed to licensing. I am opposed to laws that forbid people from taking care of things on their own that do not require specialized training. I don’t need special training to write an obituary, contact a priest at the church and arrange for a funeral or to do any number of other things. If we are discussing embalming (which I think is barbaric) then that is certainly something that would require specialized instruction.
The truth is that if I wanted to keep costs very low and the affair quite simple, I could probably do everything myself without an undertaker’s services.
I am amazed at how quickly the clergy role at funerals is being overtaken by a combination of morticians and family members. Increasingly I am reading obituaries that include an announcement of particular family member or friend who will lead the service. Apparently, the large number of un-churched families has led to a belief that it is preferable to have a lay person preside at the funeral rather than try to reconstruct some ancient, long-neglected relationship with clergy at a church the family once belonged to, or to call in the next clergy member off of the funeral home’s rota to pinch hit and try to say a few words relating to a person that the clergy person never met. Unfortunately, these “inflection points” of life…the “hatching, matching and dispatching” can provide at least some opportunity to bring people to the Church. That is almost never going to happen when the funeral is conducted by Grandpa’s law partner, or his favorite sister.
As a nursing instructor at a local community college–that also offered one of VERY few funeral science programs–I found the professionals–students AND instructors–in that program to be thoughtful and caring. They taught and learned how to care for both the living and the dead with concern and compassion. Working with them as we did was a real pleasure. And they conscientiiously looked to the emotional and spiritual needs of their clients.
4, I agree. I was thinking of the lady that wanted to use fish to nibble on feet. Apparently it is an Asian form of foot care. She was put out of business because she was not a licensed pedicurist and her equipment, fish, could not be sterilized as is required.
In other words the improper use , though legal, of professional licensing laws to shut down pedicure competition.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxky2HOJEOs&feature=related]Lewis Grizzard on funerals…[/url]
Sorry. I couldn’t resist 🙂