First day at work
I pull into the funeral home parking lot this morning about ten till eight and wait for Patti to open the front doors. This is the first time meeting her so we talk up a storm while turning all the lights on and she shows me how to retrieve messages from the forwarding service and how to transfer the calls back to the funeral home. She explains the purpose of the dry-erase board, instructing me on the proper way to read it. The board said we had a memorial service in the chapel at 2, but to expect the family around 1. After talking a long time I grow more comfortable around her. The man had been left in the chapel from the visitation the night before and he is expected to be cremated soon. I help Patti move the rental casket into the preparation room where she shows me the body is placed in a rental casket, since it may be used more than once if an insert is included with the deceased. There was a flower spray and bouquets left over from the visitation in which the families left for us to donate. Certain bouquets can be donated to Nursing Homes…but donating a casket spray is just a little insensitive, plus they were not meant to be hung on the walls or to be a center piece for a table because of their odd shape and size. Long story short, we donated them to the dumpster.
We prepared the chapel for the memorial service and I made the cookies and coffee for the family. The service was held to acknowledge the long, full life of a woman who had lived to be 109, dying just 3 hours before her 110 birthday! Many family members cames as well as friends and the family minister. Oh…The minister…
We were able to watch the service from the office on small television screens and the service was played throughout the funeral home. My supervisor had to watch and wait for the minister to take his seat so she could play the appropriate song. The minister began speaking about the colorful life this woman had lived…and wouldn’t stop speaking about her life. He was recapping just about every year that he thought was important, but no…not in chronological order. The service finally concluded and the guests went to the lounge to eat and talk. By this time I’ve become pretty good with answering the phone and I’m feeling pretty confident, until the “walk-in”.
A “walk-in” is where a family or individual has not made an appointment or a first call by telephone but has just recently been notified of a death. On this particular walk-in the man’s daughter had died. He informed the funeral director that she was thought to have died on Tuesday…five days ago. She was found dead in her RV with her two dogs locked inside with her. The man was in a very upbeat mood and did not seem phased at all that his daughter’s body was found in the state that it was…the dogs had to have gotten hungry…
So my first day was great and I love my coworkers! Tomorrow I will learn how to print an infant’s hands and feet and a family is expected to come in to make arrangements. It’ll be a pretty easy day tomorrow and probably not as long.
