Being A Funeral Director: Dealing With Death

Ancient Egyptian embalming was a very sacred process performed by experienced embalmers. Ancient Egyptians used to bury the deceased underground, but because of that they decayed faster in a coffin when they aren’t exposed to the hot sand of the desert. That is how they developed the process of embalming to preserve the bodies.

As the paragraph above states: we all die, and though we are all different we all share just that. But what happens when we die? where do we go? what happens to our bodies? Thats where a mortician comes in. A mortician or undertaker, are both artists and scientists. The career of the funeral director is a combination of jobs and is never

     One of the duties of a mortician is to embalm the corpse for show. "If

Moreover, they have to keep secrets within their practice. The Funeral director position is an overlooked, mentally demanding and exhausting job that often goes without any appreciation in our communities until we lose a loved one. Many other professions deal with death for example, doctors and police, but those professions are widely praised and recognized unlike most Funeral directors. They love serving people, but struggle to maintain a personal life along their work that deals solely with death. Depression is a common outcome for this profession as they deal heavily with the isolation their job

Dead?" AlterNet. In this article, Frankie Colmane looks into how dead bodies are treated in the United State even after Mitford's expose of the funeral industry was published. The article takes both a philosophical and scientific issue with the procedure of embalming sighting proven negative effects to human beings and the environment. Colmane shows that even though people are aware of the malfeasance and misappropriations of the funeral industry following pieces like Mitford's, very little has changed. Therefore problems that have been discussed in earlier works should not be forgotten. Rather they should be continually brought up until the issue is solved. During the 1800s, embalming became common practice because the dead family member would lie in state within the home for a period of days or weeks until it would be buried (Colmane 2010). The article shows the duplicity such as when "funeral directors were arguing forcefully against charges that their mediation between the living and the dead translated into social obstruction that barred the stricken from facing death with maturity, realism, and honest" (page 2). This article will be used to illustrate that things have not changed with funereal practices despite the publication of Mitford's essay.

A funeral director can be a male or female who handles the care of the deceased from the time of death until burial. The person must attend college and receive a degree in mortuary science. A two year apprenticeship will be a learning business and directing a funeral. Funeral directing is beneficial and rewarding. A two year program is offered locally with duties including handling of remains, embalming, and funeral services (Lee).

Your cell phone rings in the middle of the night and you are notified that you have to go to work. After hastily getting ready, you find yourself walking down a hallway; you turn into an empty doorway and enter a dark, cold room that is filled with lifeless bodies waiting to be attended to. This may be an unfavorable situation to many, but to a funeral director, it is just another day at work. In order to become a funeral director, one must be genuinely interested, willing to fulfill the job requirements, be able to cope with death on a daily basis, and still maintain a positive outlook on life.

(Lamers 535). You would be required to fill in any open wounds left on the body

Criticisms of American funeral practices have been made publicly aware since the 1920’s, and actually go back to ancient times in the scope of human’s ceremonies for the dead. Since the first published argument against modern funerals various authors joined the movement publishing their disparagements of customs for the deceased; that in essence contend the grandiosity and lavish displays are merely a social and psychological representation of the monetary opportunity of funerals (DeSpelder & Strickland, 2015, p. 306-307). Even further, regarding the encompassing funeral industry as exploiting grieving loved ones for their financial gains, while disregarding the actual needs of modern society (DeSpelder & Strickland, 2015, p. 307).

We, as humans, often get involved only with the issues that affect us or our environment. Furthermore, sometimes we do not see what is happening around us that affects the rest of the society. The article “Drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can’t keep up with the funerals” by Christopher Ingraham discusses the fact that in West Virginia, the amount of deaths caused (mostly) by overdose has increased so much in recent years that their indigent burial program has ran out of funds to cover funerals for people that do not have the funds to pay for

Ask Questions: Don’t be afraid to ask the funeral director as many questions as you need to make you feel at ease. Feel free to bring a list to your meeting if that helps you gather your thoughts. Most are also readily available by phone to answer additional questions.

In pursuing this further, there are several aspects to this topic; such as, preplanning, financial planning, cost, and the surviving family members. Funeral planning is something we all will have to do at one point in our lives, but where should we begin? It is a good idea to start with the preplanning of the funeral. Preplanning is crucial; it provides piece of mind, especially for surviving family. As said earlier, discussing one 's mortality is an extremely uncomfortable topic; however, by preplanning a funeral, it will relieve the family of having to make important decisions during a period of immense stress and grief. Furthermore, preplanning gives time to explore the options for a ceremony and allows time to discuss the financial aspects. It also gives a chance to choose a funeral home that best suit ones needs and budget.

When people think of preparing for their death, their family members get frustrated. But, when the day comes, people see the sad reality of not agreeing to a pre-planned funeral. Before discussing pre-planning to your family, you have to be prepared emotionally.

Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and

now. The only thing I can do now is pray and hope. To pray that I will