Busy Bee

So, the funeral home is quite busy this week. It's always a bit strange to me that we have busy weeks/months and slow weeks/months. I mean, really it shouldn't be, a lot of industries are that way, but something just seems off about death not being more of a constant rate. Aren't births that way? Or maybe I just don't notice the sporadicness of births because I'm not an OB/GYN. Anyway, we're busy.

Also, I've been reading a lot more lately, mostly teen science fiction. It's always been my favorite genre, and with the success of all the Twilight books the science fiction books have really taken off, a lot of which have strong female characters, which traditionally has not been the case in teen sci fi. And luckily those books are a lot of times in a series, which makes for easy what-do-I-read-next decisions.

Anyway, I will try to post more regularly now... I think I'm getting the hang of it

Big Bird

The lady that runs the office has been here for years. 26 years actually, and she is highly organized and very capable of keeping the office in shape. God love her, she is actually a royal pain, but the office might cease to be if she weren’t here. I will describe her now:
- tall and fairly thin
- good dresser (even for an older woman)
- squeaky voice
- poor sense of humor
- prude
I really could go on, but you get the general idea. The last woman that worked here quit because of this office manager, she was just so hard on her (because of what I don’t know, but the rest of the staff liked the gal that quit) that it would make her cry, and finally she couldn’t take it any more.
So, back to what I was going to discuss in the first place: Big Bird (as she is called by the office staff) was gone this afternoon. There was going to be some large gathering at her house and she wanted to take off after lunch to prepare, and we weren’t busy enough to warrant her staying. Anyway, not five minutes after she leaves is it a whole different atmosphere around here. I know it shouldn’t really be a surprise, but it was, and even a few comments were made about how nice it is when she isn’t here. And we aren’t trying to be mean, but it can be hard to be serious all the time, especially in dealing with death day in and day out, and it was nice to be a goof ball.

Not part of the story, but a bit of background on the worker bees here:
Tank:
- He is about 58 years old or so (but looks younger), tall, and fairly fit.
- Been a funeral guy for a long time, probably 30 years at least.
- Married to a crazy feminist, who talks a mile a minute and is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas dinner the company has each year.
- Very private, doesn’t talk much a bout family (although getting a bit better, as he has learned that I tend towards the non-judgmental side)
- Also a licensed embalmer, but doesn’t embalm mush any more.
- He is the manager, and meets with a number of the families we serve
Buffy:
- He’s the other young person in the office, 28 or 29 years old
- works full time, although has one weekday a week that he takes off to work on his Master’s Thesis (in English, I think)
- Does quite a bit of office work, death certificate filing, phone answering, funeral service products, etc.
- Likes beer, one of the things we have in common.
- Plays in a band out at bars and clubs in the area. I went to see him perform once, and it was good, although his music style isn’t one I willingly chose very often
Buck:
- Been here for about 10 years, and worked in a cemetery office prior to becoming a funeral director/accountant for our place.
- Also is a pastor of a very small Christian church
- Banters constantly with Buffy, about everything from religion to war
- Was in the Vietnam War, and never fully recovered to a normal state of mind, although isn’t the typical Vietnam Vet the way we see them in movies. Was exposed to Agent Orange.

So, that’s about it for now…

Why in the world...

First: I love my job

Second: I am a mortician.

Third: I have been in this industry since 2002

In a day of work I do the following (give or take): meet with families that have experienced the death of a loved one, embalm, fix up hair/make-up of deceased people, work funeral services, work at a desk to complete funeral tasks (death certificates, service details, memorial products, etc.), answer phones, and many other things.

Most of what I discuss here will be about the office work, as I am sure that I can’t (or shouldn’t) write about specific decedents. Now, that might seem like a bit of a disappointment to some readers, and maybe it is, but in the past while I’ve figured out that the interestingness of my job is not dependent upon the amount of time spent with the dead or the grieving, but the amount of time spent listening to and interacting with my co-workers. They are, by far, the strangest group of people I will ever know, and I am going to attempt to capture a bit of what I experience on a daily basis so that when I’m old and grey I can read back pieces of this funny journey.

So, there’s the beginning…