They are in a business with a service most are not anxious to receive.It is the business of death, and funeral home directors handle it every day.
"It's a part of life we don't like to think about, talk about, but it is a part of life," said Terry Wilson, manager of Kilgroe Funeral Home in Pell City. "Death is as much a part of life as being born."
We're born, we live and we die. Those are the facts of life.
"It (death) is just a part of the circle of life," said Wilson, who has been in the funeral home business for about 25 years.
A life with death
Wilson is one of the few who has chosen a life with death. The licensed funeral director and mortician is around death almost on a daily basis.
"I think the good Lord meant for us to do something in life, and this is what I love to do," Wilson said. "It's a very rewarding field, but at times it's tough."
Jerry Castleberry, assistant manager at Curtis and Son Funeral Home in Sylacauga, said it is sort of a calling.
"I can't explain it," Castleberry said. "It's something you want to do, like someone wanting to be a policeman or fireman. It's just something you want to do."
Generally, people who enter the profession work one or two years in a funeral home as an apprentice before formal schooling.
Future funeral directors and morticians must go to an accredited college that has a funeral service education department for two years.
Jefferson State Junior College in Birmingham is the only college in Alabama that offers funeral service education.
To enroll, students must be working at a funeral home at least 30 hours a week, said Jefferson State Junior College employee Donna Love.
Along with the funeral service curriculum, students must take general education courses, such as English, speech and math.
Castleberry, who is also coroner for Talladega County, said the program at Jefferson State Junior College is nationally accredited.
Once students graduate, they take state board exams for funeral director and/or embalmer.
"Usually, people take both of them at the same time," Castleberry said. "It's a tough test. It really is."
A normal day
Wilson, a tall, lanky man, talks with sincerity and passion about what he and others do to serve families in a time of hardship, loss and anguish.
"We have a very caring staff who cares very deeply about the people around here," he said. "We've grown up with the people here."
Wilson started his day early one Saturday morning, arriving at the funeral home by 8.
Harry McCoy, a porter, had already opened the funeral home. McCoy also digs graves, maintains vehicles and does other necessary jobs so Kilgroe Funeral Home can operate smoothly.
Wilson got to work ordering a vault for someone who was scheduled to be buried on Monday.
He also called the hair dresser, and made arrangements with the funeral home's organist to play at the service.
"They are part of our staff, even though they aren't full time," Wilson said.
Another employee was busy dressing and applying makeup to a recently deceased woman in a downstairs room, where workers prepare bodies for viewing.
"We made arrangements with the family Friday evening," he said, adding that the woman’s family lived out of town, and visitation was scheduled for Sunday.
Even before makeup is applied and a hair dresser is called in, a mortician must embalm the body.
"Ninety-seven percent of the families choose to have their loved ones embalmed," Wilson said.
The embalming process helps preserve the body and allows morticians to present a more natural looking body.
"It's not a permanent thing, like mummification," Wilson said.
In the embalming process, body fluids are removed and replaced with embalming fluids, which are injected into the body through a small incision.
The rewards
Wilson said it takes about two hours to prepare a body for viewing, but could take much longer if death was caused by a traumatic injury, such as a car accident.
He said they, like many funeral home workers, take pride in the way the body looks to family and friends of the deceased.
"For us to be able to restore their looks is very satisfying," Wilson said. "It's so helpful to the family.
"We take pride in that," he said. "When someone says, 'She looks good,' that's what we hope to hear."
Wilson said it is not always possible to bring back the natural looks of someone.
"Sometimes you just do the best you can," he said. "But if you can bring peace to that family, we've done our job."
Planning a funeral
Generally when a loved one dies, Wilson meets with a family member in his office for about an hour to plan the arrangements.
He goes over funeral details and gathers information about the deceased for the obituary and the visitation registration book. Everything, from the minister to flowers, to the pallbearers, to where the person will be buried, is covered.
"We want to see they get through the funeral service as easily and uncomplicated as possible, carrying out all of their wishes," he said. "We're here to take care of the families."
Wilson will guide them to an upstairs room where caskets, burial vaults and cremation urns are displayed.
"When I first came here, we had roughly 20 caskets displayed," he said, adding that funeral service directors started listening to the public, who felt intimidated surrounded by caskets in a room.
Kilgroe Funeral Home reduced the number with "cut-a-ways" or only portions of caskets.
"You can show more caskets, and families say it is not near as intimidating," he said.
The family member is then taken downstairs to view the chapel and parlors. The parlors are normally where visitations are held, and the rooms provide more of a home setting for families in grief.
"When I first started, 60 to 75 percent of the funeral services were held in churches, now it's reversed," Wilson said, standing in the funeral home's chapel.
Funerals do help families go on with their lives, as well as help give the finality of a loved one's death.
"We'll take care of any family that enters our door. We work with families to take care of their needs no matter what their status in life is," Wilson said. "We treat people with dignity and try to make sure they have a proper funeral service."
