THE WIND PHONE
Funerals Are for the Living, Not the Dead
Always go to the funeral
For over a decade, I have worked in the Death Care Industry. Every day I enter my workplace greeted by over forty-eight thousand souls who have traveled beyond this life and now lay in eternal rest. I don’t need a more vivid reminder that we all will join our forefathers one day. My office is on the campus of a cemetery complex that includes a crematorium, mausoleum, funeral home, flower shop, and family center.
When I started my second career in this death business, I was a former high school teacher who had just arrived in Iowa after forty years in California. My tenure began in the flower shop as I had also been the co-owner of a successful shop run by my husband. I did a short stint as a designer and then the shop manager.
Because of my background in teaching, I was asked to train to become a certified celebrant. Celebrants were new to the funeral business in the United States and had first become common in Australia, Great Britain, and then Canada.
Many people do not have a church home, as many have in the past. So, a secular service is preferred over a religious one, that includes more contemporary readings, music, and message.
How can the dead be truly dead when they still…
