A Mortician Tells What It's Like To Work With Dead Bodies Every Day

[FarCenter]

Q: What is the strangest request that you've ever received for a funeral service?

A: We had a dead clown one time. This person was buried in full clown costume with makeup and all. The whole family was clowns. All the friends were clowns. And at the family's request, the funeral directors were clowns too. They supplied costumes and did our makeup. Family and friends had one tear drop painted on near the eye. Definitely my strangest.

They were all sad clowns with a tear.

...

Q: What kind of person would make a good mortician?

A: It's funny. I was a waiter for many years in my younger days. I always say, if you can be a successful waiter, you can be a successful funeral director. They are similar in many ways. They both wait on families and provide what should be excellent customer service. The only difference is that one puts a pizza in the oven and the other puts a body in the oven.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-mortician-reveals-what-its-like-to-work-at-the-morgue-2013-2

[Mopar151]

1. I went to a clown's funeral once

Saddest day of my life, near enough.....

[uppityperson]

2. Working at our local skilled nursing facility (nursing home) for many yrs, got to know our local

mortician and spouse. They were very sweet, nice, caring people, took good care of a lot of people for many years before finally retiring when their parents and parents' friends started coming through.

Thank you for the article, it is a very interesting profession.

[whistler162]

4. Agree.... got my start at a funeral home

and that's where I will end, full circle someday.

Parents rented a apartment in back of a funeral home. Became friends with the couple, his nickname was Happy. I still remember them even though it has been 40 years or so.

[Marie Marie]

3. And I thought that live clowns were creepy.

But to each his own I guess.

[Teamster Jeff]

5. I wonder if the whole clown family came in one car?

[Initech]

7. Oh they had to!

[Historic NY]

6. Some of my best friends, they're the last to let you down.

[NBachers]

8. My brother had a free caretaker apartment in the rear of a funeral home.

He used to bring hearses home and let me drive 'em around. One time I went over to pick up my high school girlfriend in one. I thought "Man, I'm the only guy she knows who can sport her around in a hearse. Won't this be special for her!"

You guessed it - no sooner did I pull into her driveway than she ran out the door, freaking out and demanding that I get that "dead people car" out of here. She then ran to the phone and started calling up her girlfriends and complaining that I'd tried to take her out in a car that dead people ride around in.

One of those "Seemed like a good idea at the time" things.

So I went and picked up some of the boys, and we dug sportin' around town in a shiny new black hearse. They seemed to appreciate it more than she did.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Funny, and he best part...in the fifties

Many small towns had hearses serve as ambulances, or the other way around.