It's ashame noone's really written in a year. Well, my name's Maurice and I'm going to the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. I had a brief internship job which didn't really explain much of what the career was because I did paperwork and sat around admiring the funeral director on the phone. I'd like to see this group active again, so someone say something!
This group is ONLY for those who are currently working as an apprentice OR are already Lic'd and are willing to give advice. This is NOT for those seeking information or working on a school project.
Hi, I'm Arianna. I'm 20 years old and I live in Western Massachusetts. I've been joining various communities for funeral directing trying to seek the necessary information that I need. Basically to give you a run down, I've been seeking an apprenticeship in a mortuary before I begin taking courses. I guess just to get a feel for what I'd be doing, etc. I've heard that most places won't give you an apprenticeship unless you're already enrolled in Mortuary school or something to that extent. For the time being I'm basically just looking for an apprenticeship where all I do is observe and take notes, maybe ask some questions and just get general information, etc. I'm not really seeking any 'hands on' work at the moment. I know I would not be able to work on/with the cadavers until I'm in school and have some experience and such. I've called up a couple of places about 2 weeks ago. One said they'd have someone call me back and the other I was told to call back later in the week because the funeral director was on vacation. The receptionist acted really weirded out when I told her what I was interested in. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out where to begin and it's becoming frustrating for me. I'm wondering how you all went about getting started in pursuing your interest in this field. Maybe you can lend some advice to me on how to get started. I'm really interested in Mortuary Science and part of me thinks since I'm so interested in it I should just start taking courses and go with the flow. But then I'm just worried that I'll spend all this money on schooling and find it's not for me or something. I guess I have to take that risk if I want to find out if this is something I want to pursue or not. Anyway, enough ranting from me. Any tips or advice would be helpful. Thanks a lot. :)
Last week at our funeral home we had a visitation for a man in his 30's that had died from leukemia (sorry if I misspelled that.) Anywho, I worked that night and his mother was telling me to thank the director for giving her son some 'color' because he was very gray before he died from the chemo. I saw her son myself in his casket and he looked a tad dark to me (comparing to his pictures they had up around the room) and I thought maybe the director used a little too much, kind of giving him a tan, but oh well, the mother was pleased and that's all that mattered.
Well, the next day, I was talking to the funeral assistant (Bill) who said he was the one that picked up his body from the airport, and when he opened the box, he thought he had the wrong person at first because his body was BLACK and was shocked (the man was actually a white guy-blonde hair/blue eyes) so for him to open up the box and see his skin had turned black, he was actually worried at first because he obviously looked nothing like the picture he had.
So, of course he was embalmed before he was sent here to our funeral home, but Bill and I were just curious as to what would have caused him to turn black? The director that took care of him said that he didn't think it had anything to do with the chemo or embalming him, and we just thought it was really weird. I told Bill about how he looked when I saw him and Bill said if anything, they must have added makeup to lighten him.
I was just curious if anyone knew anything or had experience with this. The mother who saw him last said he was gray (which is understandable), Bill says he was black and by the time I saw him he looked heavily make-upped and tanned.
