I love what I do for a living. I have been active in funeral service since I was 19 years old and in college, studying something not even related to the death care industry. We all have our reasons for choosing this profession, and even though there has historically been a high dropout rate within the first five years, many of us who have stayed found that the rewards come in many ways. Sure, we have all had those days when we feel we have reached our breaking point and just wish the phone would stop ringing for a minute, or that “Why does this family need to be so difficult?” feeling would go away, but we push through and survive the day because of our passion for what we do. The difference it makes to the families we serve is our ultimate reward. I have seen quite a few excellent and capable funeral directors walk away from our profession. I often think, “What was the breaking point that made them leave the profession?” We can all think of a laundry list of reasons why one would hang it up and walk away, ranging from being on-call, working holidays, nights and weekends, or the sheer mental stress that we undergo with some of the circumstances that we are called to deal with. I have been there as well, and I remember many of those cases in vivid detail, as if they happened yesterday. It makes you aware that you are mentally stronger than you thought you were. One of the hardest cases, most funeral directors would agree, is an infant death. Amplify that 10 times when the mother dies at the same time. Whether it be during childbirth or in a car accident, your heart breaks because you think about the families affected and all the future dreams that have now been shattered as a result of this tragedy. Over the decades of my career, I have been called on to perform several mother and child funerals, and I want to share with you one of my experiences and the process I went through in hopes that it will help you when and if you have to deal with a similar situation. I remember the day that our funeral home got the call. The first call got transferred to me and I found myself on the phone with a distraught father-in-law who was barely able to talk. As I started to piece the minimal information together, I realized that his daughter-in-law and grandson had been killed in a car accident the night before. I also found out that his son, the husband to the mother and father to the child, was also in the accident and was at the hospital recovering from minor injuries and was expected to be released in a few days. After asking several questions, I was able to determine that they were members of a local church where services would take place, they would be buried at a local cemetery where there was a family plot, and that it was going to be a The Hardest Funeral You Will Ever Do By Lincoln Plain, Licensed Funeral Director, Sales Representative, The Dodge Company 18 | Directors Digest
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