Lauren, read this when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
by littlemissfuneral
I work for a mom and pop funeral home. Meaning, we do not have a very large staff. There are two funeral directors (the owner and myself) and we have a trade embalmer. I have a handful of part timers and one full time associate. We do close to two hundred calls a year.
For the past two weeks, the owner has been away on vacation (his first in about a year and a half, so it was deserved). For one of those two weeks, my funeral associate and husband were both out of town. So not only was my work life turned upside down, but I had no support in my home life. And these past two weeks, everyone in our town decided to die.
Well, not everyone, but the funeral home has been busy. Very busy. And I was left in charge, since I have the license. At first, I was feeling very overwhelmed and very nervous. I had never been left alone for such an extended period of time before. And after getting three death calls the first day in, I thought for sure I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
But then something funny happened.
I did it.
Somehow, after that very first, busy day, some sort of calm had come over me. I have no idea how it happened, but I didn’t stress out. And the next day, when we got another call, I didn’t stress either (or the next day….or the next day). I mean, sure, I have been working very long days, (and getting very little sleep..) but I was organized and I got everything done. These past two weeks, I think I really found my confidence. I love being a funeral director and I love what I do, but I always have people to fall back on. I have a great team. This time, I had to make the decisions and I had to really be the boss. And everything ran so smooth.
Everything ran better than I could have possibly imagined, actually. So I’m writing this post for me. I’m writing this to remind myself that I can do this job and I can do it well. So Lauren, the next time you are feeling like you’re drowning, remember how you handled these weeks. You can do this, because you’ve been doing it.
You are stronger than you think.
little miss funeral 
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Smiling while I remember those early days of my career. Learn to have confidence in yourself and you can always fall back on that. I often thought about having business cards made up that had my title as : “Mitigator of Chaos”
It’s also nice to see a young person embracing this great profession of ours and not just looking at it like a job. I hope you never lose that spark.
I can so relate to this, Lauren. It’s like our girl Jenny says, “I’m a modern girl, but I fold in half so easily when I put myself in the picture of success.” It’s sometimes harder to imagine yourself doing something than it is to actually do it. So much of the struggle is in our own heads. It’s a great feeling when you’re able to surprise yourself with what you can achieve.