little miss funeral

an average girl working at your not so average job

Tag: funeral directing

June 29, 2017

I’ve broken my rule.

I’m about to contradict myself.

I have gone on and on about how it’s so important to take care of yourself before you can take care of others; putting your own needs first. Being selfish.

And these last few busy weeks, I have not done that at all. I couldn’t do it. The funeral home was so busy and I was just one person who only had so many hours in the day. I was up before the sun rose and I went to bed way after my bedtime. I had to. There was no other way I was going to get everything done.

But something funny happened these past few weeks; I was energized.

Now I’m going to explain this the best way I can. When I say I was ‘energized’ I’m not saying I wasn’t tired. Because I was exhausted. It’s just that, I was getting so much out of helping these families in their time of need, that I forgot about all that other crap that comes along with this job. These families were wonderful people who appreciated everything that I was doing, and I was doing my job well. For as busy as I was, everything was working out perfectly.

I was exhausted, but I was making a difference.

I was doing the very thing that made me fall in love with funeral service in the first place. That feeling of helping people who can’t help themselves. I was drinking it all in.

Now what are we at? Day sixteen or day seventeen? Regardless, Everyone needs a break at some point. Everyone needs a chance to breathe. To be selfish. I was selfless for a time, breaking my own rules. But you know what they say? Everything in moderation.

Now it’s time for a glass of wine, a bubble bath and a good book. I think I’ve earned it.

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July 13, 2014

Little “Mrs.” Funeral is back.

Wow. It’s really been a long time since I’ve been here. A few things have changed in my life recently that affected my ability to write on a regular basis. If you don’t follow Little Miss Funeral on Facebook, you don’t know that I married my high school sweetheart in June. So between wedding, honeymooning and moving, I’ve been a little busy. But now the wedding is over and I’m back to work.

And I came back to a busy funeral home.

I have to say, since I began working in a funeral home, the longest I’ve been away from the job had been seven days. But with the wedding, I had almost two full weeks off. It was kind of a scary feeling for me, going back to work this time. I had just come off such a high of happiness in my life, and had been away from the grieving for longer than I ever had in the past, that I second guessed my ability to help others. On my first day back, I had to meet with two families back to back (I was wishing for a quiet ‘paperwork’ kind of day). Going into my first arrangement of the day, I had butterflies in my stomach similar to when I first started out. What if I smiled too much because of my own happiness? What if I said the wrong thing? Do I even remember what kind of questions to ask the family? It was so funny, because after all of my reservations, when I sat down with them, it was like a switch went off in me; like I was never away.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that this was another great lesson for me. Funeral directing is not just a job that I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s in my blood. I was able to step right back into my role because this job isn’t like a hat that I can take off. It’s as a part of me as my arm is. It beats in my heart. And it feels really good to be back to doing what I love. It feels really good to be able to help others.

 

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