The new crop of funeral-service workers -- men and women -- views the field as a cousin to social work, teaching or the ministry. Debbie Winslow, who serves as a funeral director at Chapel Hill with Maestas, worked in Christian broadcasting and even started her own church before entering ACC in 2003. At the time, she was working as an accountant with a corporate firm; the idea that she could make a career out of helping people appealed to her sense of spirituality.
"When I was working in accounting, the only reward was when all of my numbers balanced out at the end of the day," Winslow says. "In this career, it's very rewarding to help people through a difficult time; it appealed to my caregiving side. I can provide encouragement and comfort and love and acceptance during the worst time in a person's life. I feel as though I've completed my calling."
John Johnston
Death-defying: Martha Thayer and the famous
Primrose casket.
John Johnston
Thinking inside the box: Shannon Maestas.
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Winslow was in her forties when she made the career change to undertaker, a profession she'd never before considered. But while it seemed dramatic to her friends and family, her story is really becoming the norm.
"The funeral industry is changing dramatically," says Katie Monfrey of the National Funeral Directors Association. "It used to be generational, meaning most of the people you'd see in the business had come into it through a family involvement. Now we're seeing a lot of first-generation people who are coming into it because they have a real interest; we see cops, social workers, people from nursing who see this as an outlet. It's something more people are actually choosing to do now, rather than just being born into it."
"People who are coming into the work force now, at the tail end of the baby boomers, are much more inclined to be looking for work with meaning, with importance," says funeral director Horan. "When my father went to work at the phone company, he wasn't looking for meaning: It was a good, solid job. But we're seeing people now come into funeral service after they've had a half a dozen jobs. It's later in life that they get some experience and come into this. It's one of a few jobs where, in the span of a few days, you have many, many opportunities to make a difference in someone's life."
For her part, Thayer is convinced she has the best job in Colorado -- even if people think it's creepy. "When little kids go out and look up at the night sky, they say things like, 'I want to be an astronaut or a doctor,'" Thayer says. "Not very many of them kick the dirt and bury a worm and say, 'I want to be a funeral director.' It's just not something most people are aware of as an option.
"I consider myself very lucky to have found my life's calling at the age of seventeen. I counsel adults every day who still don't know what they want to do when they grow up. But guess what? They are grown up," she continues. "But I get up every day to come see my students. We have a bond, because none of us thinks that the others are weird or freaks for wanting to be in this business. We just understand."
