 |
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate
LaRae Hartman, a second-year funeral services student, prepares a casket during her class.
Mock funeral counseling to help students gain experience
The Advocate
The Funeral Services Program will be host practice funeral arrangements on campus Tuesday.
Volunteers will act as bereaved family members while students in the second year of the program participate in the mock planning of a family member’s funeral. The mock funeral is open to the general public.
Students will gain the benefit of experiencing the funeral arrangement process in a live environment while volunteers will have the unique opportunity to participate from the perspective of a bereaved relative, providing an opportunity to become more prepared to make final arrangements for a deceased relative. “It’s a really good experience on both sides. For the participants, they learn a lot about funerals. The majority of people don’t know what to expect when a loved one dies,” said LaRae Hartman, a second- year funeral services student.
The mock arrangements have been held yearly for the last 15 years. In some previous years, the first-year students helped out by taking on the role of a relative looking to plan a loved one’s funeral.
During her first year in the program, Hartman participated in the role of grieving customer. “Last year I did one (mock funeral arrangement) for my father. You think about it and you are like, ‘Wow! If this was real . . . .’ I don’t like doing it, it is really hard.” However hard it may be, the mock arrangements help participants prepare themselves for occurrence of a death in the family. “It’s inevitable; you are going to lose loved ones,” said Hartman.
Second-year funeral services students get the opportunity to be better prepared for the challenging task ahead. “It’s kind of awkward because you don’t exactly know what to say. You need to make sure that you don’t offend anybody. When you put yourself in that situation, it puts you under a lot of pressure,” Hartman said.
If you would like to participate in this event, or have questions, you may contact Hartman at (406) 853-4361.
The Advocate reserves the right to not publish comments based on their appropriateness.