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Funeral Services provides mock funeral arrangements
The Advocate
The Funeral Services Program held mock funeral arrangements Tuesday in the Jazz Café to help their students prepare for working as a funeral director.
The practice exercise, which has been held annually for the last 15 years, was intended to help students receive some workplace training in a field where situations cannot always be predicted and customers are in a sometimes delicate state.
“I think it was a great success,” said funeral services student LaRae Hartman. “Now we kind of know where we are and what to expect.”
A funeral director has to be prepared to adjust to the specific needs of a client; because of this, the directors have to be able to adjust quickly. “There are so many different questions that can be brought up at any time,” said funeral services student Andre Garcia.
As funeral directors, the students are expected to set up a funeral to the specifications of the customer. This may include any number of unexpected requests that must be honored.
“I had an arrangement where a guy wanted to be buried 450 miles away,” said Courtney Bennion, a funeral services student. Preparedness for this profession does not end there — the relationship between a family and a funeral director lasts for the duration of the burial process. “You have to get to know the family to make them happy. You have to almost become one of the family members. It can be emotional sometimes, too,” said Bennion.
It is preferred to have the same funeral director be present for the entire duration of the funeral preparation. “Have the same funeral director that picked (the body) up at 4 in the morning meet with them at 10 o’ clock in the morning. It’s a long night for the funeral director, but such is the occupation,” said Bennion.
Volunteers were also able to benefit from the mock arrangements. Going through the process as a customer allows them to experience what they will need to know to lay a loved one to rest.
“It gave me some good ideas of things I should probably keep handy,” said volunteer Victoria Flagg, an MHCC employee. “When you are asked something like parents names and things like that, they just go out of your head.”
Bennion said the students gained the double benefit of learning both what they would need to know as a funeral director and also as a bereaved family member looking to bury a loved one. “Doing (the mock arrangements) makes you realize that you need to have all these answers ready,” she said. “I don’t know his mom’s maiden name and where (his parents) were born, because you need to know that stuff for a death certificate.”
Students and participants alike said they feel more prepared for the burial process after this event. Funeral services instructor Scott Barton said, “The most important thing they will take away from this is communicating with different people. It is sometimes difficult to just talk to people. This will help them.”
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