no but once this family took their grandma off of life support so they could have the date of service they wanted but she actually didn’t die. this was back in January and they still haven’t notified us that she’s passed. And considering everything’s already paid for, they for sure would have called. Ms Barbara is still thriving to this day i guess
once I was walking to the bathroom while looking at my phone so I could only see the legs of the person walking in front of me, who was also going to the bathroom. they were far enough that they wouldn’t hold the door for me, but I could see into the bathroom and saw them walk into the biggest stall and heard slam it shut. When I walked right after them, there was absolutely no one in the stalls. (And mind you this is a small bathroom, only 2 stalls). Didn’t think anything of it then but looking back, it’s a little creepy.
Also the pet cemetery is supposedly haunted. We turned the pet cemetery office into a freezer for the bodies (so no one works in that building) and at night lights would turn on and off, and music would start blasting
Dear OP,
I had an acquaintance who worked at a cemetery and told us from time to time workers would find black magic and occult related paraphernalia once in a while on cemetery grounds. Once they found a human heart with pins in it which had to be called in to police. I can stamp this as true bc it made the local news.
Have you experienced any similar experiences? If so can you share at least one?
omg yes! not me personally since I work inside the office but so many people break in after hours trying to take graveyard dirt, or leave animals bones. nothing as crazy as the heart thing but a lot of occult stuff for sure
a guy stabbed a former classmate of my to death. when the cops arrived at the scene, he lunged at them and in turn the cops shot him dead. his (the murderer) family decided to use our cemetery and I was the only admin in office that day so I had to process and prepare all the paperwork for the guy that killed my classmate
there was also another instance where a teenager was crushed under a car. he was alive until the family thought it was a good idea to prop the car up, and that’s when he died. I think he was 19, if not younger
What’s your educational background like? I’m kinda curious after seeing that you can get a bachelors in funeral services.
Also has anyone requested to have a funeral in the rain?
I have a BS in psychology! actually ended up in this industry completely on accident (did not know I applied and definitely did not know it was a funeral home until I showed up for the interview).
And no requests for rain services but some families insist on having outdoor services despite the rain. A few weeks back there was a service during a crazy storm- like a few trees fell down
What are some common overcharges that you slap on the bereaved?
Do you feel unethical taking advantage of people when they are emotionally distraught for profit?
Any tips for not fucking your family up when you die? As far as funding, etc.
I think everything’s overcharged, but I hate that they charge to OPEN UP the space that the family bought and now owns. Not only that, there’s charges to put decedent into their plot and close it back up. And god forbid the service take place on a holiday, which adds an extra $1k!
I’m personally not a fan of the death industry in general, and never have been. Also don’t love burials as I think the land could be put to better use. Majority of funeral homes are owned by one of two corporations which is where the greed comes from. But our salespeople are pretty compassionate I would say. A lot of the families that pass already paid/prearranged decades ago so our current sales people don’t make commission off of them and work for 7.25/hr (which is pretty wild)
I would say let them know how you want to be laid to rest- burial, cremation, etc. Biggest thing in my opinion is setting up a POA AND executorship since the POA dies with the person. Also make sure they actually know your personal information. You’d be surprised how many children don’t know their parents birthday or place of birth and have to pay to get death certificates amended
oh and i forgot about this but once time this guy attempted to off his mom by shooting her then killing himself. plot twist: she survived. Guy had no spouse and no children so the mom was his legal next of kin and had to sign off on all the paperwork for her son. More sad than interesting some would say but my workplace is more chaotic than sad imo
This man that passed suspected that his wife was cheating. He hired a private investigator to check it out, and turned out she was. He never divorced her but he kicked her out of his will and attached the reports/pictures from the PI to his will. me and my coworkers had a blast reading through that
.... isn't that kind of personal? And very unethical and immoral especially to make a joke out of it?
I hope the people who care for my loved ones have much more respect.
eh, the family gave us the will and PI report themselves when they didn’t have to. And as admin we handle all the files and have to look through all of them, scan them in etc. So we would have had to read to though it anyways. No one made a joke out of it, more like we were gagged- everyone loves a good gossip
luckily I started after everything opened back up, but from what I heard, it’s was insanely busy and we had to convert our pet cemetery office into a freezer for the bodies. and of course there was a max capacity on the number of people that could attend services, which included all the staff, so really only 3 families were able to attend each service/burials
We used to have an office specifically for the pet cemetery but it wasn’t as busy and due to the pandemic, there was an overflow of people dying and so we had to turn it into a freezer to hold all the bodies. It’s purely just a freezer so nobody actually works inside, but at night when the security guard makes his lap around the park or when the grounds crew are working late, they’ve said music would blast from time to time (there are no speakers/radios/computers in there that the music would even come from) and lights would turn on. I still don’t believe in ghosts (but i also don’t not believe in them) but I guess the energy has to go somewhere since the bodies there are waiting to be laid to rest
I can only speak for mine, but we expand our property- buying surrounding land, cutting down trees, or adding more buildings for niches and mausoleums. Family estates and double depth plots are also being advertised more so that more than one person can go in one plot. I have heard of people “renting out” plots then being dug up after some time (i assume they get cremated afterwards) but it’s not super common
But as for building completely new cemeteries, i assume it’s quite difficult since the main 2 corporations (Carriage and SCI) owns the vast majority of cemeteries and funeral homes so they either end up squeezing out locally owned places or buying them out
surprisingly a lot of families are pretty collected during the services. from time to time we’ll get a service/burial for infants and children and thats definitely not easy to get used to
I’m actually actively looking at other jobs to launch my career! currently pursuing my MBA so looking into the HR field but government or nonprofits sounds pretty cool too
Has anybody ever woken up?
no but once this family took their grandma off of life support so they could have the date of service they wanted but she actually didn’t die. this was back in January and they still haven’t notified us that she’s passed. And considering everything’s already paid for, they for sure would have called. Ms Barbara is still thriving to this day i guess
I wonder if she was mad about that? I can see why someone would be miffed lol
Has anything ever creeped you out?
once I was walking to the bathroom while looking at my phone so I could only see the legs of the person walking in front of me, who was also going to the bathroom. they were far enough that they wouldn’t hold the door for me, but I could see into the bathroom and saw them walk into the biggest stall and heard slam it shut. When I walked right after them, there was absolutely no one in the stalls. (And mind you this is a small bathroom, only 2 stalls). Didn’t think anything of it then but looking back, it’s a little creepy. Also the pet cemetery is supposedly haunted. We turned the pet cemetery office into a freezer for the bodies (so no one works in that building) and at night lights would turn on and off, and music would start blasting
That’s easy, it was you a few seconds into the future. Space time contains multitudes.
Dear OP, I had an acquaintance who worked at a cemetery and told us from time to time workers would find black magic and occult related paraphernalia once in a while on cemetery grounds. Once they found a human heart with pins in it which had to be called in to police. I can stamp this as true bc it made the local news. Have you experienced any similar experiences? If so can you share at least one?
omg yes! not me personally since I work inside the office but so many people break in after hours trying to take graveyard dirt, or leave animals bones. nothing as crazy as the heart thing but a lot of occult stuff for sure
What is the most fucked up cause of death you've ever seen?
a guy stabbed a former classmate of my to death. when the cops arrived at the scene, he lunged at them and in turn the cops shot him dead. his (the murderer) family decided to use our cemetery and I was the only admin in office that day so I had to process and prepare all the paperwork for the guy that killed my classmate there was also another instance where a teenager was crushed under a car. he was alive until the family thought it was a good idea to prop the car up, and that’s when he died. I think he was 19, if not younger
What’s your educational background like? I’m kinda curious after seeing that you can get a bachelors in funeral services. Also has anyone requested to have a funeral in the rain?
I have a BS in psychology! actually ended up in this industry completely on accident (did not know I applied and definitely did not know it was a funeral home until I showed up for the interview). And no requests for rain services but some families insist on having outdoor services despite the rain. A few weeks back there was a service during a crazy storm- like a few trees fell down
Very cool!
What are some common overcharges that you slap on the bereaved? Do you feel unethical taking advantage of people when they are emotionally distraught for profit? Any tips for not fucking your family up when you die? As far as funding, etc.
I think everything’s overcharged, but I hate that they charge to OPEN UP the space that the family bought and now owns. Not only that, there’s charges to put decedent into their plot and close it back up. And god forbid the service take place on a holiday, which adds an extra $1k! I’m personally not a fan of the death industry in general, and never have been. Also don’t love burials as I think the land could be put to better use. Majority of funeral homes are owned by one of two corporations which is where the greed comes from. But our salespeople are pretty compassionate I would say. A lot of the families that pass already paid/prearranged decades ago so our current sales people don’t make commission off of them and work for 7.25/hr (which is pretty wild) I would say let them know how you want to be laid to rest- burial, cremation, etc. Biggest thing in my opinion is setting up a POA AND executorship since the POA dies with the person. Also make sure they actually know your personal information. You’d be surprised how many children don’t know their parents birthday or place of birth and have to pay to get death certificates amended
What was the most interesting family drama you came across?
oh and i forgot about this but once time this guy attempted to off his mom by shooting her then killing himself. plot twist: she survived. Guy had no spouse and no children so the mom was his legal next of kin and had to sign off on all the paperwork for her son. More sad than interesting some would say but my workplace is more chaotic than sad imo
This man that passed suspected that his wife was cheating. He hired a private investigator to check it out, and turned out she was. He never divorced her but he kicked her out of his will and attached the reports/pictures from the PI to his will. me and my coworkers had a blast reading through that
.... isn't that kind of personal? And very unethical and immoral especially to make a joke out of it? I hope the people who care for my loved ones have much more respect.
eh, the family gave us the will and PI report themselves when they didn’t have to. And as admin we handle all the files and have to look through all of them, scan them in etc. So we would have had to read to though it anyways. No one made a joke out of it, more like we were gagged- everyone loves a good gossip
"Had a blast" Entertainment at someone else's expense literally when they die. It's disrespectful and you should know this.
What was it like working in the pandemic?
luckily I started after everything opened back up, but from what I heard, it’s was insanely busy and we had to convert our pet cemetery office into a freezer for the bodies. and of course there was a max capacity on the number of people that could attend services, which included all the staff, so really only 3 families were able to attend each service/burials
What’s the story about the haunted pet cemetery?
We used to have an office specifically for the pet cemetery but it wasn’t as busy and due to the pandemic, there was an overflow of people dying and so we had to turn it into a freezer to hold all the bodies. It’s purely just a freezer so nobody actually works inside, but at night when the security guard makes his lap around the park or when the grounds crew are working late, they’ve said music would blast from time to time (there are no speakers/radios/computers in there that the music would even come from) and lights would turn on. I still don’t believe in ghosts (but i also don’t not believe in them) but I guess the energy has to go somewhere since the bodies there are waiting to be laid to rest
Do new cemeteries ever get built? I only ever see the same places, never new ones. If not, do bodies get dug up and replaced with fresh ones?
I can only speak for mine, but we expand our property- buying surrounding land, cutting down trees, or adding more buildings for niches and mausoleums. Family estates and double depth plots are also being advertised more so that more than one person can go in one plot. I have heard of people “renting out” plots then being dug up after some time (i assume they get cremated afterwards) but it’s not super common
But as for building completely new cemeteries, i assume it’s quite difficult since the main 2 corporations (Carriage and SCI) owns the vast majority of cemeteries and funeral homes so they either end up squeezing out locally owned places or buying them out
Does listening to the family wail with sadness at every service ever get any easier?
surprisingly a lot of families are pretty collected during the services. from time to time we’ll get a service/burial for infants and children and thats definitely not easy to get used to
Is this going to be your career or do you see yourself doing another job in the future?
I’m actually actively looking at other jobs to launch my career! currently pursuing my MBA so looking into the HR field but government or nonprofits sounds pretty cool too