PROFESSIONALS WHO LOOK DEATH IN THE FACE IN THEIR DAILY LIFE
THE sight of a dead body is unthinkable to many of us. But there are those for whom death is part of their daily lives. These are the people who spend their working lives caring for the deceased and their families, in a culture that is still coming to terms with death as a part of life.
Charlotte Jones – Funeral Director and Embalmer
When funeral director Charlotte Jones’ grandfather came to the end of his life, she was in a unique position to carry on caring for him in a way few of us can imagine.
“I looked after my own grandfather here,” the 39-year-old said, sitting in one of many enormous and ornate meeting rooms at James Summers & Son Funeral Care in Cardiff.
“I dressed him, placed him in his coffin, and he rested here with me. I wanted him here with me. It was comforting because he was just downstairs the whole time.
“I don’t feel uncomfortable in a room with a person who has passed away. I talk to people if they have passed away because they are still people. They still deserve the respect they had when they were alive.”
Providing a person died in natural circumstances, Charlotte can be involved in their care from the moment they die up until the day of their funeral.
Funeral directors send a private ambulance to collect a person, sometimes from their home, and sometimes from a hospital mortuary.
Charlotte is also a trained embalmer, able to preserve and prepare bodies after death for presentation to family.
“Primarily I feel it’s for the dignity of the deceased,” she said. “As soon as someone passes away nature starts to take its course, and embalming allows us to preserve the deceased up until the day of the funeral.
“A lot of people who pass away can be very pale, and embalming helps bring that more life-like colour.
“It can help with people who have passed away and have suffered greatly towards the end, and it just helps people to look more at peace.”
In her role as a funeral director, Charlotte is present with the family on the day of a funeral – performing the role that inspired her to pursue the career path at the age of 27.
Charlotte was working as a horse groom when the death of a close family member brought her into contact with the industry for the first time.
She said she was struck by the professionalism and respect the funeral director she met had and immediately wanted to pursue the career.
“The funeral director who was there on the day walked my family member to the end of the street,” she said. “When he got to the end of the street he stopped, and he bowed. The hairs just stood up on the back of my neck.
“For him, who didn’t know that person, to show such respect – I found it fascinating.
“It was just such a sight to see and even if I see my colleagues paging out of here, 12 years later, it makes me feel proud.”
Charlotte is one of a growing number of female funeral directors who are choosing to join this changing industry. As cultural attitudes to death evolve, so does the task given to those who care for us after death.
“Funerals are becoming more unique, more personalised,” she explained. “There are a lot more humanist and civil services taking place now than religious.
“The horse-drawn carriage is becoming more popular. We have had a couple of motorbike and sidecars. Doves have been released. I have actually had ashes being released in fireworks for a family.
“Everyone is different, so why shouldn’t every funeral be different?”
Despite witnessing positive changes in the industry, Charlotte said she still feels there’s a hushed attitude to death that needs to be addressed.
She said: “Your imagination can run away with you. And if people were a little bit more open to knowing a bit about what we do, then they wouldn’t be so frightened of it.
“And they wouldn’t panic so much when the time came, because all they have to do is pick up the phone. Twenty-four hours a day there’s always someone there.”
Paul Dundon – Crematorium Manager
When manager and registrar Paul Dundon got his first job at as a clerk at Gwent Crematorium in 1992, traditional black tie religious funerals were still the most common send-off staff would see.
In recent years, that trend has edged further towards more colourful attire and increasingly more personalised services. And a growing number of people are even opting for ditching the service entirely.
“We get funerals where the person who has died hasn’t wanted anything at all,” he said.
“They don’t believe in fuss after death. We get bodies that are literally just brought here and cremated.
“They go through the chapel, in the same way as every other service, but there’s no service.”
He added: “One of my neighbours died and he was a very well-known and popular chap. And no one was here. I was really taken aback by it. You don’t see it very commonly but it does happen.”
Paul manages every aspect of what happens at the Newport council-run crematorium with a meticulous attention to detail that is synonymous with the industry.
After the service, Paul’s team of cremator operators take over from the funeral directors to dispose of the remains.
“Once the curtain closes, and the people have left the chapel, the coffin is immediately removed into the committal room, which is behind the chapel,” Paul explained.
“The curtains are opened again,
and usually within 10 minutes or so, the body is placed in a cremator for cremation. It tends to be a very quick turnaround because it’s just set up like that.”
The cremation itself lasts about an hour and a half, depending on the size of the individual. Computers operated by staff constantly monitor emissions into the air to ensure pollution is kept within guidelines. Stringent checks on identification are made at every step.
Paul said: “Once the last flicker of flame in the body has died down– so there’s effectively nothing left to burn – the remains are raked down into another container where they are cooled for about an hour.
“They’re then removed from that container and the remains are ground down into effectively a fine powder which is then suitable for scattering.”
About six to eight pounds of cremated remains are then stored until they are collected by a funeral director on a family’s behalf, the family picks them up, or they are scattered on the crematorium grounds.
Paul says he finds his job satisfying as he can provide a service few others could.
“I suppose it’s an interest in people and simple empathy,” he said.
“It’s having patience and the desire to actually want to help people.
“And I can say that the staff here really do have an interest in what’s happening here.
“Certainly when you advertise jobs you do get people who you can tell have a ghoulish interest. So there can be that element in people’s minds. But I think the majority of people are genuinely just empathetic folk who think they can make a difference.”
Phil Long – Cremator Operator
Phil Long has worked in the committal room at Gwent Crematorium for 13 years but has been around the deceased for much of his working life.
The 57-year-old grandfather, who lives on site near the crematorium, said: “I did work when I was younger in a local hospital as a porter, so I’m used to dealing with death and bodies and things – removing bodies from wards and everything.
“So it’s not as if it was a big shock that way, so I just think I always seem to have worked around death.”
He said his job has always drawn a certain amount of interest from friends, but in recent years more people have been taking advantage of the crematorium open door policy.
“It’s one of those, it’s either a question that they will want to know everything or they won’t want to know anything,” he said.
“You get what we call the pub questions. Do you put everyone in together? Do you cremate them all on a Saturday morning? And this is why it’s good for people to come here and have look.
“We most probably get a few a month. You might find somebody will come and then they will bring other people back and things.”
Increasingly, nursing home carers and bereavement societies visit the site to relay information to those who they are caring for.
But many are also visiting to learn more about where they will end up as they prepare for the end of their own lives.
“We get some people who come here because they have arranged their own funeral.
“So they will come and have a look and everything.
“They don’t know if they want to be buried or cremated, so they will come and have a look around.”
Phil spends the majority of his time working in the committal room – firing up the four cremators every morning and managing the process as coffins come through the facility. But he also does some shifts in the chapel or working on the crematoriums gardens.
“I think the chapel is the most difficult side.
“When you are in the chapel and if there’s people upset in there and different things. If there’s youngsters, obviously it’s not very nice.
“I wasn’t as bad but I have got four grandchildren now and I think it makes you more emotional when you are a grandparent. You see the little-uns crying because their grandparents are gone. It’s sad, isn’t it? Thinking that’s going to be us one day.
“You do care but you get used to it and it’s just a process then. That’s the thing with it really.”
I don’t feel uncomfortable in a room with a person who has passed away. I talk to people if they have passed away because they are still people. They still deserve the respect they had when they were alive CHARLOTTE JONES FUNERAL DIRECTOR AND EMBALMER