Funeral Reflection Paper

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I had the pleasure of visiting Northside Funeral Home Champions in Texas City, Texas. Although I was unable to speak with the director of the funeral home, I had the opportunity to speak with an assistant; Mrs. Lisa Wilson. When I asked about the initial process after receiving the body, she stated that they first contact to the family to see what their wishes are pertaining to the preparation of the body. For example, whether they want a direct cremation. A direct cremation is done a little bit after the death and it doesn’t involve embalming. She said the embalming process was pretty hard for her at first but it has gotten easier since she’s been in this business for seven years. She said that it is still hard when she sees kids. She said during the embalming process they first completely wash off the body, thus removing any materials or waste. Secondly, she says they work on the face this consist of closing the eyes and sealing the mouth shut so that it looks natural. She said often times they use glue to clothes the mouth or put cotton in the mouth to make the deceased look more natural. The third step they do is smoothing out any visible blood clots which she says they are more visible in older people. They also massage any stiffness that they see visible in the bones or muscles. They use a scalpel to make an incision into the artery and use a drainage tube to drain the blood. They then use and embalming machine to inject the embalming fluid, which she says varies by the height and the weight of the deceased.
When helping the family prepare for services the first thing they ask is if the deceased had any wishes pertaining to their arrangements. The second thing they proceed to ask is the cost in which the family plans on ...

... middle of paper ...

...hings differently, it just depends on the person and the family.
The funeral homes does not provide and services but they do refer people places that are convenient for the family and that may help the family cope with the loss easier.
When talking to the assistant she seemed to love everything about her job. She said that working there not helped her learn about how to cope with deaths it also opened the door for her meet to wonderful people. Many of the families she said she keeps in contact with to this day. One lady she met while working there owns her own nail shop so every time she goes there she gets a discount. Although this experience for me was different, I learned a lot about the behind scenes for preparing for a funeral. I thanked the funeral home for taking the time out to give me their feedback about the day to day things their jobs consist of.

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