An undertaking to local bodies

By ALICE SHOPLAND

"Event management with a twist" is one way funeral director Tania Faithfull of Faithfull Funeral Serditvices describes her job.

But when she's asked the inevitable question at a party about her line of work, she often says she works with local bodies.

"Otherwise people have endless questions," she says.

She puts this fascination down to the fact that we still don't talk openly about death, so a lot of questions are seldom answered.

One of the inevitable questions - something we all want to know - is: what do funeral directors do with bodies?

Having been in the family business, Davis Funeral Services, since 1956, Cedric Little answers the question with sensitive, yet matter-of-fact honesty. (Little's son Craig, who also works at Davis Funeral Services, is the fifth generation in the family in this industry.)

He says once the death certificate has been dealt with, a funeral director transfers the body of the deceased person to the mortuary or preparation room.

The next, perhaps obvious but definitely crucial, step is to clearly identify the body so there are no distressing mistakes.

The funeral director then removes jewellery and clothing from the body, documents it and returns it to the family or disposes of it, according to the family's wishes.

The body is washed and treated to ensure it is in a hygienic condition for viewing - that usually means embalming. It is then dressed in fresh clothes brought in by the family.

Little says dealing with dead bodies isn't anybody's favourite part of the job, but he's never seen anyone leave the profession because of it.

"People tend to have a common sense attitude about it and be very level-headed."

Even so, it can be stressful, says Faithfull. "It's often unpredictable, and once someone has died you're working to very tight deadlines.

"You're on call 24 hours a day, and when you're working with a family you're with them very intensely ... dealing with very raw emotion."

When the deceased reminds you of someone close to you it can be particularly difficult, she says.

This mother of four had a background in public relations; she and her husband (an embalming specialist) started Faithfull Funeral Services nine years ago. It's still a two-person business, and they run about 200 funerals a year.

Faithfull, a spokeswoman for the Funeral Directors Association, estimates that a funeral director and embalmer in Auckland would earn between $35,000 and $45,000 a year. And it's a job that takes a particular mix of abilities.

"You have to be adaptable and multi-talented," Faithfull says. "One minute you're scanning photos, the next you're washing cars or doing post-mortem preservation and restoration work."

Little says that in a bigger business you might not need to be quite so adaptable, "but you need to be committed to the families you're working for, patient, meticulous and accurate.

"There are so many details, and it's so important to the family that you get it right."

You also have to be up-to-date with anything that makes a funeral easier for the family.

When Little was first married, he and his wife lived above the funeral parlour, because someone had to be constantly available. Answering services now connect people to the duty funeral director and, more recently, conference calls have allowed family members overseas to be part of the service.

In America and Australia, Little says, some funeral businesses have facilities for people to watch the funeral online, accessing the website with a password.

"You have to keep up with change, because your customers demand it. So the business is always evolving."

TRAINING

The Central Institute of Technology in Upper Hutt and at the Wellington Institute of Technology run courses for funeral directors.

Qualifications include: National Certificate in Funeral Directing; National Certificate in Embalming; and Diploma in Funeral Service.

Candidates need to be at least 20 years old and have worked in the industry for at least a year.

Contact: National Secretary, FDANZ, PO Box 10 888, Wellington, ph (04) 473 7475, fax (04) 473 7478, email fdanz@xtra.co.nz

* In the year ending September 2000 26,650 people died in New Zealand.

* In 1998, three-quarters of all deaths involved people aged 65 years and over.

* Between 2011, when baby-boomers start turning 65, and 2021 the number of people over 65 is projected to grow by 215,000; between 2021 and 2031 by 250,000.

* By 2051 there will be 1.18 million New Zealanders aged over 65 (an increase of 165 per cent from 1999).

Source: Statistics New Zealand.