Expect the Unexpected - "What I learned about Life while working with th Dead"

Starting any new job means new experiences both foreseen and unanticipated. The first thing I learned about the funeral business was that minute-by-precious-minute, no day was ever normal. In the beginning I would get aggravated as I spent an entire week with almost nothing to do, each hour dragging itself along tediously until the weekend would arrive followed quickly by all the work that had seemingly vanished from the days before. As often as that occurred, it could easily become the anticipated norm. However, the funeral business is ever-changing and far from predictable and I would all too soon learn that the only thing I could come to expect would be the unexpected.

My very first week was no different and one in which I received quite an initiation. One day in particular started out the same as any other, though it ended on a definitely unexpected note.  We received a call from the police department to respond to a house call. Let me just say, first and foremost, when the police department call, they want you on the scene ten minutes ago. Second only to that rule is that when dealing with house calls, you never went in alone. A one-man cot works great when you’re heading into hospitals and nursing homes with easily accessible ramps, automatic doors and the occasional helping hand, but you never knew what you were going to get heading into a private home. Endless stairs, storm doors that won’t stay open, narrow hallways that prevented getting a cot into every room are just some of the obstacles that one would find. These just served to add to the stress of the job where the primary focus was a deceased person who was rarely convenient in their choice of resting place, which would sometimes include the most unfortunate locations such as a bathroom, on a bed in the far back bedroom, or even on the floor between a bed and the wall.

The point is that things can and will change with only a moment’s notice or warning. This is just as much true in life as it is in the funeral business, to which I did not adapt well. For many years I spent countless days frustrated that my job was so unpredictable and thus, my life was unpredictable. Now I see why this lesson was so important for me to get and for me to share.  Today, I am able to work with many unpredictable situations and I never flinch. Just when I think I’ve heard it all, I hear something new that changes everything, but I am still able to process the information without the shock factor.

Expect the unexpected. I do.

(Old home just to illustrated the difficulties of maneuvering a cot into and off a porch let alone inside.)