Ashes to Admin: The Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer

by Evie King

It seemed to us that he had lived in the family home his whole life and had probably been unable to cope as he gradually lost his parents and was finally left alone. The house falling apart around him as he did so himself was quite poetic.

When I was two, I stood up on a plane seat during take off and declared ‘We’re all going to die!’ Still very much my vibe.

one in one hundred funerals is now a Section 46.

The son wanted to stand up and say a few words of his own but only got as far as ‘Dad, I forgive you’ before breaking down and being unable to continue. His anguished sobs said much more than anything he could have prepared and Martin assured him that we all knew what he meant. Thinking of it even now brings tears to my eyes. His pain was that strong, it was palpable.

The second I draw a line between myself and the job, I deem my people to be a task and place them and their family on a par with a website update or licence variation. If you’re going to do a job so tied up in life, you have to let it into your own and draw on that.