Who are Funeral Directors?

Funeral directors plan funerals at funeral homes in Syracuse, NY, but we typically don’t really think about funeral directors as ordinary people who are just like us. After all, we see them only when we’re in a time of crisis because a loved one has died, and we are strictly and specifically looking to them to guide us through the unknowns of the funeral process.

Funeral directors are not in the funeral business strictly to make a lot of money. Instead, funeral directors are in the funeral business because they care. They are devoted professionals, who like people in other caring professions, like healthcare, are on call all the time. They are in a 24/7 profession where it’s not unusual to get awoken out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night to take care of someone who has died and that person’s family.

They spend long hours working, sometimes at the expense of their families and their personal lives, but they do it because they want to serve the needs of other people at a time when they need it most.

Many funeral directors are embalmers, but not all of them are. Often, funeral homes have both a funeral director and an embalmer, because the training and licensing is different for both professions. Embalmers and funeral directors serve very different functions in the funeral process, and the skills sets for each function are different.

For funeral directors who are also licensed as embalmers, they usually have spent enough time performing both functions to know which one they are better suited for, and that typically becomes their main function in the funeral home.

Because funeral directors are so calm and matter-of-fact in a very compassionate way, we might be tempted to think that they just shut their emotions off when they come to work every day. Nothing could be further than the truth.

Most funeral directors chose their profession because they are emotionally empathetic to the plight of people who are sad and grieving and want to help them as kindly and gently as possible through the funeral process. So, while they may not visibly show emotion in our interactions with them, we will find that they are very much aware of our emotional upheaval and will do everything they are able to help us get through the roughest parts of the funeral process.

Like all other professionals, funeral directors go through an extensive educational process – and do continuing education throughout their careers – that is very demanding. Most funeral directors must complete mortuary school. Mortuary schools have rigorous and exacting criteria to graduate. Most people who enroll can’t meet the standard and do not graduate.

Once funeral directors have completed mortuary school, they must pass an exam to get licensed in the state where they will be working, and they must also complete an apprenticeship – much like the residency that medical doctors have to complete before they can practice medicine.

Funeral directors know what it’s like to lose someone they loved and to have to plan out a funeral in the middle of deep and intense grief, so they know what we are going through when we come to them. Many funeral directors, in fact, chose their profession because of the loss a loved one and their experience with funeral directors in their time of need.

For more information about funeral directors at funeral homes in Syracuse, NY, our compassionate and experienced team at Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home, Inc. is here to help you. You can visit our funeral home at 2601 Milton Ave., Solvay, NY 13209, or you can call us today at (315) 468-2431.