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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Announcements
Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Now more women than men are entering mortuary schools |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 19 July 2004 |
Sunday, July 18, 2004
By Diane Suchetka
Newhouse News Service
CLEVELAND -- Carol Smith loved her job supervising secretaries and appointment schedulers in a local hospital.
But she needed more flexibility with two sons at home -- one with a heart condition, the other in a wheelchair with full-body arthritis.
She wanted the best of both worlds -- a stable, professional job that gave her time during the day with her children.
So Smith, 38, became a funeral director -- and part of a national trend.
Women made up 52 percent of all students entering mortuary schools and other funeral education programs in 2003. That's up from 5 percent in 1971, according to the American Board of Funeral Service Education.
Their numbers are growing inside funeral homes, too.
"Five years ago, we had one licensed female funeral director on staff," says Mark Busch, co-owner of Busch Funeral and Crematory Services, where Smith works. "Today, we have five." That's out of 19 at Busch's seven locations, or about 25 percent.
Women are handling everything from embalming to preplanning to arranging services. And they've met with little resistance.
"The rapport they establish with the client family is, in my opinion, certainly more solid than a male can do," says Gene Ogrodnik, president and CEO of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science.
"They appear to be better communicators overall. They try harder because they're collectively trying to prove they can do as well as the male in this profession. And the families love them."
Women are moving into the business for all kinds of reasons. Some, like Voncille Oliver, fell into it.
She took part-time jobs driving limousines and hearses for two Cleveland funeral homes after retiring from United Airlines in 2000.
"I was just hooked after that," says Oliver, who's studying at the Pittsburgh school.
"It's hard work emotionally and physically, that's true," she says. "But it's such an enriching profession, when you're talking to the families, especially the older women who've been married 50, 60 years -- to be able to sit down and talk and make them laugh -- it makes you feel good."
Other women see it as a calling, a way to help people through one of the hardest times in their lives. And then there are those, like Smith, who say evening and weekend hours make their family lives more manageable.
The business is changing -- and just in time, some say. There are predictions that the industry will suffer from a shortage of funeral home directors as baby boomers age and die.
But George Connick, executive director of the American Board of Funeral Service Education, believes that the predicted shortage will be offset, to a great degree, by an increase in the popularity of cremation.
The slack will be taken up in other ways, too.
Like Smith and Oliver, more people are choosing funeral work as a second career. Many are enrolling in mortuary schools in their 30s, 40s and 50s, after retiring or being laid off from other jobs.
Last year, 31 percent of new students in the field were older than 30, according to the funeral education board. That's up from 26 percent in 1995.
"This is more stable and recession-proof," says David Tackett, dean of the nonprofit Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science.
"And in this profession, gray hair is not a disadvantage," says Dan Flory, president of the Cincinnati school.
Another trend in the industry: Fewer children are taking over the family funeral home.
Two-thirds of the students in funeral education programs have no direct family connection to the business, according to the funeral education board.
It makes sense, says John Dovin, manager of Dovin Funeral Home in Lorain.
"It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- being on call in the middle of the night. Sometimes those 9-to-5 jobs are more appealing."
He followed his father and grandfather into the business, so he knows.
"Just the very simple trips we would plan to go to Cedar Point (amusement park)," Dovin says. "The phone rings and we're unpacking the car and (dad's) going to work."
The profession isn't extremely lucrative, either.
The median salary of embalmers was $32,000, according to a 2001 study, the most recent available from the National Funeral Directors Association. Funeral home managers earned $47,000; manager/owners, about $60,000.
But it's rewarding work -- counseling the grieving, listening to their stories, helping them memorialize their loved ones. That's one of the biggest reasons it's drawing nontraditional workers.
"It changes you drastically," says Smith. "You really see that life is too short, and that makes you appreciate the simple things."
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1090137398230520.xml |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, And, turning from my nursery window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!” William Cowper (1731-1800)
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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