An Ordinary Life

Interesting couple of days. It has been an extremely busy week at work. I'm talking crazy making busy. Strangely, people are starting to request to deal with me when they arrive because I'm the one who answers the phone and who they've already talked to. That is kind of cool, but I'm also not licensed and cannot help them with many, if not most of the things they come to us for. This week there were multiple times that the funeral director and I were each assisting a family and we had at least one other family waiting for something. And then the phone. Good gracious that phone never seemed to stop ringing this week. Crazy making I tell you! While Friday had the same sort of pace to it, it had a couple of moments, for me, that put it into perspective and reminded me why I wanted to take on this job. We handled things for a family who's loved one passed very early Wednesday morning. They came in to make arrangements just before lunch. About 4 pm they calle...

Okay, yeah, on the face of it, it may seem selfish of me to donate my time and energy to a place that, to many, may not seem like as "worthy" a cause as others that are more political, or humanitarian. There was a time I might have agreed with that. But after having spent considerable time at 'The Gardens' my belief in the validity of the mission there grows stronger every day. Oh, most definitely there is a selfish element to it. It's fun. So many interesting things happen there and so many fascinating people visit. Then there's the fact that nearly everyone who is there WANTS to be there. Occasionally a guest will visit and you can tell they joined in under pressure from the rest of their group, but chances are just a short time after arrival they'll have changed their mind and will be enjoying themselves along with the rest of us. From time to time staff members might become a bit disillusioned. But for them it's a job and jobs have a way of doing...