Kansas City, MO – The profession of funeral director is not just a job, it’s considered a calling, a necessity. Since the pandemic began, those working in the understaffed industry have been stretched to the limits.
They’re used to surges, but the last year and a half of the coronavirus pandemic has been very stressful and a lot of work, says Donald Otto, executive director of the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association.
“Instead of working 10 hours a day over a weekend, or for a weekday, people have been doing it for 500 days, and we’ll do it for another 500 if we have to," says Otto.
To add to it all, Otto says the mortuary industry was understaffed before the pandemic and that hasn’t changed.
Otto says some of the stress comes not only from increased numbers of deaths a funeral director may handle, but new and sometimes changing regulations they have to navigate, more so in the unique Kansas City Metro that straddles two states, each with their own rules.
Otto says, as an example "you may only be able to do a graveside service with six people in attendance. Well, what if the family has seven kids? Which of the kids are you going to tell can’t be there at their mother’s funeral.”
And the work hasn’t slowed down, he says. Families unable to have a funeral early in the pandemic are now scheduling services.
Otto says the association has been working with state regulators to create new legislation that will make it easier for more people to enter the profession.