A woman became a funeral director to overcome her fear of dying and says death has taught her to stop comparing herself to others. Melissa Schmidt, 34, used to get “tunnel vision” at the idea of dying ...

A death can feel catastrophic and overwhelming, not only for mourners who loved the deceased person but also for anyone outside the loss who understands the pain it has caused. That is one of the most ...

Matthew Gagne says he is proud to be a fourth generation funeralhome director. The 37-year-old Norwich resident is funeral director, manager and embalmer at Cummings-Gagne Funeral Home in Norwich. "I ...

BALTIMORE — There were so many bodies in Hari Close’s funeral home one day last month that he arrived to begin embalming them at 2 a.m. It was his 61st birthday, but he had to get to work. Later that ...

I was a funeral director and embalmer for 11 years. I learned a lot about our bodies and death by doing my job. After an autopsy, brains usually are put back in the belly of the cadaver. When I tell ...

Sen. Rick Williams, a Milledgeville Republican, presents SB 239, which would remove the requirement that funeral directors be licensed in embalming in order to work in Georgia, on Feb. 5, 2026, in ...

Several Austin-area funeral home embalmers say it's common practice to pour human blood from corpses down the drain, a procedure that Austin Water officials admit they were unaware was occurring and ...

Days are numbered for the state regulatory board that has overseen funeral directors and embalmers for more than 100 years. Under a new law signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, the board will be replaced at the ...

This story was supported by the journalism nonprofit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. In the early 1970s, labor journalist and oral historian Studs Terkel sat down to interview Homer Martinez, ...