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Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Professional Homegirl Podcast. Before

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Speaker 1: we begin today's episode, we want to remind you that

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Speaker 1: the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those

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Speaker 1: of the host and guests and are intended for educational

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Speaker 1: and entertaining purposes. In this safe space, no question is

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Speaker 1: off limits because you never know how someone's storyline can

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Speaker 1: be your lifeline. The Professional Homegirl Podcast is here to

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Speaker 1: celebrate the diverse voices, stories and experiences of women of color,

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Speaker 1: providing a platform for authentic and empowering conversations. There will

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Speaker 1: be some key king, some tears, but most importantly a

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Speaker 1: reminder that tough times don't last, but professional Homegirls do

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Speaker 1: enjoy the show.

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Speaker 2: Hey, professional Homegirls, I hope all is cute. Ishigara Ebine here,

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Speaker 2: and I am so excited about this week's episode because

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Speaker 2: we're diving into a story that's truly one of a kind.

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Speaker 2: My guest shares her incredible journey of discovering, at just

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Speaker 2: eight years old that she wanted to be a mortician, y'all.

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Speaker 2: From being drawn to the death industry at such a

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Speaker 2: young age to navigating the challenges of pursuing a career

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Speaker 2: most people shy away from She opens up about the beauty, curiosity,

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Speaker 2: and sense a purpose she's found in her work. So

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Speaker 2: get ready for an eye opening conversation that would challenge

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Speaker 2: how you see life, death, and a unique calling to

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Speaker 2: serve others in their most vulnerable moments. I'm a mortician

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Speaker 2: starts now. All right, to my guests, thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for being on the show. How you doing? How

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Speaker 2: of course, how you doing? How you feeling.

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Speaker 3: I'm feeling great.

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Speaker 4: I'm feeling great. I'm excited about this podcast.

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Speaker 3: Girl, Yes, yes, listen.

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Speaker 2: I was telling my guests y'all that I've been wanting

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Speaker 2: to have a morticianal show for a very long time.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why is because I don't think I

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Speaker 2: ever shared this with my audience. But I used to

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Speaker 2: want to be a mortician when I was a little girl.

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Speaker 2: Yeah right, But the reason why is because I always

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Speaker 2: love makeup, right, I know they're gonna be like girl,

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Speaker 2: and I never wanted to be a makeup artist, so

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Speaker 2: and I was never really afraid of like scary shit.

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Speaker 2: So I was like, I could just be a mortician.

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Speaker 2: But I never saw black women in this field.

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Speaker 4: What yeah, wow, we have a few like in my community.

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Speaker 4: I'm like in we have parishes in Louisiana versus counties.

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Speaker 4: So in the parish of jeff Davis Parish, I am

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Speaker 4: the first African American woman to become a martician, so

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Speaker 4: I'm the first for that first one to open my

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Speaker 4: own funeral home in this area. So yeah, we don't

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Speaker 4: have too many. I can count maybe maybe four within

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Speaker 4: the two parishes. It's not too many of black women

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Speaker 4: that does this.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. Like, I feel like in certain fields,

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Speaker 2: especially in the death feel or the funeral industry feel,

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Speaker 2: I feel like there's not a lot of black women

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Speaker 2: that are in this space when I was growing up.

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Speaker 4: Right right, for sure, I'm surprised up there in New York.

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Speaker 4: I had a lady she my same article I guess

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Speaker 4: that you have read that you read, and she contacted

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Speaker 4: me from New York. I can't remember her name, and

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Speaker 4: you know, she was just cheering me on. She was like,

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Speaker 4: I've been doing this for like she was like thirty

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Speaker 4: five years in and she was like.

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Speaker 3: I'm so proud of you.

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Speaker 4: They don't have too many of us because it's very challenging.

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Speaker 4: It's a male dominant industry and a lot of women

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Speaker 4: if you're not strong minded, strong headed, like it's not,

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Speaker 4: you cannot be in this industry because you know a

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Speaker 4: lot of men still feel that we should be behind

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Speaker 4: the desk right.

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Speaker 2: Well, So I was born in New York, but I

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Speaker 2: was raised in Memphis, so I definitely an't see no

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Speaker 2: black female morticians in the South.

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Speaker 3: Wow, wow, did you when you was growing up?

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Speaker 2: No, exactly, I'm not saying like you right across female

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Speaker 2: morticians on a daily basis.

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Speaker 4: No, not when we were younger, but as sure as

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Speaker 4: I've gotten older. We have a few where I live

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Speaker 4: in like Charles, My funeral is in Jenn's. I'm from Genis,

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Speaker 4: so it's about twenty five minutes from there to here.

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Speaker 4: And we have about two other women that's actually licensed marticians.

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Speaker 4: Because you can be a licensed funeral director and not.

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Speaker 3: Being in bomber and you're just a funeral director.

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Speaker 4: So but to be a martician, you are in bomber

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Speaker 4: and a funeral director in your license.

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Speaker 3: So no, Like going back.

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Speaker 4: To what you said, like, No, all I saw was

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Speaker 4: men looking like Frankenstein's in suits.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. But when I was doing my

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Speaker 2: research and how I discover you is I was going

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Speaker 2: down a rabbit hole because I'm like, oh, that it

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Speaker 2: would be kind of cool because I never spoke to

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Speaker 2: a mortician before, and I'm like, oh wow, it's a

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Speaker 2: lot of brownies that are morticians now, like y'all like everywhere?

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Speaker 3: No for real, no, for real? Yes, I completely agree.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So can you talk about the historical significance of

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Speaker 2: black owned funeral homes because I thought, like, funeral homes

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Speaker 2: play a really big they're a really big part of

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Speaker 2: our community.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Correct, So we and Jennings we're about maybe maybe nine

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Speaker 4: thousand people, And yeah, we have maybe nine thousand people,

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Speaker 4: if not less than that.

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Speaker 3: Girl, I'm not sure. We're very rule.

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Speaker 4: So they had a funeral home years ago in the eighties,

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Speaker 4: I know that was here.

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Speaker 3: Oh girl, that's another story for another day.

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Speaker 4: And my funeral home is actually in a I don't

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Speaker 4: want to say a white community, but this is a

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Speaker 4: white neighborhood. I'm off of a major highway and so

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Speaker 4: I had to go through a zoning in order to

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Speaker 4: get here.

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Speaker 3: And they they bad at me. All you're going to

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Speaker 3: do is cause traffic in our area and this and

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Speaker 3: that they did not want me here at all.

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Speaker 4: So that's the look that. That's another story. But to

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Speaker 4: answer your questions, like in Jennings, we had a black

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Speaker 4: we had two black funeral homes, but it was kind

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Speaker 4: of like a branch off of their funeral homes that

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Speaker 4: was in a bigger city. But to have a funeral

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Speaker 4: funeral home here, about seven or eight years ago, this

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Speaker 4: family from Lake Charles came out here to Jennings and

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Speaker 4: saw a need to have a funeral home because before

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Speaker 4: they came about eight years ago, we had a funeral

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Speaker 4: home out here in Jennings that was closed for about

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Speaker 4: maybe ten years before that, so we really didn't have

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Speaker 4: like we have. We have like two white funeral homes here.

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Speaker 4: And let me also say this, of course I'm black owned,

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Speaker 4: but I am diverse. So if you look at funeral

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Speaker 4: home names around here, they always named their last names

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Speaker 4: the funeral home after their last name, so you'll know,

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Speaker 4: like around here you have Matthew and Son, so you

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Speaker 4: know that's white. Here you had fine Dale's. You know

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Speaker 4: that's a black funeral home. You have Cambri that's the

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Speaker 4: black funeral home. Megaz that's a white funeral home. I

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Speaker 4: didn't want I didn't want to be Oh that's a

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Speaker 4: blue black funeral home. I'm not going because here the

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Speaker 4: taboo is, you know, like black people can't take care

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Speaker 4: of white people, so they stick like black stay with black,

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Speaker 4: and white stay with white, which is not true.

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Speaker 3: The taboo here white people think.

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Speaker 4: That they die on today on a Tuesday, and they're

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Speaker 4: going to be black as us by Thursday.

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Speaker 3: And that's not true. So they so you know us here.

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Speaker 4: I don't know how it is up there in New York,

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Speaker 4: but when if somebody died today, we're not bearing that

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Speaker 4: person this Saturday.

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Speaker 3: We wait until next week until Auntie.

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Speaker 4: Grandma and all of them from down Yon to come

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Speaker 4: back home, you know. So that's I'm trying to change that.

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Speaker 4: I'm trying to change that narrative. I'm trying to get

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Speaker 4: out of.

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Speaker 3: Boring traditional funeral rules. I hate to stay like that.

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Speaker 4: But for those who like to do traditional funerals, I'm

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Speaker 4: there for it. But the ones that want to have

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Speaker 4: a celebration of life.

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Speaker 3: I'm here for that as well. It's kind of change.

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Speaker 2: I feel like you we turning up in the funeral halls. Baby.

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Speaker 2: You ever seen that video of that corpse? They had

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Speaker 2: the dead guy in the club as his I feel like.

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Speaker 3: Is in New Orleans.

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Speaker 4: Is a funeral home in New Orleans that have a

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Speaker 4: lady martician is there and she does that, so that's

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Speaker 4: the closest funeral home. They're kind of like, they're not

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Speaker 4: where we are here. They're not ready for that see

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Speaker 4: through snow white casket yet I'm trying. I'm trying to

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Speaker 4: get somebody in there, but they haven't made it to

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Speaker 4: that point.

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Speaker 3: But it's baby steps in this area.

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Speaker 2: How did you feel about that when you saw that

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Speaker 2: video going viral because that was a bit much like

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Speaker 2: I don't want to be in the club. Turn it up.

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Speaker 4: So that's not mine, it's not my first time seeing that, Like,

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Speaker 4: like that is the truth. Yeah, that was a true

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Speaker 4: definition of putting that person out how they were, and

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Speaker 4: I agree with that to a certain extent. They also

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Speaker 4: had a man that played the saxophone and they had

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Speaker 4: him standing.

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Speaker 3: Up with a saxophone, so he stood up.

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Speaker 4: He didn't even have a casket around him, so that's

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Speaker 4: how he was for his visitation.

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Speaker 3: So not to cut you.

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Speaker 2: Off, but explain what you mean by putting them out

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Speaker 2: there by how they were.

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Speaker 4: So if they were a clubb a drinker like if like,

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Speaker 4: be true to who that person was. If that person

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Speaker 4: never wore a dress, don't put a dress on that person.

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Speaker 4: If they wore a T shirt and some jeans, well,

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Speaker 4: that's how you you be true to that person. That's

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Speaker 4: that's what I'm That's what I'm speaking about, so versus

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Speaker 4: the traditional way. If a man past, they have to

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Speaker 4: be in a suit versus being in a baseball a

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Speaker 4: jersey and jeans.

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Speaker 3: How we're normally seeing them.

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Speaker 4: So they pretty much uh and I say they the families,

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Speaker 4: the traditional families, you know, want a lady feel that

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Speaker 4: they should be in a dress, like go o forbid?

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Speaker 4: When when that time come from my mom, I would

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Speaker 4: never put in a dress because my mamma don wear dresses.

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Speaker 3: My mama loves brown, So I'm going to dress her

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Speaker 3: how my mom was here right like walking around.

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Speaker 4: So that's what I'm saying about being true to who

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Speaker 4: that person was while they were living and follow it

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Speaker 4: while they're in death.

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Speaker 2: Right, you know, nothing get off subject. But my cousin

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Speaker 2: and I we was having a conversation about people who

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Speaker 2: live in rural towns and it's just so funny because

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Speaker 2: I knew you was in Louisiana, but I didn't know

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Speaker 2: if it was in a smaller town in Louisiana. So

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Speaker 2: being at you because I feel like you are very

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Speaker 2: open to a lot of things, and I feel like

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Speaker 2: when you live in rural towns, it's not as invited

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Speaker 2: when it comes to certain dolls or things of that nature.

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Speaker 2: So you never wanted to branch out and go somewhere else,

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Speaker 2: to like a bigger city or something.

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Speaker 3: No, not at all from country. I'm a country girl. No,

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Speaker 3: so from Jennings. I can literally show you my book. Girl.

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Speaker 4: I wrote everything down in my senior book. I said

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Speaker 4: I wanted to live in Lake Charles, work at Lake Charles,

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Speaker 4: and then later on come back to Jennings and open

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Speaker 4: my funeral home. So I did the city life in Houston.

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Speaker 4: I had a mortuary school was in Houston. It's called

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Speaker 4: Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service.

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Speaker 3: So I lived there for fifteen months.

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Speaker 4: So I didn't like it. It was just too many people.

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Speaker 4: I didn't really care for it. I'm used to getting

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Speaker 4: in my car. It takes me five minutes to go

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Speaker 4: to Walmart, not twenty five minutes to get to a Walmart.

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Speaker 4: So I moved back and I ended up living in

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Speaker 4: Lake Charles, Louisiana, and I still live there. I commute

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Speaker 4: twenty five minutes every day from my funeral home to

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Speaker 4: my home, and so yeah, it's it's a bit different.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now, what are some myths about death and funerals that

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Speaker 2: you encounter in the community, Because I feel like as

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Speaker 2: Black people, we still haven't. I feel like we can

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Speaker 2: do a lot better when it comes to death planning,

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Speaker 2: death care, or even funeral arrangements. Like I feel like

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Speaker 2: we still have a hard time with getting things done

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Speaker 2: and timely matter. Like you said, like we shouldn't be

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Speaker 2: burying people two weeks later, No, don't put me on ice.

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Speaker 2: I need to get put you underground for sure.

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Speaker 3: I think that at this point people are.

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Speaker 4: I can't say, like the older generation is dying off,

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Speaker 4: and that generation is the ones.

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Speaker 3: That had the little insurance policies on everybody.

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Speaker 4: So what I try to do is every month I

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Speaker 4: try to bring light to the community. I have events

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Speaker 4: that goes on here at my funeral home on a Sunday,

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Speaker 4: I tried to get different people, different speakers to come

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Speaker 4: speak about about two months ago, I had four black

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Speaker 4: lawyer women, lawyers that came in that specialized in trust, wills, disability,

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Speaker 4: just different things, just to bring knowledge to them. And

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Speaker 4: so I had about twenty people here, and that's twenty

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Speaker 4: people that I know that I touched because you know,

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Speaker 4: they need to know, hey, what exactly needs to happen

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Speaker 4: before I passed away and what needs to be done.

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Speaker 3: So from I also do I had a pre.

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Speaker 4: Need insurance, which is when you come in and pre

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Speaker 4: plan your service. I'm an insurance agent for an insurance

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Speaker 4: company that I write through my own funeral home.

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Speaker 2: That's right, girl own.

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Speaker 4: We own a printing company. My husband and I own

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Speaker 4: a print company. I print all my programs, so it's

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Speaker 4: like everything go hand.

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Speaker 3: Go hand in hand. We don't have everything is in house,

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Speaker 3: so I know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, And I noticed that when I worked for other

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Speaker 4: funeral homes, they would just come to the funeral home,

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Speaker 4: but they would have to go out and get flowers,

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Speaker 4: or get programs or get personal things, custom things done.

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Speaker 3: For their funerals.

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Speaker 4: And I was like, no, I want to have a

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Speaker 4: funeral home that does everything. So when you come here,

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Speaker 4: the price I give you, the price you pay, everything's

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Speaker 4: going to be done. You can go home and work

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Speaker 4: on the obituary, right right, I made it a little easier.

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Speaker 4: But getting back to your question, I try to bring

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Speaker 4: light to my family is about insurance.

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Speaker 3: If you have insurance, check to.

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Speaker 4: See if your beneficiary, if the beneficial area is deceased,

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Speaker 4: you need to change it.

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Speaker 3: To someone that's the life because that's going to be

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Speaker 3: an issue once you pass away. So I try to

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Speaker 3: ge give.

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Speaker 4: Them knowledge so they won't have to come in here

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Speaker 4: and have no idea what to do or what's going on.

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Speaker 2: But how do you make funerals more affordable for families?

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Speaker 2: Because I also feel like a lot of times we

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Speaker 2: just don't have the money. But I imagine how challenging

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Speaker 2: that is on your end.

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Speaker 3: Right, Well, let me say this.

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Speaker 4: I decided I've worked for four different funeral homes in

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Speaker 4: four in two different areas, three different areas. So I

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Speaker 4: worked in Lake Charles, Louisiana, I worked in Crowley, Louisiana,

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Speaker 4: and I worked in Oppollusis, Louisiana. So these are about

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Speaker 4: two hours apart from each other, and.

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Speaker 2: So and tho it's not from Louisiana, Like what's the

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Speaker 2: difference between each one?

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Speaker 4: Like Lake Charles is more of a bigger city, Oppulusis

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Speaker 4: is a little bit smaller than Lake Charles Is a

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Speaker 4: little like it's so country around here.

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Speaker 3: Like it's so.

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Speaker 4: Country around here. So every where, I'm telling you, every

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Speaker 4: they think of Louisiana.

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Speaker 3: They think of New Orleans. We we don't have nothing

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Speaker 3: to do with it. We're so far.

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Speaker 4: We're like three hours three and a half hours.

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Speaker 3: Away from them.

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Speaker 4: So what you see and the food and everything else,

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Speaker 4: I have nothing on us.

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Speaker 2: Boom, Listen, I know y'all go outside and get that meat. Baby,

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Speaker 2: I know that need.

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Speaker 3: Me fresh fresh boot fresh seafood. F I already know, yes, yes.

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Speaker 2: Listen, I'm from I'm from Memphis, so I already know

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Speaker 2: when you going to the boonies in Mississippi and all

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Speaker 2: those backwoods areas, Listen, I know you gotta go outside

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Speaker 2: and get your dinner.

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Speaker 4: Yes, you already know. Boo late the canal that's over

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Speaker 4: there too. You gotta get that good old caffi right right.

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Speaker 2: And you know it's so funny. Okay, were getting on

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Speaker 2: tell pee, but you know it's so funny. I don't

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Speaker 2: even like calfic calffish, but when I come back home,

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Speaker 2: I know that's some really good like some fried calffish

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Speaker 2: with some hot sauce and some cheese and some white bread.

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Speaker 3: Cha.

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Speaker 4: Yes, yes that sounds so I'm right now, right right.

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Speaker 4: But the question so good.

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Speaker 2: But the question was, so, what do you do when

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Speaker 2: it comes to making funerals more affordable, because, like you know,

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Speaker 2: it's it's expensive bearing people off in a proper way.

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Speaker 3: It really doesn't have to be expensive, right, I feel that.

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Speaker 3: I feel that some funeral homes feel that.

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Speaker 4: Because it's the last thing that people have to pay for,

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Speaker 4: that it has to be expensive.

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Speaker 3: So I'm gonna always.

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Speaker 4: Because you know, I first, when you first open, you

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Speaker 4: kind of want to be underneath everyone. Bottom line, you know,

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Speaker 4: you kind of want to be a little under everybody, so.

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Speaker 3: You you know, just so you can get business. But however,

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Speaker 3: I'm going to always have these prices.

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Speaker 4: I'm gonna have prices for if someone say I only

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Speaker 4: have twenty two hundred dollars, what can you do for me.

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Speaker 4: I'm not gonna let them walk out of the door,

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Speaker 4: because at the end of the day, that's a light build, that's.

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Speaker 3: A water bill, that might be a gas bill.

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Speaker 4: So you know, I would never turn them away, even

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Speaker 4: if it's ten about ten years down the line.

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Speaker 3: But I just keep everything. I just go by.

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Speaker 4: I already know how many, how much bills we have

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Speaker 4: the background of the funeral home, and I know what

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Speaker 4: my funerals need to be in order for me to

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Speaker 4: still make a profit. I don't want to misuse.

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Speaker 3: A person because they're at a vulnerable state.

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Speaker 4: I was told before that some funeral homes make the

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Speaker 4: families use all their insurance, Like if you come in

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Speaker 4: with twenty thousand dollars, they'll make you say, hey, you

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Speaker 4: need to upgrade your casket, upgrade your.

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Speaker 3: Flowers, do this? Do that? No?

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Speaker 4: The people them, people have to live their loved one,

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Speaker 4: specially if it's someone's husband or wife they lost each other,

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Speaker 4: you know, then you know, most of the time the

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Speaker 4: men take care of the bills and everything, and.

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Speaker 3: They the women around.

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Speaker 4: Like in our like the rural areas, the men take

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Speaker 4: care of everything, and the women don't know how to

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Speaker 4: even do that. So why would I take if the

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Speaker 4: funeral need to be ten thousand, why would I make

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Speaker 4: her spend another ten thousand.

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Speaker 3: That's greed, that's greedy.

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Speaker 2: I don't agree with that, right, But what can twenty

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Speaker 2: two hundred get you?

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Speaker 4: Oh, twenty two hundred dollars here can get you can

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Speaker 4: get you a direct cremation and you can have a

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Speaker 4: little visitation here.

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Speaker 3: And you know, yeah, you can have a visitation here. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you can have a visitation there. And look I'm pointing

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Speaker 3: because I'm literally sitting in my office. I'm at the funeral.

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Speaker 4: So you can have a visitor a cremation and you

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Speaker 4: can do a visitation for about two hours.

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Speaker 3: I'll print you up like maybe thirsdy off the programs.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, like programs or whatever. So that's still something.

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Speaker 4: That's still something because sometimes funeral homes will be like, well,

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Speaker 4: I can't help you. Well, that's a choice. It really

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Speaker 4: is a choice.

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Speaker 3: It's a choice.

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Speaker 2: I guess about how money? I know, that's right, So

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Speaker 2: we can figure it out.

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Speaker 3: No, yeah, we'll figure it out.

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Speaker 4: You just let me what's your budget and I'll create,

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Speaker 4: you know, around your budget.

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Speaker 2: So what's a like, what's a decent amount for a funeral.

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Speaker 3: On my funeral?

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Speaker 4: I mean, it just all it just all depends on

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Speaker 4: what you want, if you know, it depends the casket

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Speaker 4: you choose. If you're having your visitation in funeral, either

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Speaker 4: at my facility or at your church. If you're getting limos,

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Speaker 4: if you're getting Hearts and Carriage, if you're getting full

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Speaker 4: blown printed programs Butterfly releases. It just all depends on

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Speaker 4: because you're literally picking out each and everything that you want.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I had a service for about twenty thousand dollars,

400
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,000
Speaker 4: but I also had a service for about seven thousand dollars,

401
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:56,439
Speaker 4: and you can it just all depends on what the

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Speaker 4: family chooses.

403
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Speaker 2: So when it comes to making money as a mortician,

404
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,040
Speaker 2: and where do you see most of the money coming in.

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Speaker 4: At, well, let me say this, when I first wanted

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Speaker 4: to be a martician, not as eight years old, but

407
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Speaker 4: as I got older, I never knew how much we made.

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Speaker 4: And honestly, wherever sometime like in a little small area

409
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Speaker 4: in Louisiana, we kind of like make less than Texas

410
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:21,800
Speaker 4: or make less than the next state. So I never

411
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Speaker 4: knew how much money I made, so I never got

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Speaker 4: into the field because of money. However, of course, by

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Speaker 4: being my own owner of a funeral home, I make money.

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Speaker 4: I make money by having my own funeral home because

415
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 4: I'm not getting paid a salary. You know, the money

416
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 4: that I make is pretty much my money. So in

417
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 4: order to see your money. Either you're going to have

418
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Speaker 4: to go into a big state, a bigger city to.

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Speaker 3: Make money as a martician.

420
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Speaker 4: Rural areas not really so much unless they really really

421
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Speaker 4: need a funeral director. And in Bomber and can pay

422
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 4: you what like some people. That's contract work. You make

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Speaker 4: your own price list versus sitting at a funeral home

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Speaker 4: making salary. So it's two ways that what you can do.

425
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,640
Speaker 4: You can work at a funeral home money through Friday work,

426
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Speaker 4: funerals and stuff, and make a salary I'll make hourly,

427
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Speaker 4: but you make more money by people calling on you

428
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Speaker 4: and say hey, I need to buy in Bomb, you

429
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 4: make like two fifty you know, just embombing to.

430
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Speaker 3: Buy it twenty minutes.

431
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 4: So yeah, doing contract work as a funeral director and

432
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 4: in Bomber you make more money that way.

433
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 3: And having your own funeral home for sure.

434
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Speaker 2: But that's why I think you're so smart, because you

435
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,680
Speaker 2: offer all the services that you need for a funeral

436
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 2: in house. So technically you're talking all the money true.

437
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 4: And so not only that, I like I said earlier,

438
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Speaker 4: we have a print company. So my funeral home pays

439
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 4: my printing company to print my So it's like the

440
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:58,640
Speaker 4: money just flow to keep going.

441
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 3: You know, it's just stay all at home. It's just

442
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:01,439
Speaker 3: stay at home.

443
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 2: Listen, y'all. I know she make money. She just gave

444
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,439
Speaker 2: me a tour funeral home looking like a man.

445
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 3: Y'all.

446
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:11,359
Speaker 2: She had about three or four freneral roals at the

447
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:15,920
Speaker 2: same time if she wanted to, I ain't never see.

448
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:21,240
Speaker 2: I'm freer home big like the one you got you Now,

449
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:23,560
Speaker 2: when I was reading your story, I mean, one of

450
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,800
Speaker 2: the main reasons why I went with you because I

451
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,119
Speaker 2: was so intrigued by the fact and we'll get to

452
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 2: this part later that you embalm your a lot of

453
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 2: your a lot of your family, including your father. But

454
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 2: what really made me want to have you on the

455
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,720
Speaker 2: show is because you was very transparent about the challenges

456
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 2: that you went through when it came to you going

457
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:45,440
Speaker 2: to school and also building your funeral home. So why

458
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,159
Speaker 2: do you think funeral homes are hesitant to embrace female

459
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 2: morticians Because I feel like women have a hard time

460
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,160
Speaker 2: with getting their market in this industry.

461
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 3: Well, again, from the beginning, it's about who, you know.

462
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 4: A lot of funeral homes around here are family owned,

463
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 4: So if you're not family, they really don't want to

464
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 4: give you a chance.

465
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 3: So it's a good thing.

466
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:08,640
Speaker 4: How I got my start is one of my mom's

467
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 4: older cousin knew the owner of the funeral home that

468
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 4: actually hired me. So yeah, so it's very hard to

469
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 4: get in and then not even as being a male

470
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 4: or a female, it's kind of hard because for one,

471
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 4: you're not family, and two you have to be trained,

472
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,760
Speaker 4: so you know that's kind of slowing down a funeral

473
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:31,919
Speaker 4: director and in Bomber like, oh now I got to

474
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,199
Speaker 4: train this person. You know that's going to slow me

475
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,120
Speaker 4: down in this and that. So it's really again it's

476
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 4: about a choice. So that's why I created my facility

477
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 4: to where I have my This is my second well

478
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 4: since i've been open. She is my first intern, so

479
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,239
Speaker 4: I can take as many interns as I would like to,

480
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:52,199
Speaker 4: but I wouldn't take no more than two at a

481
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 4: time because you have to be an intern for a year.

482
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 3: And so I want to be able to my facility.

483
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,080
Speaker 4: I might not be able to keep you after you

484
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:02,400
Speaker 4: finish your intern, but I at least want to get

485
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 4: your foot in the door to where you can get

486
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 4: license because I know how hard it was for me

487
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 4: to find a job for my internship.

488
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, So do you think the stigma against female morticians

489
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 2: are starting to shift.

490
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 4: Yes, because more and more females are taking ownership of

491
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 4: funeral homes. I feel like women are starting to young

492
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 4: women at that. I'm only thirty six, so I've been

493
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 4: doing this since i was nineteen, So I'm starting to

494
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 4: see more and more graduates of women. So we can

495
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 4: do it too, like why not? And we're more compassionate.

496
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 4: And again, like I said earlier, I feel that the man,

497
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 4: the dynamic of the men in the industry and the

498
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,880
Speaker 4: older generations that are still in the funeral industry, their

499
00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 4: use of us women being.

500
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 3: Doing paperwork, doing secretary things, so like we're gonna take

501
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 3: this over booth. Yeah, we don't take it over.

502
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:09,520
Speaker 2: I mean one thing that I read about, and I

503
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:11,399
Speaker 2: have been hearing about this since I was a little girl,

504
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,560
Speaker 2: is one of the misconceptions about morticians is the sexual

505
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 2: misconduct that they have with Yeah, she smelled with the

506
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,879
Speaker 2: deceased bodies. Is there any true to that? Have you

507
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 2: heard of your story?

508
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 3: Oh? Wait, no, I never heard that.

509
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 4: I thought you were saying, like, you know, like the

510
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 4: stuff that you deal in the workplace or whatever.

511
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 3: No, but no, girl, not with not on our end.

512
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:36,879
Speaker 3: We don't play that on this ND.

513
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I stories about how people like men morticians and

514
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 2: that's why they wanted more women to be more involved

515
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,160
Speaker 2: because a lot of the male morticians do be acting

516
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 2: like you did hear this rumor a lot of male

517
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 2: morticians were having sex with the dad parties. That's what

518
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:53,880
Speaker 2: my sources told me.

519
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 4: No, well, I'm not sure on that. Maybe that end

520
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 4: on the other side, but we we really haven't. No,

521
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,400
Speaker 4: I haven't. We haven't had any cases like that in Louisiana,

522
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 4: so it's not impossible.

523
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:11,160
Speaker 3: But that's just nasty.

524
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 4: That's just nasty discussing, that's degrading. That is going against

525
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 4: every moral, cold, every just everything.

526
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,919
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm not I'm not sure about that part. Yeah.

527
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 2: He was like, girl, what's your sources? Your sources? Now,

528
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,760
Speaker 2: can you share more about what first intrigue you about

529
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 2: death as a child because you want to be a

530
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 2: mortician at the age of eight, which I was like,

531
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 2: very like, oh wow, this sounds like my story a

532
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 2: little bit.

533
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, And I just want to say you

534
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 4: still can go to school.

535
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 3: You're not too old to go to school.

536
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:45,639
Speaker 5: Nah.

537
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 2: I think I found my calling. I don't know if

538
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 2: I can do makeup on dead people's faces.

539
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 3: No more, man, no more.

540
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 2: Yeah.

541
00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:02,159
Speaker 4: Well, I think what started it all was like I

542
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 4: was always fascinated with.

543
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:08,920
Speaker 3: Death, and so I don't think I ever really I.

544
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 4: Kind of just kind of when I give my story,

545
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 4: I kind of do, like the major parts of my story.

546
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 4: But actually I don't even think my husband here too.

547
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 4: I don't even think he knows this. But I was, yeah, okay.

548
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 4: So I remember taking care of a bird and the

549
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 4: bird was alive and I tried to keep it alive

550
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 4: and it passed, and I was literally in there when

551
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 4: the bird passed. I tried to feed it, but it

552
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 4: needed its mom. So I literally got my shoe box

553
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 4: out of the house and I dug a grave for

554
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 4: it and put dirt on it, and said, my ad

555
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 4: father proud because I knew how to pray, but it

556
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 4: was just me. So from there I was, you know,

557
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 4: just fascinated with that. So that was literally the beginning

558
00:28:56,640 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 4: of it. And then it goes on to they had

559
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 4: a murder in Jennings.

560
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 3: Now they had a murder in Jennings.

561
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 4: And I asked my grandmother, who take care of the

562
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 4: deceased and she said undertakers. So I'm literally going around everybody,

563
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 4: you know, telling everybody, and even at school I want

564
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 4: to be an undertaker at eight nine years old, So

565
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 4: nobody paid me any attention. I mean, come on, now,

566
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 4: a girl martician like an undertaker, Like, what do you

567
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 4: know about that? They don't even really have a lot

568
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 4: of people like that that does that here, So what

569
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 4: do you know about it? So that's why I say

570
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 4: it was a gift that I was born with from God.

571
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 4: So from there my brother I had learned to braid hair.

572
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 4: And my brother was like forty one or forty two,

573
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 4: he passed away, and they asked me if I wanted

574
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 4: to braid his hair. So this was by the time,

575
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 4: it was either eleven or twelve years old, I can't remember.

576
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 4: So I went to the Black funeral home here in

577
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 4: Jennings and I braided his hair. I talked to the

578
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 4: martician that was there and he told me. I asked him,

579
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 4: I said, what school, like did you go to? And

580
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 4: so he told me.

581
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 3: I looked up the number and I actually called the school.

582
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 3: And I'll never forget miss Patsy. She just retired last year.

583
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 3: MS passed to say, baby, how old are you because

584
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 3: you were too young? Where's your your mom? Where's your dad?

585
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 3: I said that my mom's is at work, but I'm calling.

586
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 3: I wanted to call, you know, I wanted to call

587
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 3: for myself.

588
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 4: And she was like, okay, baby, She said, well, I'm

589
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 4: going to send you some catalogs and stuff and hopefully

590
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 4: by the time you get older, you used to have.

591
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 3: The same passion.

592
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 4: And she when I graduated high school in two thousand

593
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 4: and six and went to Marchuary School in two thousand

594
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 4: and six, she remembered me.

595
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 3: Oh what she said, because no child.

596
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 4: Has never called up there asking about mortuary school.

597
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 3: So fast forward.

598
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 4: I graduated in O seven, So it's only like a

599
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,959
Speaker 4: fifteen month course, so it wasn't like two three years

600
00:30:59,000 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 4: or nothing like that.

601
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 3: Strictly a trade of embalming and funeral directing.

602
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 4: So you learn, you know, you and bomb bodies over

603
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 4: there at a certain point of your you know, schooling.

604
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 4: And so from from there, I ended up graduating and

605
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 4: I came back home. I couldn't find a job, So

606
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 4: from there I got a job in Lake.

607
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,880
Speaker 3: Charles and I was at that facility, at that funeral

608
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 3: home for about about eight years. Oh and so oh

609
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 3: it was. Let me tell you.

610
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 4: I just told my husband, I said, my boss was

611
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 4: so hard on me, and I love him to this

612
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 4: day and I give him his flowers. He was so

613
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 4: hard on me, and I often wonder like why would

614
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 4: he so hard on me? Like I did a lot

615
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 4: of stuff by myself. And I just literally told this

616
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 4: to my husband. I said, I see why he was

617
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 4: so hard on me, because if he was not, I

618
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 4: wouldn't be able to run his funeral home by myself.

619
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 4: Like I pick up I pick up all my my bodies,

620
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 4: I embalmed all my bodies, I see all my families,

621
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 4: I work all my funerals.

622
00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 3: I do everything on my own.

623
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 4: And that's how it's trained because he always told me

624
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 4: you never know, you may be by yourself one day,

625
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 4: and you need to be able to do everything.

626
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 3: On your own.

627
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 2: I mean that's the whole point of entrepreneurship. Like eventually

628
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,040
Speaker 2: you want to hire and get support, but the beauty

629
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 2: of it is you need to know how to do

630
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 2: every single job.

631
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 3: Yep, just in case they quit one day. You got

632
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 3: to be able to pick up the slack robe.

633
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 2: The show got to keep going.

634
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 3: You already, you know it, so can you.

635
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 2: Walk us through the process of the embalming.

636
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can.

637
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 2: So was that hard for you when you learn at first?

638
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 3: Well, my dad was my first body. Yeah, so it

639
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 3: was it wasn't hard. I guess it didn't take me.

640
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 4: It took me about maybe two months and when he

641
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 4: passed within the two no, let me see June July. Yeah,

642
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 4: within the two months that I got hired. So I

643
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 4: was doing other bodies of what learning other bodies my dad.

644
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 4: I asked my boss to just leave me in the

645
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 4: room with my dad. And it took me a while,

646
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 4: but I got it. And so you know, you you make.

647
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,520
Speaker 3: Your removal, you bring them to the funeral home, you

648
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 3: wash them, give them their bath, I wash their hair,

649
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 3: and then.

650
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 4: You make your incision and then you do It's like

651
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 4: a process. So as much blood that comes out is

652
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 4: the same amount of embombing fluid you want to pump in, right, okay,

653
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 4: because if you don't have any drainage, then you can

654
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 4: swell the person up because it's not enough. You know,

655
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 4: you're just adding more and more and more, you know,

656
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 4: liquid to them without having some kind of exit. So

657
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 4: it takes about maybe on a normal case, about twenty

658
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 4: minutes twenty five minutes.

659
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 3: I thought, that's what happened in that autops just takes

660
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 3: a while.

661
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 2: And your dad before he passed away, y'all had a

662
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 2: conversation about it.

663
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 3: Right, we did. So.

664
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 4: I was in Martuary School in Houston and my dad

665
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 4: lived in another little rural small town called Elton, which

666
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 4: is about fifteen minutes from the you know home.

667
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 3: And I told him my dad was sick.

668
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 4: He had cancer, and so I was home every weekend

669
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 4: trying to take care of him and you know, stay

670
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,880
Speaker 4: in school and things like that. Another thing about me

671
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,080
Speaker 4: that people may not know that I have a tattoo

672
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 4: of a skull and it says undertaker.

673
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:18,200
Speaker 2: I have a skull on the back of my neck

674
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 2: real well, a little.

675
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,479
Speaker 3: Both a little bowl. Oh that's cute.

676
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 4: I love skull, and it said undertaker. And so during

677
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 4: the time of my dad being sick and coming home,

678
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 4: I had wanted to quit several times, but I said,

679
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 4: if I go get this tattoo tatted on me, I

680
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,400
Speaker 4: am going to finish school, no matter how hard it is.

681
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,760
Speaker 4: And I prayed, I asked God, I said, just spare

682
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 4: my dad to see me graduate and for me for

683
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 4: him to see me make it.

684
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 3: That was my prayer. And so one day my dad

685
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:53,360
Speaker 3: and I was having a conversation.

686
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,240
Speaker 4: I said, Daddy, I said, I think that if something

687
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 4: happened to you, I would be able to do you.

688
00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:58,760
Speaker 3: You know, I would be able to do your service

689
00:34:58,920 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 3: and and bom you.

690
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:01,800
Speaker 4: And so he told me, he said, if you feel

691
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 4: that you could, baby, he said, do by.

692
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 3: All means, do me the honors. So it was no

693
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 3: way I couldn't.

694
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 4: I couldn't not take care of my dad from the

695
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 4: time I went there when he passed away, I watched

696
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 4: him remove him. The next day I went and or

697
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:20,359
Speaker 4: later on that day, I went in and bombed him

698
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,880
Speaker 4: and I dressed him, I helped put him in the casket.

699
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 4: I took him to the church. I did his funeral.

700
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 4: I directed the cemetery. And it's like that was the

701
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 4: hardest part. The hardest part, of course, of him passing,

702
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,720
Speaker 4: but the hardest part of losing my dad or missing

703
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,880
Speaker 4: him is leaving him at the cemetery.

704
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:40,280
Speaker 3: That's the toughest part.

705
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 2: Because you were pretty much with him all the way.

706
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 4: Exactly. I could have still walked even though he was deceased.

707
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 4: I could have still walked in that room and say, hey, daddy,

708
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 4: I'm here all good morning. You know, people might think

709
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 4: it's crazy, but that was That's what what kept me saying.

710
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 3: And then what when I broke down is when I

711
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 3: left him at the cemetery. That was that was that

712
00:35:59,440 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 3: was tough for me.

713
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 2: You know, you segue into my next question because I

714
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:05,840
Speaker 2: feel like to be like, just talking to you, I

715
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 2: can tell you're a very spiritual person. So one role

716
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 2: the spirituality and faith plays in your profession.

717
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 3: Oh a whole lot. Yeah.

718
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 4: If it wasn't like for God, I wouldn't be where

719
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 4: I'm at. My mind would be all over the place

720
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 4: because I deal with so many people and the emotions.

721
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:25,760
Speaker 2: And I dealt with energy.

722
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,240
Speaker 3: Oh, it's a lot. It's a lot of energy.

723
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 5: Uh.

724
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 4: People often ask me, hey, do you see do you

725
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 4: see any anybody?

726
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:35,840
Speaker 3: Do anybody follow you home?

727
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 4: I had, I had maybe one or two spirits that

728
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 4: followed me home.

729
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm not scared.

730
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 3: My daughter. Yeah, my daughter is.

731
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:51,440
Speaker 4: Nine now, but she was like three or four and

732
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,359
Speaker 4: she can talk like since she was like one or two,

733
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 4: and like clearly, and so she would run in the

734
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,640
Speaker 4: room and tell me, hey, my No, she was say, mommy,

735
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 4: Papaul is scaring me. So I've always even my son

736
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 4: that I have, he's four. I showed him them pictures

737
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 4: of who my dad was, of who he was, so

738
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,919
Speaker 4: they knew who to look for, so for her to say,

739
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 4: but she would say he's scaring me.

740
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 3: And then sometime I was like, okay, well I'm gonna

741
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 3: go get pu part. I'm telling them to stop scaring you.

742
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,279
Speaker 4: Well, some days she would be giggling and laughing and

743
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:27,279
Speaker 4: she wouldn't run to me. So obviously it was my

744
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,359
Speaker 4: dad and someone else and some door.

745
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 3: Sometime the door my husband can vouch.

746
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 4: For this, like the closet door will be literally closed

747
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:37,439
Speaker 4: and then it would be open. And my daughter could

748
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 4: not open doors. So you know, I know, dog on,

749
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 4: weay out and closed that door and then I was

750
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,279
Speaker 4: open wide open. So I just got a pastor to

751
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 4: come in and pray and then it stopped. So you know,

752
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 4: I never seen physically saw anyone. I do have a

753
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 4: gift that either I have dreams about people, or I

754
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 4: can look at a person and I say.

755
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 3: Maybe two people lives.

756
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,760
Speaker 4: I had a friend I haven't saw in a while,

757
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 4: and I saw her in Albison's, which is a grocery

758
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 4: store here in Lake Charles, and I said, hey, girl,

759
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 4: I said, I said, hey, why why are you you

760
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:15,319
Speaker 4: know you're you?

761
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:16,879
Speaker 3: You done got darker. I said, what's wrong?

762
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 4: She was like, I really, I said, I don't know.

763
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 4: She was like, I don't know. I said, you look

764
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 4: like your kidney's is shutting down.

765
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:24,800
Speaker 2: That's a kidney issue.

766
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, I said exactly. I said, you look like you

767
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:32,040
Speaker 4: having kidney issues. Go to the doctor. Two or three

768
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 4: days later, she came to the house. She said, girl,

769
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 4: she said, I have kidney stage three kidney failure.

770
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 3: So she had to have dialysis. And she was like,

771
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 3: I can't thank you enough because I would have never

772
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 3: went to the doctor. I just thought it was just.

773
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 4: Normal, you know, like I was having just regular like

774
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 4: it was my blood pressure or things like that.

775
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 3: So it's a few times that either I didn't save.

776
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,120
Speaker 4: Them or after they passed, and I'm like, you know,

777
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 4: like I wish I would have saw them ahead of time,

778
00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 4: so to where I could have warned them or saw them.

779
00:38:59,640 --> 00:38:59,840
Speaker 3: So go.

780
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 4: I have different gifts dreams. Sometime I have to give

781
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 4: people messages from my dream. I'm telling you, it's mind blowing.

782
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 4: So it's really with dealing with death, the spiritual realm.

783
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 3: Guardly, I have.

784
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,400
Speaker 4: A lot of energy, like I deal with a lot

785
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 4: of energy, but I also ask for God protection because

786
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,760
Speaker 4: not all energy is good energy.

787
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 2: How you ever came across some bad energy or like

788
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 2: negative energy?

789
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:33,359
Speaker 3: Funeral not at a funeral home. I actually this is funny. Girl.

790
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 4: So me and my husband about maybe a month or

791
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:42,399
Speaker 4: two ago, stayed in the Airbnb in Lafayet, Louisiana. Immediately,

792
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:53,799
Speaker 4: I didn't want to tell him immediately, No, yeah, okay,

793
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 4: it's really a nice place and they have some.

794
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,880
Speaker 3: Good it's a little bit bigger. It's a little bit

795
00:39:58,920 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 3: bigger than Charles.

796
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 4: So we stayed in the Airbnb and I as soon

797
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 4: as I walked in, I knew somebody passed in that house.

798
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 4: I knew somebody had had passed away there. I was

799
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:11,880
Speaker 4: very uncomfortable. I felt their presence. It wasn't a bad present,

800
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:13,919
Speaker 4: but I was just uncomfortable, like they didn't want us there.

801
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 4: And so we stayed there and I didn't tell him

802
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 4: nothing until we left and he told me.

803
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 3: He said, I just kind of felt like weird. I

804
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,320
Speaker 3: was like, well, I did too. I didn't want to

805
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 3: tell you.

806
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:27,879
Speaker 4: I didn't want to scare you. I said, somebody died

807
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 4: in that house. Well, later I said, that house is

808
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:34,240
Speaker 4: very old. Even though they remodeled it, that house was old.

809
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 4: That house was in the twenties, in the twenties, the thirties,

810
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,439
Speaker 4: So you could you imagine how many people that didn't

811
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 4: pass on in that house or whatever. It was just

812
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 4: one particular room that I really didn't want to sleep in.

813
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 3: I slept across from it. And so when I.

814
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 4: Never leave bad reviews on Airbnb, so it's a way

815
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 4: that you can go in and speak to them directly.

816
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 4: So I say, hey, y'all have a ghost. I say,

817
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 4: y'all have a I said, y'all have y'all have a

818
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:03,759
Speaker 4: goals here. I said, that wasn't bad, it wasn't mean.

819
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:06,439
Speaker 4: I said, I'll never put that. I said, but this

820
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 4: house had to have been old, and some people had

821
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 4: to have, you know, passed here. She said she wasn't

822
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,840
Speaker 4: surprised for one. And she said that that house was

823
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 4: built I think she said in the in the thirties.

824
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 4: So she said, yeah, it's the older house and there

825
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:23,960
Speaker 4: was a lot of history there. So girl, I deal

826
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 4: with this stuff all the time. My family is spiritual.

827
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 3: So why say nothing? Why are you stand there?

828
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 4: I just because it didn't bother me. I wasn't scared.

829
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 4: I wasn't scared. And girl, I didn't pay for that booth.

830
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:37,240
Speaker 4: I paid for that house.

831
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:41,280
Speaker 3: I paid for that. So we're gonna.

832
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 2: Playing with their money. Yeah, okay, we don't get no refound.

833
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:45,280
Speaker 2: We are staying.

834
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:47,839
Speaker 3: We're staying right, yep.

835
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,319
Speaker 2: So how has been a mortician shaped away you view

836
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:01,080
Speaker 2: life and death?

837
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:07,560
Speaker 3: It is so sharp. I was telling this to someone

838
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:08,319
Speaker 3: the other day.

839
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 4: I said, normally, at the beginning of my career, about

840
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:17,399
Speaker 4: sixteen years ago, almost seventeen, I can actually they had

841
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,359
Speaker 4: a season. They had a season of older people dying.

842
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:22,080
Speaker 4: They will normally die at the end of the year.

843
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,360
Speaker 4: They had a season of murder suicide that would be

844
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 4: kind of like in the middle of the year summertime.

845
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,279
Speaker 3: You had a season of children passing. So it was

846
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:31,879
Speaker 3: kind of like a season. It was a.

847
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:36,399
Speaker 4: Season of things, of deaths that would happen constantly. One

848
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 4: year'll be this way, it might flip the next day,

849
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 4: but you can put your finger on it that it

850
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 4: was going to be a certain age bracket at that

851
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,960
Speaker 4: time of the year. Now death has no time, it

852
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 4: has no color, it has no age anymore, it has

853
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:52,399
Speaker 4: no time of the year.

854
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 3: Is anything.

855
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:57,959
Speaker 4: They had eight fitting all deaths and gennings for the past.

856
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:02,800
Speaker 3: Two weeks and they all under the age of forty. Yeah,

857
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:08,800
Speaker 3: so's no, it's no age on this anymore. Mmmm.

858
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 2: You make a good point because when I remember when

859
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 2: I was younger, it was only old people die. But

860
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,239
Speaker 2: now as I'm getting older, I'm like, everybody.

861
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 3: Died, everybody. That's it. That's it.

862
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 4: So to answer your question, it has no.

863
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 3: It has no.

864
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 4: It's not a season anymore of different depths. It's just

865
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:30,719
Speaker 4: mixed in.

866
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 3: It's like a gumbo.

867
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 4: It's it's everybody at any time, all type of ways.

868
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:38,319
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you live your life to the

869
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 2: fullest because of your profession?

870
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 3: Now I do. I do. I went on my first

871
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 3: airplane trip in.

872
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 5: Twenty I don't remember twenty twenty. Wait, hold on twenty, Taylor,

873
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 5: my daughter was born in fifteen, so in twenty seventeen

874
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 5: or twenty I think it was twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen.

875
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 5: That was my That was my first plane ride, and

876
00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 5: I went to clock Denver, Colorado, with my friend to

877
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:11,480
Speaker 5: meet them with my friends at a cabin.

878
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 3: So that was my first time and ever since then,

879
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 3: I need I have to have at least two plane trips.

880
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 4: A year going somewhere. We didn't input a cruise. We

881
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 4: try to take the kids somewhere because life is so short.

882
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:29,279
Speaker 4: It's like I can't even put it in words of

883
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 4: how short, Like short is not even the right word.

884
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 4: Like it's really like literally one day you're here and

885
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 4: the next day you're gone.

886
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:40,840
Speaker 2: Have you ever did a funeral or embomb somebody that

887
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 2: was difficult because besides like your father and I know

888
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 2: you do a lot of your family and friends. Has

889
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:46,640
Speaker 2: there ever been a situation where you were just like

890
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 2: it was too much?

891
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:58,359
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was recently. So they had a lady that

892
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 4: we have gotten really close. So I do these events

893
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 4: in my in my city in Jennings, I do a

894
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:09,879
Speaker 4: Christmas jamboree in December and I this year we gave

895
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,800
Speaker 4: away I think close to two hundred and fifty tois

896
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 4: to each child or three hundred. We had about three

897
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty people there at the park.

898
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 2: And you the mayor of Genesis, Baby, you're doing everything.

899
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 4: Everything, not only that somebody told me. That's another story.

900
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 4: Somebody say, girl, you need to run for mayor. I say, baby,

901
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about politics, so I'm doing do politicians.

902
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:33,080
Speaker 2: So I think you'll be fine.

903
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:34,880
Speaker 3: Okay.

904
00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:40,359
Speaker 4: But so three years ago, so this was my third year.

905
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 4: This is going to be the fourth year. So three

906
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 4: years ago I had asked. I was just asking just

907
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 4: people for donations, and this lady, she was like, well,

908
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 4: we're doing something too. I said, well, let's just merge.

909
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,320
Speaker 4: Let's do it together. So we've been doing it together

910
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 4: ever since. She was at my event on December fifteenth

911
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 4: and she said, hey.

912
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:02,919
Speaker 3: Girl, she said, I'm going I'm gonna come. I'm gonna

913
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:04,320
Speaker 3: come by there. I need to talk to you about

914
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:06,800
Speaker 3: some stuff. So this was a Sunday.

915
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,120
Speaker 4: She came on a Tuesday, and she just wanted to

916
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:12,839
Speaker 4: talk about you know. What happened was the process. She

917
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 4: picked out her own casket. She picked she told me

918
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 4: her favorite flowers, her favorite.

919
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 3: Color was red.

920
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 4: You know, we just had a conversation. We laughed and

921
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 4: everything else. And that Saturday, which was four or five

922
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:31,759
Speaker 4: days later, she we was at a party, was at

923
00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 4: a Christmas party, and so I waved at her at it.

924
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,319
Speaker 4: I normally hugg I'm a hugger. I normally hugged. But

925
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:40,879
Speaker 4: I was in a rush to leave. I had enough

926
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 4: of the party. I was ready to go. I was hungry,

927
00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 4: so I waved at her, but she smiled and waved.

928
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 4: Literally ten hours later she died. She died December twenty second,

929
00:46:49,719 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 4: so that was how did she die? She had a

930
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:53,480
Speaker 4: massive heart attack.

931
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:59,319
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, she had a massive heart attack, And you know,

932
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:00,239
Speaker 3: it was just that.

933
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 4: Really that was really like my dad and I have buried,

934
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:09,920
Speaker 4: like my best friend's family, my other my aunts, my cousins.

935
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,799
Speaker 4: That they're losing her was one of the hardest things

936
00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:16,879
Speaker 4: of my career since I opened the funeral home.

937
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 3: That was hard.

938
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:24,480
Speaker 4: That was very hard for me. I cried almost every day.

939
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:29,240
Speaker 4: But I knew like her funeral. I had her clothes

940
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 4: on display, I had pictures, I had flowers galore. We

941
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 4: actually she was my I had a backdrop in the

942
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,040
Speaker 4: back of her casket. They're not used to seeing a

943
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:43,680
Speaker 4: funeral like that. First off, wearing red at a funeral

944
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 4: is taboo. So maybe we all had red on. I

945
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:49,160
Speaker 4: had a red dress on, she had red on.

946
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 3: Everywhere. Everybody wrote red. So that was broke. That taboo

947
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 3: was broken.

948
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 4: You could wear any color that doesn't normally say it's like,

949
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 4: you're happy that the deceases is dead, and I'm like,

950
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 4: you know, if red was our favorite color, let's celebrate that.

951
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:03,040
Speaker 3: We're not going to change that.

952
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:05,880
Speaker 4: That that is something that was manipulated in my in

953
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:06,759
Speaker 4: our minds, you.

954
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:09,839
Speaker 2: Know, being pink with a buzz down.

955
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:19,880
Speaker 6: So oh baby, I'm here for it was everything was

956
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 6: so beautiful.

957
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 3: It was something.

958
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 4: It was the start of being able to show people

959
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:30,760
Speaker 4: that how a funeral can be. It can be non traditional,

960
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:33,359
Speaker 4: it could be all let's celebrate the life of her.

961
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:37,400
Speaker 4: So yeah, I've had plenty. I've buried a lot of

962
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 4: friends and family members, but recently, within the last two

963
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:44,480
Speaker 4: three weeks, it was hard.

964
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 3: That was a hard.

965
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,720
Speaker 2: What lessons do you think we can learn about living

966
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 2: from how we honor the dead, because I feel like

967
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:54,720
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't respect the dead in some cases.

968
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 4: I'm really not sure it really changed. It changed some

969
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 4: people for the better, and it's changed some people for

970
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:02,520
Speaker 4: the worst. Some people really be like, you know what,

971
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:07,239
Speaker 4: you really live, yolo, you only live once, So let

972
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 4: me go ahead and let me open my business or

973
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 4: let me go ahead and let me take that trip,

974
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,520
Speaker 4: Let me get on, let me get on the boat, you.

975
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,120
Speaker 3: Know, things like that, let me let me take a

976
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:18,040
Speaker 3: cruise or something.

977
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 4: So I really think that they get motivated, especially if

978
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 4: they pass away abruptly and not you know, like someone

979
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 4: that had cancer or some kind of issue that they

980
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:31,200
Speaker 4: was dealing with for a long period. To me, when

981
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:34,799
Speaker 4: you have an illness, you can kind of better prepare

982
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 4: your emotions to lose that person.

983
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:40,360
Speaker 3: You know, kind of.

984
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:42,080
Speaker 4: It's still going to be hard, but you could kind

985
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 4: of prepare versus someone getting killed, having a massive heart attack,

986
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,520
Speaker 4: a stroke, or you know, things that are shocking.

987
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 3: Right.

988
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 2: So, yeah, I'm just curious do you feel like, because

989
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 2: I know you're a spiritual person, do you feel like

990
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:00,640
Speaker 2: when you disrespect the dad come back to you?

991
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,680
Speaker 3: Most definitely? I think so. I think so. And the

992
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 3: thing about it is.

993
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 4: Like, why be disrespectful to them when you're coming there

994
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 4: to respect them passing? Like what's you know, like, what

995
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:17,920
Speaker 4: is the point of you even coming if you're going

996
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:20,600
Speaker 4: to be disrespectful? You know, like what are you coming

997
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,200
Speaker 4: to the visitation and funeral for? It's a little bit

998
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:27,399
Speaker 4: different here. If they didn't like you or whatever. They're

999
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 4: not coming. They're not coming, So we really kind of

1000
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:34,040
Speaker 4: don't deal with the disrespect because we can pull up

1001
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 4: to your house.

1002
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,240
Speaker 3: You literally live around the corner. We got three streets.

1003
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:41,080
Speaker 4: We got three streets here across town and stuff, so

1004
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 4: we got three streets, were coming to your house.

1005
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 2: So we're almost finished. So what changes would you like

1006
00:50:50,680 --> 00:50:52,560
Speaker 2: to see in the funeral industry in the next five

1007
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:56,160
Speaker 2: to ten years. What I would like to see is,

1008
00:50:56,200 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 2: of course, more women, more celebrations of life. Uh more

1009
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,320
Speaker 2: just celebrating that person in the way that they lived,

1010
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 2: like if they were sassy, if they wore a wig that.

1011
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 3: Was towed up or whatever.

1012
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 4: Hey, that's how she That's that was her, that's how

1013
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. That's I want to see

1014
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:24,040
Speaker 4: more of people representing the deceased as how they were.

1015
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 3: If they would walk through the door, if it was

1016
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:27,879
Speaker 3: a holiday. That's that's what I want to see.

1017
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 4: I want to see more you know, black and white

1018
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,040
Speaker 4: women in this industry, and a lot of black working

1019
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:37,480
Speaker 4: for white firms and a lot of white for people.

1020
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 3: Working for black firms. Let's let's mix.

1021
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:41,839
Speaker 4: That's my whole thing here in Jennings we have a

1022
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 4: train track, and the train track separate us. So when

1023
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 4: you cross the train track going downtown, that's as black people.

1024
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:50,319
Speaker 4: When you cross it going uptown as white people, We're

1025
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:51,680
Speaker 4: we're literally.

1026
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 2: So it's still segregated.

1027
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:57,319
Speaker 4: Yeah, we still we're not not legally separated. Segregated is

1028
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,040
Speaker 4: just that's just how we are. Like we have I

1029
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:05,760
Speaker 4: have black cemeteries and we have white cemeteries. Yeah, yeah,

1030
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:07,839
Speaker 4: I'm so. I forgot that you're not from around here,

1031
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 4: so we literally have.

1032
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:12,960
Speaker 3: I remember I was working at a white firm and

1033
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 3: they had this lady.

1034
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:16,879
Speaker 4: She was from Florida, and she was like, well, we

1035
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 4: was at a cemetery and I told her.

1036
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:21,440
Speaker 3: I said, well, on this side you have the name

1037
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 3: of THEID. I gave it the name of.

1038
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:24,040
Speaker 4: The cemetery, and then on the left side you have

1039
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:25,920
Speaker 4: another and I gave it a name. She was like, well,

1040
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 4: why is it two separate parts. I said, well, this

1041
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:29,359
Speaker 4: is black people and this is white people.

1042
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:30,719
Speaker 3: She was like what She was.

1043
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:37,920
Speaker 4: Like, y'all segregated around. Yes, we are to a certain extent,

1044
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:41,279
Speaker 4: because that's just how it was and that's just how

1045
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 4: things were. So I'm trying to break that barrier by

1046
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:49,759
Speaker 4: I have my Christmas events and certain events in a

1047
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 4: certain area in Jennie to where we all meet up

1048
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 4: in one spot. So I have a variety Black, white,

1049
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:59,400
Speaker 4: Mexican have different races. Like I don't care what color

1050
00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 4: you are, you can come here. I'm gonna take care

1051
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 4: of you the same way, the same way. So that's

1052
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:09,839
Speaker 4: why I put you know that on my business card

1053
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:13,840
Speaker 4: and I'm looking at it. Guiding hearts, honoring legacies, servicing

1054
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:18,920
Speaker 4: all faiths, family and people. So you know, it's like

1055
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:23,759
Speaker 4: I want people to know that it's okay to use

1056
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 4: a black funeral home. Like if you're white, it's okay.

1057
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:29,960
Speaker 4: We're gonna treat you with the utmost respect.

1058
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:34,400
Speaker 3: Do you get a lot of white I actually had three.

1059
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 3: I had three out of forty four people. So baby,

1060
00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:41,120
Speaker 3: that three. I was told I would never get any

1061
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:41,720
Speaker 3: white people.

1062
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,239
Speaker 4: So that three means the you know, that means a

1063
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:46,399
Speaker 4: lot to me and I you know, I've been praying that.

1064
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 4: I don't let me say this. You have to be

1065
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 4: careful what you pray for. I never pray for someone.

1066
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,840
Speaker 4: I don't like when people passed away, I really don't.

1067
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 4: But when my prayer is when that time comes, that

1068
00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:01,040
Speaker 4: they think about Martuary's Center first and going to bring

1069
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:04,880
Speaker 4: me that family. That's going to show, that's going to

1070
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:08,560
Speaker 4: let people know that I handle them in the same

1071
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 4: way no matter what color you are. So that's really

1072
00:54:12,239 --> 00:54:16,360
Speaker 4: I really want to see diverse diversity in the funeral industry.

1073
00:54:18,320 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 2: Not to be messy, but do you know if the

1074
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:22,400
Speaker 2: white white funeral homes do they serve as black people?

1075
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:24,240
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1076
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:26,799
Speaker 4: They do. It's not it's let me let me say this.

1077
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,840
Speaker 4: It's not that they don't service us. We don't go

1078
00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:34,440
Speaker 4: because they are a white firm. We're gonna they people

1079
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 4: feel that a white can't take care of a black

1080
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:38,479
Speaker 4: and a black can't take care.

1081
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 3: Of a white.

1082
00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 4: That was the stigma back then because, like I was

1083
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:44,759
Speaker 4: saying earlier, they felt that white people with there, they

1084
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:48,120
Speaker 4: turned darker as they get you know, as the days

1085
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 4: go by, Well, everybody get darker because you're deceased.

1086
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:55,440
Speaker 3: We all at the end of the day, at the

1087
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:59,080
Speaker 3: end of the day. So yeah, that's that's the reasoning.

1088
00:54:59,239 --> 00:55:01,319
Speaker 2: But what will happen the white person is buried in

1089
00:55:01,320 --> 00:55:02,800
Speaker 2: a white cemetery? Is that possible?

1090
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:04,759
Speaker 3: Yeah? You can.

1091
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:10,240
Speaker 4: Again, it's just we don't because we have a right

1092
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:11,200
Speaker 4: that's how it been.

1093
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:15,919
Speaker 3: That's how nobody changed that. So it's not like they say,

1094
00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 3: it's not like.

1095
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:20,640
Speaker 4: It's racial around here, like the owner of the cemetery saying,

1096
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 4: we don't want no black people here.

1097
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:22,879
Speaker 3: It's not that.

1098
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 4: It's just we don't go because we got our own.

1099
00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:27,839
Speaker 4: Y'all told us we couldn't go back then, so we're

1100
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:29,960
Speaker 4: not going right now. We made our own and that's

1101
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:30,560
Speaker 4: where we're going.

1102
00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 2: I'm coming to visit you, baby. I don't like that

1103
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:41,399
Speaker 2: second shit slavery child.

1104
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:44,080
Speaker 3: We passed that five.

1105
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:48,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, girl, we still deal with, you know, racism and stuff.

1106
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 4: Like I was telling you earlier, like it was hard.

1107
00:55:50,640 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 3: For me to get this building. Like this building, the

1108
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:56,320
Speaker 3: funeral home was a church and it's in the middle.

1109
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:59,239
Speaker 4: Like we have a major highway, Highway twenty six, and

1110
00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:03,919
Speaker 4: literally about I say, maybe thirty feet to each side

1111
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:05,400
Speaker 4: of the funeral home is a house. I have a

1112
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:07,279
Speaker 4: black lady on the right side, and I have a

1113
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:12,000
Speaker 4: white family. They moved when I wanted to buy this building.

1114
00:56:12,239 --> 00:56:14,879
Speaker 4: Long story short, I had to go through zoning. They

1115
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:18,040
Speaker 4: they piled up in there on me. And what I

1116
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:21,360
Speaker 4: say they is the members here was all white people,

1117
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:23,919
Speaker 4: and so I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

1118
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:26,279
Speaker 3: I literally did not have any investors.

1119
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 4: I didn't have nobody holding my hand telling me what

1120
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:30,320
Speaker 4: to do. I figured this out on my own with

1121
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:33,879
Speaker 4: the help of my husband. Like, no investors, nothing. So

1122
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:38,960
Speaker 4: I went in for zoning, and the zoning board the

1123
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:43,440
Speaker 4: neighbors came got up and they was like, well, we

1124
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,400
Speaker 4: think that if it's a funeral home, it's going to

1125
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,480
Speaker 4: cause traffic jams, it's going to be a disturbance, just

1126
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:53,200
Speaker 4: all kind of crazy stuff. So they did not pass me,

1127
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:56,000
Speaker 4: but me, you can't tell me no one time, because

1128
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:56,840
Speaker 4: I'm going back again.

1129
00:56:56,920 --> 00:56:58,560
Speaker 3: So I went back again, but I went back with

1130
00:56:58,600 --> 00:56:59,320
Speaker 3: my own force.

1131
00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:02,920
Speaker 4: I have people that's city councilmen and sent you know,

1132
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 4: that's on the boards of different things around here. And

1133
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:09,239
Speaker 4: so when I went back, they end up passing me,

1134
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:11,959
Speaker 4: but they passed me with hey, you need to put

1135
00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:14,440
Speaker 4: a thirty foot fence around your funeral home because we

1136
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 4: don't want to see you know, if we passed it,

1137
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 4: you have to put a fence where They thought that

1138
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:21,640
Speaker 4: that was going to stop me by putting a fence,

1139
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 4: but they didn't know that the state I needed to

1140
00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:26,040
Speaker 4: put a fence up anyway for protection so people wouldn't

1141
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:27,840
Speaker 4: see me putting bringing bodies in the church.

1142
00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:28,280
Speaker 3: Right.

1143
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:33,920
Speaker 4: So, so once I purchased the building, the people on

1144
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:38,640
Speaker 4: my left side, the family that was there. I bought

1145
00:57:38,680 --> 00:57:40,560
Speaker 4: the building, but it took me a while to get

1146
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:45,040
Speaker 4: the rest of the money to remodel. So nothing was happening.

1147
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:49,800
Speaker 4: It was so nothing was happening for months. So that

1148
00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:54,480
Speaker 4: family got their real estate agent to call me and say, hey, girl,

1149
00:57:54,480 --> 00:57:57,120
Speaker 4: I got somebody want are you Are you trying to

1150
00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 4: sell your building? I have someone that want to buy

1151
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:03,080
Speaker 4: your billing? And I said, oh no, man, renovation starts

1152
00:58:03,200 --> 00:58:07,120
Speaker 4: next week. Literally next week. Them people had a for

1153
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,960
Speaker 4: sale sign. They sold that house in a month, less

1154
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:11,479
Speaker 4: than a month.

1155
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:15,440
Speaker 3: They left. They left, But God always.

1156
00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 4: Removes people that is not of him or is not

1157
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:21,360
Speaker 4: going out with the old end with the new. My

1158
00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:25,920
Speaker 4: new neighbors, their white family. They're from Mississippi. The best

1159
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:26,960
Speaker 4: neighbors I can ask for.

1160
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 3: What do you need?

1161
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 4: I need my mailbox? Can you put my mailbox together?

1162
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:35,840
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we got the paperwork to dig and do

1163
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:36,840
Speaker 4: what needs to be done.

1164
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:37,240
Speaker 3: They come.

1165
00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:39,560
Speaker 4: They helped my husband of motar grass is on four

1166
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:41,400
Speaker 4: acres of land. That's a lot of grass over here.

1167
00:58:41,480 --> 00:58:47,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, I can't. I can't think God.

1168
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:51,760
Speaker 4: Enough for always putting the right people around me, because

1169
00:58:51,800 --> 00:58:54,040
Speaker 4: that's my prayer, like put the right people around me.

1170
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 3: So but you know, I'm proud of you.

1171
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:02,760
Speaker 2: I'm so happy that I really enjoying this conversation. So

1172
00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 2: two more questions. So, what advice would you give to

1173
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:08,880
Speaker 2: young girls or any of our listeners that's interested in

1174
00:59:08,920 --> 00:59:09,840
Speaker 2: becoming morticians?

1175
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 3: So go for it. Don't be scared.

1176
00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:17,960
Speaker 4: What may be hard for someone may not be hard

1177
00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:22,480
Speaker 4: for you in fact. So yeah, so always try something

1178
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:23,960
Speaker 4: out first and see if it's your thing.

1179
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:26,440
Speaker 3: If it's not your thing, then don't do it.

1180
00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:29,960
Speaker 4: Marthuary work being a martian or funeral director is not

1181
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:32,880
Speaker 4: for everybody. You don't just wake up and wanting to

1182
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:35,480
Speaker 4: be a martician. It has to be placing. It is

1183
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 4: a complete gift. You deal with so many you first off,

1184
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 4: you see so many things we're dealing with, how the

1185
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:46,360
Speaker 4: person passed away, You deal with different smells, different you know,

1186
00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:51,080
Speaker 4: family members, somebody might you know, be argumentative fighting, different

1187
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:54,520
Speaker 4: things you deal with. And so I say, if you

1188
00:59:54,800 --> 00:59:57,280
Speaker 4: have it and wanting to wanted to do this, for

1189
00:59:57,320 --> 00:59:58,240
Speaker 4: so long.

1190
00:59:58,480 --> 01:00:02,560
Speaker 3: Go ahead and do it. Find you a great.

1191
01:00:04,280 --> 01:00:07,080
Speaker 4: Teacher that can teach you the ins and outs of

1192
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:11,000
Speaker 4: the business, the industry. I have people like find me,

1193
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:13,040
Speaker 4: like how you found me, Like they find me and

1194
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:14,960
Speaker 4: inbox me and I just tell them to call me

1195
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:17,880
Speaker 4: and I tell him anything you need, you called me,

1196
01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:20,840
Speaker 4: So I will guide you as much as I can.

1197
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:24,760
Speaker 4: I will help you with whatever you need. But just

1198
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:28,000
Speaker 4: please just go for it. Don't be afraid and just

1199
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 4: go for it.

1200
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:30,840
Speaker 2: You know what, Maybe I'll come down there and we

1201
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 2: can do I could be your intern for a day.

1202
01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:34,280
Speaker 2: You can teach me how to.

1203
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:37,440
Speaker 3: You can come.

1204
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:43,840
Speaker 4: Girls, come on, just to put a little thing like

1205
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:45,760
Speaker 4: like a little just a little extra thing.

1206
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:50,040
Speaker 3: I have my daughter. My daughter is nine and Taylor,

1207
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:54,280
Speaker 3: she picks up bodies with me. Wow, she picks up

1208
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 3: bodies with me. She said, Mom, I don't know if

1209
01:00:56,080 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 3: I want to be a bomber. That's a little bit

1210
01:00:57,720 --> 01:00:58,080
Speaker 3: too much.

1211
01:00:58,120 --> 01:01:00,200
Speaker 4: Because she she saw and she was like, I don't no,

1212
01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:03,880
Speaker 4: but she I think she has the funeral director inside

1213
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:06,880
Speaker 4: of greeting and meeting and talking with people and making

1214
01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 4: the removals. So I have her. I have my little

1215
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:13,240
Speaker 4: cousin as my assistant. Uh, she works here every day.

1216
01:01:13,480 --> 01:01:14,120
Speaker 3: My mom come.

1217
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:17,680
Speaker 4: I retired my mom a few I think in twenty nineteen.

1218
01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:21,000
Speaker 4: She retired and she's spalled. She take care of my

1219
01:01:21,040 --> 01:01:24,080
Speaker 4: four year old son and she get whatever she wants.

1220
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:25,000
Speaker 4: She comes, she clean.

1221
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:28,000
Speaker 3: So I really I employed.

1222
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:30,400
Speaker 4: You know, whenever I need my family, I just employed

1223
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:32,840
Speaker 4: my family, like I am a family business.

1224
01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:33,200
Speaker 3: Literally.

1225
01:01:33,360 --> 01:01:35,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you're getting that chicken baby. I can't

1226
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:36,400
Speaker 2: wait to come to your fr.

1227
01:01:40,600 --> 01:01:40,920
Speaker 5: Yes.

1228
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,120
Speaker 2: And last but not least, if you can talk to

1229
01:01:43,160 --> 01:01:45,720
Speaker 2: your eight year old self who first dreamed of being

1230
01:01:45,760 --> 01:01:50,680
Speaker 2: an undertaker, what would you say to her.

1231
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 4: You're going to do it. Yeah, You're going to do it.

1232
01:01:54,440 --> 01:01:58,080
Speaker 4: Everything that you dreamed of is going to come to pass.

1233
01:01:58,200 --> 01:02:03,080
Speaker 4: Because I go back back, way back of my childhood

1234
01:02:03,120 --> 01:02:05,640
Speaker 4: and where I was at my teenage years and my

1235
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:08,280
Speaker 4: early twenties up until now, and I'm like, it was

1236
01:02:08,320 --> 01:02:11,720
Speaker 4: nobody regard like. So you know, I would really tell

1237
01:02:11,760 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 4: myself just keep going to keep like literally what I'm

1238
01:02:14,160 --> 01:02:15,960
Speaker 4: doing now, just keep the faith.

1239
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,720
Speaker 3: It's gonna come to pass because it wasn't easy. Yeah.

1240
01:02:18,720 --> 01:02:21,760
Speaker 2: Oh, I already know, I already know. I'm so excited

1241
01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:23,880
Speaker 2: that we connected. This was a really good conversation.

1242
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:26,720
Speaker 3: Yes it was. I had fun, Thank you so much.

1243
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:30,320
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, me living out my dream my childhood dreams

1244
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 2: and being a mortician through you to the listeners. If

1245
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 2: you have any questions, comments, and concerns, please make sure

1246
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:39,880
Speaker 2: to email me a hello at the pshgpodcast dot com.

1247
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 2: And this was a perfect example of why you should

1248
01:02:42,720 --> 01:02:44,880
Speaker 2: share your storyline because you never know how it could

1249
01:02:44,880 --> 01:02:50,440
Speaker 2: be somebody else's lifeline. Absolutely so until next time. Everyone, Later,

1250
01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:54,080
Speaker 2: you're gonna say bye.

1251
01:02:53,360 --> 01:02:58,080
Speaker 3: Oh bye y'all. Look, I'm waving like they can see me. Bye, y'all.

1252
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:01,080
Speaker 2: God blast, Okay, have blast now that we've got some

1253
01:03:01,120 --> 01:03:13,360
Speaker 2: saints from a call. The Professional Homegirl Podcast is a

1254
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:17,000
Speaker 2: production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts

1255
01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:21,040
Speaker 2: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1256
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,840
Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe

1257
01:03:23,960 --> 01:03:26,280
Speaker 2: and rate the show, and you can connect with me

1258
01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:28,880
Speaker 2: on social media at the PHG podcast