Many people suffer from necrophobia, and are not used to the sight of a dead body, even in its finest form.  In our culture, the preservation of a loved one’s body is essential for the mourning process.  It enables friends and family to see the physical representation of their beloved, and to memorialize the deceased's life.  When considering the funeral tradition, it's important to remember the people who dedicate their lives to the preservation of the dead--primarily for the sake of the living.

Death is a fact of life. It's inescapable, and it demands that the living deal with it. And let's be honest--not everyone wants the responsibility. Fortunately, a number of individuals do, and their profession offers the general public a critical service during times of loss. But unfortunately, they are eligible for the large population of people scraping by on low-wage jobs. Funeral Industry in America would not exist if it weren't for the people that spend their lives tending to the non-living. This website is intended to examine the life of Funeral Attendants: the low-wage workers of the undertaking world.

"With the blessing and patronage of the public, these funeral [workers] took the dead out of the hands of living relations and performed all of the necessary, increasingly complicated, and for many Americans, deeply unpleasant tasks associated with the death of a loved one." ~ Gary Laderman