Wednesday, October 8, 2003
|
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 |
The real 'Six Feet Under': Local funeral home owner discusses the industryBy MICHAEL
BOYLAN
Though everyone will one day need it, nobody wants the services of a funeral home. In fact, no one really wants to consider mortality, either their own or that of a loved one. Death is an inevitability, though, and when it comes, people must seek out the services of a funeral home and confront the issues of death and dying. While there are lots of questions surrounding these issues, one question that is rarely asked is, "How does one get interested in and choose a career in funeral services?" For most it is a family business, passed down from generation to generation, but for others, like C.J. Mowell of Fayetteville, it was a calling and something he had to strike out on his own to do. "My father was a Baptist preacher and I would go to lots of funerals with him," said Mowell. "I rode with the flower vans and got to know a lot of the funeral directors. From an early age I knew I had a desire to do this." Mowell's father wanted him to get an education and also harbored hopes of him following in his footsteps. Mowell attended Georgia State University for a year and then went to Mercer for a year before deciding he was not satisfied and would not go back in the fall. He got a job at Carmichael's Funeral Home in East Point, where he got his apprenticeship, and then attended Cincinnati College of Embalming where he graduated cum laude, won an award for restorative art and passed his national boards. When he returned to Georgia in 1962, he had to take and pass the state boards, as they did not recognize the national boards. In December of 1962, Mowell received his license. For the next two years he worked for homes in Decatur and Newnan, but it was time for a change. He wanted to go in business for himself. In February of 1964, the Mowell funeral home in Fayetteville opened. Mowell's father bought the house for his son and would later come to work for him. It was the first full-service home in the city, meaning they did the embalming on-site, which was rare at the time. The ground floor of the home was the funeral home, while he and his family lived upstairs. Back then, funeral homes also operated as ambulance businesses. While Mowell would often go out and pick people up in the ambulance, they were often brought to other funeral homes, which made for a very trying and lean first year. "All a funeral home has is its reputation, which we did not have in our first year," said Mowell. "For many people, they will use the funeral home the family has always used." In the first year, the Mowell funeral home had two funerals, one of which was for a member of their own family. In comparison, they have had close to 200 funerals this year. The home continued to grow as Mowell built up a reputation in the community. In 1966, he was elected to the position of county coroner and he continues to serve that role today. Mowell's father got his funeral director's license in 1968 and within 10 years the home had expanded, adding a chapel and several other rooms. The community was starting to grow, which meant new people with new traditions and requirements for funeral services. In 1964, when the home opened, Mowell estimates there were 8,000 people in the county, compared to the 100,000 residents today. The industry itself was also changing, as corporations began buying independent funeral homes and running them with shared equipment and employees. Mowell refused a lucrative offer for his business and continued to offer his community the services they needed. "I could have taken the offer and been very rich, but then what would I do?" Mowell said. "This is my calling." In 1982, Mowell was invited to join the National Selected Morticians organization, which is now called Selected Independent Funeral Homes and is an international organization that holds its members up to the highest standards in the world. Mowell considered it an honor to be invited to join the very select group and by 1997 he was elected to the board. Three years later he was elected president of the organization and has the distinction of holding the office for two terms as the events of Sept. 11, 2001, delayed the changing of the office at the annual meeting the following month. Mowell has expanded his funeral home service to Peachtree City and now has his son, David, working with him and following in his footsteps. They have gone from one car, which was a combined hearse and ambulance, to three hearses, and from one station wagon that doubled as a flower van to four flower vans. He and his wife, Faye, raised four children above the funeral home, but today, no one lives there. Mowell admits that it hasn't always been easy working in a funeral home, as the phone can and does ring at all hours of the day, 365 days a year. He even remembers a Christmas morning or two that had to be delayed because duty called, but he wouldn't change a thing. While the government has put more rules and regulations on the industry since the FTC Funeral Rule of 1984, other changes Mowell has seen include the addition of municipal EMS, which took him and other funeral home directors out of the ambulance business, and the addition of people of many different ethnicities and faiths coming to the county. "All of the services at the beginning were Protestant," said Mowell, who believes he has performed services for nearly every denomination. Over the years he has learned an enormous amount about the beliefs of others and finds that generally, people are all the same. Both Mowell and George Clark, executive director of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, have also seen a growing trend in the personalization of services, making it more meaningful and reflecting the life of the deceased. Clark cited one example which was for a race car driver and took place at a race track. The ceremony took place at the finish line and the hearse did a final lap around the track. Mowell has not conducted a service that odd, but he has seen a disturbing trend of some people devaluing the importance of a funeral service, opting for a cremation and no service. Mowell feels that this does not give people closure and does not allow for the grief process to begin. "The value of a funeral service is far more than perceived," said Mowell. "It gives people the opportunity to share their loss with the community. Shared grief is diminished grief." There are certainly topics that are more cheerful than death, but Mowell remains upbeat and positive in a job many would find depressing. He works with a staff of family and friends and is assured that he and his colleagues offer the best service possible to people at one of the lowest moments in their life. "We treat others as we would want to be treated in this situation," said Mowell. "We are a family and we treat clients like members of the family." Mowell has a plaque on the wall near the entrance of the funeral home, which features a quote by Gladstone that states, "Show me the manner in which a nation or community cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the law of the land and their loyalty to high ideals." It is obvious that Mowell holds the community in high esteem and only wishes to serve it to the best of his abilities.
|
||