We’ve noticed Amy Sagar’s ad on her linkedIn page.
She’s looking for a mortician for Tender Funerals at Port Kembla.
Tender Funeral’s describes itself as a “community undertaking”, if you’ll excuse the pun, and they work creatively, cost efficiently and with care.
“Tender Funerals is a not-for-profit funeral service delivering personalised, meaningful and affordable funerals, ensuring those experiencing financial hardship are able to access these critical services,” their website says.
As Manager of Tender Funerals, Amy has asked everyone in her network to shout about this job opportunity in their networks, so that includes us.
Amy was a mortician with Tender before moving into management there.
But many morticians and front of house staff in funeral homes are actually ex-nurses. It’s a natural fit because nurses deal with the human body, often they have come to terms with death, and they are taught how to follow respectful protocols to say goodbye, attending to the body with care and tenderness when someone has died. However, we have interviewed people with all sorts of backgrounds who do this work.
The lovely Amy spoke about the work she does at Tender Fudnerals, for my book A Good Death: a compassionate and practical guide to prepare for the end of life, published by Murdoch Books the year before last.
Since then Tender’s philosophy and approach has been adopted by others in Australia. One group who has taken it up, inspired by Tender Funerals, is Funerals Sunshine Coast & Regions Queensland. Their community lead, Gillian Hall, worked with Tender when shaping her ideas for their endeavour, which is also not-for-profit.