Gianpaolo Bernardo, funeral director at Bernardo Funeral Homes in Toronto
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There’s a lot of misconceptions about funeral directors. We’re all characters and personalities outside of the workplace
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in every funeral director’s mission, each personality is completely unique from the rest. Sort of like wedding planners. There are traditional, religiously charged nuptials and there are shabby-chic celebrations; and there are the poised, polished planning professionals and more avant-garde party architects to carry them out, respectively. In this new era of end-of-life celebrations, funeral services are no longer synonymous with dark and dreary protocol, but an abundance of styles. “There’s a lot of misconception about funeral directors, morticians, undertakers —whatever Hollywood has branded us as,” says Bernardo. “We’re all characters and personalities outside of the workplace, and no one ever sees that side of us. But it’s always fun to be around a funeral director, because they always have interesting stories to tell.” “The industry has changed so much over the years, but people still seem to think it’s all doom and gloom,” seconds Drews. “We have a pretty good sense of humour here — but our staff meetings can be so serious, it gets to the point where I want to ask, ‘Can you tell this to me in interpretive dance?’” It takes a healthy dose of good humour, strength and grace to be the planner of the penultimate party, the orchestrator of the send-off to end all send-offs. “Some would say it’s a calling,” says Juchau. Some might suppose that it would also take some seriously numbed nerve endings to survive the emotional stress of a job that’s so close to death, but the opposite is true: Juchau, Drews and Bernardo have all found peace in the idea of “the end.” “It’s the one thing we all have in common,” says Drews. “It’s a very natural human experience, and I think that in our society we’ve distanced ourselves from that — and as a result, there’s been a lot of fear and discomfort around death and dying. Of course there will be sadness and grief, but I want to help people get to that place where they don’t approach death with fear.” www.arbormemorial.ca www.dignitymemorial.ca www.bernardofuneralhomes.com Oct/Nov 2016
City Life Magazine
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