Embalming: the inside story

THEY both wear black from head to toe, the standard colour of their trade, yet their demeanour doesn't match their sombre dress. I meet Phil Hoggarth first of all - he stands outside the funeral home - and when he finds out who I am, he immediately puts me at ease. We go inside where Janet Officer is waiting. Her clothes may make her look severe but she is reticent and shy. Despite the nature of her job, it soon transpires she's far from cold.

Both Phil and Janet are embalmers, which means they each preserve the dead. This seems a strange choice of career - who'd want to work in this domain? - yet clearly someone has to fill this crucial role. As regional manager of the Co-operative Funeral Service, and Janet's boss, Phil was her tutor in the craft. Now fully qualified, she is a resident embalmer at the Co-op's home in Sherburn Hill, just outside Durham. So what drew Janet to such an unconventional job?

"When I got to 40 I had a baby, then when she got to three years old and went into nursery I wanted to do something, but something that really mattered, something that made a difference," says the 48-year-old, who lives in Horden. "I'd always been interested in the funeral business and I'd tried getting into it but I'd found it very, very hard, so I wrote to the British Institute of Embalmers' head office and they sent me a list of tutors. I decided to start an embalming course and I did it by distance learning initially."

Prior to having her daughter Charlotte, who's now turned eight, she'd been a hairdresser and beautician. As Janet explains, she'd come to feel this wasn't her. "I didn't really find a great deal of job satisfaction in it - I sort of lost interest, basically," she says.

But when her tutor left the country Janet's plans were undermined. Still keen to join the funeral trade, she sent CVs to local homes. To her delight, Phil rang to offer her a job. "He invited me for an interview because there was a position coming up here for a part-time clerk," she says. "I was more than happy to accept it." Phil adds: "Even though Janet worked in a clerical capacity we still trained her in embalming because she still worked within the funeral service."

Before becoming an embalmer, she learned the business inside out - and was rewarded by being made a funeral director.

This central role requires a multitude of skills. "It's everything from bringing the deceased into our care to dealing with the family, understanding their needs and carrying out their requests, then it's liaising with clergy and obviously arranging the burial or the cremation," says Janet. "It's nice when you can see it through all the way."

To gain acceptance by the British Institute of Embalmers (BIE), which sets the standard in the field, takes two and a half to three years' work. As Phil explains, exacting standards must be met.

"It's a very academic thing," he says. "Janet would have sat an entrance exam, which is health and safety, maths and English and a little bit of history, and the examination is one hour.

"Then there are five other examinations, which cover human anatomy, physiology, chemistry and physics, as well as looking at the practical aspects of embalming from a theoretical point of view. When the theory was completed, Janet embarked on a practical course." As embalmers are in demand - Phil says that just under 2,000 are members of the BIE - they can find work around the world. They're often called to disaster scenes. "They work on disaster teams for things like the tsunami," he says. "They will fly all over the world to air crashes and natural disasters and assist in the preservation of the deceased for repatriation or identification, so if Janet chose to sign up for something like this she could get a phone call saying 'you're going to Africa tomorrow'." Yet for now at least, she seems quite happy where she is. It's clear she thrives on what she does and feels she really is of help.

So what exactly is embalming? Aware of people's sensibilities, she turns to Phil to answer this.

"Embalming can be defined as a service we provide to the deceased for the benefit of the living," he says. "Nowadays, it's more commonly known as hygienic treatment. As a funeral service, we don't just embalm people without asking - the family must give us their permission.

"Basically, it's a surgical procedure using two or three incisions to allow for the introduction of a preservative chemical in an attempt to slow down the natural process that takes place after death and to restore a life-like appearance."

The point of doing this is to give the person's loved ones the chance to say their last goodbyes. As Phil explains, this often helps them with their grief. "Historically, embalming or the preservation of the deceased was used in many cultures in the world, from the Aztecs to the Egyptians and the Peruvians," he says. "Mostly it was for religious reasons, not for viewing the deceased.

"It is only recently that embalming has been used as a benefit to those who are bereaved. Now grief and bereavement are accepted - they're not the taboo subject they were. You have to remember that we have a lot more families living away and hygienic treatment might allow them the chance to get back home to say goodbye."

As Janet knows, this is a hugely poignant time. She tries give her clients dignity in death. "The final touches, like washing and blow drying the hair, can take as long as the embalming process in some cases," she says. "It's especially useful when the family provides photographs so you have an idea of how the person had their hair and things like that.

"Sometimes the family provides cosmetics. Not everybody likes the use of cosmetics so in that case, we don't use them, but the final touches are very important. It's important to try to meet the family's needs."

While they admit the job can sometimes be upsetting - like when they're caring for a child - both Phil and Janet love supporting the bereaved. They see embalming as a gift; the best that's in their power to give, and seem to cherish every family they serve. What seems to flow from what they do is an insightful view of life.

"I think it probably makes us more aware of death and the future, because we deal with people our age and younger," says Phil. "It makes us more aware of our own mortality." Janet lightens the tone by adding: "I say 'I want this for my funeral, I want that for my funeral'." "We plan our funerals every year as trends change," jokes Phil.

Becoming reflective, he sums up why he wouldn't think of bowing out. "They say funeral directing is not a job, it's a vocation, and it's the same with embalming. I think in the funeral service we believe every day is special. It really makes you appreciate what you've got."

* The Co-operative Funeral Service, Front Street, Sherburn Hill, 0191-372-0283.