Letters From A Funeral Director was created to talk about the side of funeral service that isn’t always discussed: the people doing the work.
Funeral directors, embalmers, crematory workers, funeral home staff, arrangers, transporters, and other death-care professionals experience things in this profession that can stay with us long after we leave work. Burnout, secondhand trauma, compassion fatigue, emotional exhaustion, difficult days, difficult decisions, and the challenge of caring for others while also trying to take care of ourselves are all part of the conversation I want to create here.
That conversation shouldn’t have to come from one voice.
I am opening submissions to other people working in death care who have a story, experience, lesson, or perspective they believe could help someone else in the profession feel a little less alone.
Why Open Submissions?
Letters From A Funeral Director began as one funeral director’s perspective on an industry that I believe deserves a more honest conversation about its emotional side.
But funeral service is experienced differently by every person who works in it.
I don’t want this conversation to be limited to my experiences. I want to hear from the people who work alongside me in death care—the funeral directors, embalmers, crematory workers, arrangers, transporters, and other professionals who have their own experiences, lessons, challenges, and perspectives to share.
Opening submissions isn’t about filling this site with other people’s stories. It is about creating space for more voices within the conversation.
Every submission will be reviewed and selected based on whether it fits the purpose and values of Letters From A Funeral Director. I will continue writing and sharing my own work, while also occasionally featuring perspectives from other people in our profession.
What I’m Looking For
Submissions may explore topics such as:
- Burnout and compassion fatigue
- Secondhand trauma and the emotional weight of funeral service
- Mental and emotional well-being
- Self-care and finding healthy boundaries
- The realities of working in death care
- Experiences that changed the way you approach your work
- Lessons you learned throughout your career
- Things you wish you had known when you started
- The challenges of balancing funeral service with your life outside of work
- Finding meaning in difficult work
- Experiences that helped you grow as a death-care professional
- The things we don’t always talk about within our own profession
You do not need to have a dramatic or unusual story to submit. Sometimes the experiences that seem ordinary to us are the ones another funeral director needs to hear.
What This Site Is Not
There is a lot of content online focused on the shocking, unusual, or morbid aspects of funeral service. That is not what I want Letters From A Funeral Director to become.
This site is not intended to satisfy public curiosity about what happens behind the scenes of our profession, and it is not a place to share graphic details simply because they are shocking or interesting.
The people we serve deserve privacy and dignity. Some things in our profession are private for a reason, and I believe that boundary should be respected.
If you are sharing an experience involving a decedent or a family, please remove or change identifying details and protect the privacy of those involved. The focus should remain on your experience and what you learned from it, rather than on the personal details of someone else’s death.
Every Submission Is Reviewed
Submitting a story does not guarantee publication.
All submissions will be reviewed before anything is published. I reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, grammar, anonymity, privacy, and overall fit with the purpose of Letters From A Funeral Director. I may also decline a submission if I do not feel it is appropriate for the site.
This is intentional.
I want this site to remain a thoughtful space where death-care professionals can have meaningful conversations about the work we do and the people we are while doing it.
Your submission does not have to be perfect. You do not have to be a writer and your story does not have to be polished. It just needs to have something meaningful and worth saying.
A Few Things Before You Submit
Please:
- Protect the privacy of families, decedents, coworkers, and employers.
- Do not include names or identifying information
- Avoid sharing confidential information.
- Consider whether the story could identify a family or individual even without using their name.
- Keep the focus on the human and emotional side of the experience.
- Be respectful of the profession and the people we serve.
- Tell me if you would like your submission published with your name, or anonymously.
By submitting your story, you are giving Letters From A Funeral Director permission to consider it for publication. Submission does not guarantee publication, and I may contact you with questions or suggested edits before publishing.
Have something to share?
I’d love to hear from you.
Whether you’ve been in funeral service for thirty years or you’re just starting out, your experience matters. There may be another person in this profession who needs to hear that they aren’t the only one who has felt the way you did.
Submit your story below.
