I met

I met my husband at Judson Steel, He was a steel worker and I worked in the office as the receptionist. That plant closed down in 1986 while we were on vacation in our brand new 26 foot motor home up at Lake Almanor. I still had a job for a few months, but after 20 something years my husband was out of work. He did end up getting another job at Napa Pipe and worked there for almost 15years when they closed. He was unemployed for a few years and now works at a cemetery.

He enjoys it kinda. He has been there a few years now. He started there doing the landscaping. But not long after he started he was asked if he wanted to learn cremation.

So when the regular guy is off on his weekend or on vacation my husband yes does cremations. He didn't exactly choose to do this kind of work, but like anything else, it just becomes a job. He knows that we are not our bodies after we have died.

I get to hear all about the subject and frankly it reminds me of the old cars that laid onto of one another in the scrap yard at Judson Steel waiting to get melted into the furnace for casting into rebar. Our bodies get melted into ash to be placed in crypts at the cemetery or scattered away in the winds. What was surprising to me was the different ways people choose to say goodbye. He told me that he had to go in early on a Saturday to prepar for a witness cremation. Yes loved one will watch the furnace get turned on. I couldn't. Just like I couldn't stand the heat or the sound of the furnace at the Melt Shop at Judson Steel. But different strokes for different folks. The cemetery is in business to accomodate your beliefs.

Another part of his job is closing the cemetery at night. I can't believe how many times he has told me that people will show up at dusk to visit their loved ones at a grave site. Now that is creepy. If he is closing the gate they get annoyed with him. Man it is dark, go home come again during day light.

He just got off the phone with the guy who he covers. The guy was on vacation and he had to let him know that there was one in the furnace, referigator, one getting dropped off by the funeral parlor. It is very strange.