How I started the book...

I didn't just wake up one day and say to myself, "self...I think you should think about writing
a book."

No, it wasn't quite that immediate. When I started working at a funeral home in 1978, just
as an attendant and assistant to the owner, I began making some notes about some of our
more interesting case calls. A 'case' call is one of the usual nomenclatures used for a death
call that a firm might handle. Each case has usually a year two digit number followed by
a number to designate it's order of being handled; in 1978, the first call of the year would
have been logged as 7801.....so on and so forth. Each file would be issued a manila folder
to hold all the paperwork, obituary notice, itemization, and so on. It's a system that is
still being used pretty much today in the industry.

Anyway, it was in those early years for me that I started to make some early notes.. and
actually put most of them away, as life got a little too busy to even thing about the possibility
of putting them down on paper in some formal fashion.

But after licensing, residency and then actually buying and operating a funeral home, I
started to think more about the possibility of someday writing about those things that
I had been involved with. Of supreme importance was to keep exact details of a death,
and family members names private. Publishing such details would almost in my mind
be a betrayal of public trust... and also very unprofessional. I  also did not want to write
extreme morbid information about a death or death scene. Although some who have
purchased my book have given reviews saying there was not enough of the 'goulish'
factor written...sorry I disappointed them. My intent of the book was to describe the
day to day activities of a funeral director, how he met circumstances presented to him
and how he proceeded. I'd let them go elsewhere for the gore....that wasn't me.

I also wanted to relate in the book some light hearted stories...as humorous things do
indeed happen in our business. It is not all gloom and doom...we do have events happen
that really warm the heart... like one story in the book about the Beagle running through
church.  My editor wanted some lighter moments in my book Undertakings.. and there
are many included.

It wasn't until early 2006 that I physically sat down and started putting pen to
paper.. actually, it was at my old manual typewriter...ha...oh how ancient I actually
am! One day while meeting with a family in Corning and making arrangements,
one family member said to me, "Stan, you ought to think about writing a book
someday."  "Funny" I responded, "I actually have one underway."

And so I started the process.

In a couple of days...how I picked the stories to write about...the most difficult
challenges... and how I overcame them.  Come back for it. SS