Funeral services explained by MHCC students

By Jill Aho

Death is a part of life. Mt. Hood Community College’s funeral services students get all the in-class training they can, and on Feb. 21 and 22, they will get an opportunity to show what they have learned as they hold their 16th annual Funeral Arrangement Exercise in the Town and Gown Room.

Second-year student Ken Cheney said, “The idea behind the mock arrangements is that it is a capstone to our education.”

Students in the Funeral Services Program at MHCC will get practice discussing the possibilities for final disposition, and will talk about options in the funeral industry, such as casketed burial, cremation, entombment, inurnment and body donation.
Visitors to the exercise will be provided with non-threatening information about death, ideas about the costs related to various options and education on what questions to ask the funeral director, Cheney said.

“American society tends to shy away from death. They’re not willing to admit it’s there,” Cheney said. But students and their parents are soon going to have to start dealing with the aging baby boomer generation. This is one reason Cheney thinks the exercise might be beneficial to students as well as community members.

When others find out Cheney is in the funeral services program at MHCC ,he gets a variety of reactions. “You get everything from ‘gross’ to ‘that’s fascinating, tell me more,’” Cheney said. Many people ask him questions about the dead, such as “What kind of sounds do they make?” and “Do people really sit up or raise their hands?” Cheney said the dead do not sit up or raise their hands.

Cheney was inspired to join the program after losing a child four years ago. Although he and his wife were aware the child would have birth defects, they grew attached during the nine-month pregnancy. Cheney said he was impressed by the funeral director, and then by a television show on the Discovery Channel called “Mortuary School.”

“I wanted to help people the way my wife and I were helped,” he said. “I wanted to give the same experience, to give back what it gave to me.”

Cheney thinks society is focused on the embalmer, “someone who comes out of the basement at night to pick up the dead.” This is not how he sees the career, though. “Instead of focusing on the dead, funeral service is about focusing on the people left behind. We get to help people when they are at their lowest.”

Being surrounded by sad people most of the time might seem depressing, but Cheney thinks funeral directors are some of the funniest people around. “You need to have a sense of humor.” One way Cheney gets relief is by playing with his children. “You have to get away from work to be able to serve,” he said.

To make an appointment for this event, call Cheney at 503-752-2356. Times are available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the exercise is free and open to the public. For more information about the funeral services program, contact Doug Ferrin at 503-491-6940.