Field Trip Assignment: Reigle Funeral Home

Field Trip Assignment

When considering the entities involved with death and dying, the first place that came to my mind was the funeral home. When someone in your life passes away, you likely find yourself at the funeral home or at least becoming aware of funeral arrangements soon after the death. This is the route I went with and decided to visit Reigle Funeral Home for my field trip assignment. The Reigle location that I traveled to was on Pierson Road in Flushing, Michigan. Upon arrival, myself and another classmate were given a warm welcome and soon began our interview with funeral director, Jillian Rutherford. Reigle Funeral Home is a public entity, and to my surprise, is corporately owned. It was not until after my trip that I tried to

The funeral home I first went to is very outdated compared to Reigle, so I was pleasantly surprised during this trip. In my opinion, Reigle has a very appealing exterior and interior. Knocking on the door, I felt like I was going to someone’s house rather than a funeral home. The staff was welcoming right from the start. Communicating over the phone first, I could tell that they were excited and more than happy to assist us in completing this assignment. The funeral director that we met with told us that she had a similar assignment when she took a death, dying, and bereavement course. One of the first things I noticed while waiting in silence was the calming music that played over the speakers. The music was subtle and fit the mood of what people likely feel when at the funeral home. I expected there to be a funeral service going on, so I was surprised that other than employees, we were the only ones there. If there was a funeral service in occurrence, I may have felt more emotion during the visit. Because the funeral home was calm and they made us feel very comfortable, I did not feel sad. Instead, I felt eager to learn and very interested in what Jillian had to