The Undertaking – a Review

We as Funeral Directors serve the living.

This documentary - The Undertaking - is not about funeral directors or a funeral home – but it is about the families that they serve - the beloved father, the life-long spouse, the special aunt, and the precious child. These families bared witness about their grief and how Lynch and Sons Funeral Home assisted them.

PBS’s Frontline did an excellent job following these families through their time of sorrow – not only for the on air documentary but also with its extensive bonus material on its website. This program – anchored on Thomas Lynch’s The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade – serves as a window to what we don’t want to feel – loss - and to a place where we do not want to be - a funeral home. But in both, Frontline portrays a calmness and peace.

Lynch and Sons Funeral Directors – the Undertakers – with six locations in Michigan, represent the thousands of funeral professionals throughout North America who serve families like those featured in this program. With their understanding and grace, they hold these families’ hands leading up to, at the time of, and after the death. The Lynches reveal many of the day-to-day aspects of life in the death care business.

From talking with families about pre-planning and carrying out those arrangements at the time of death, to a glimpse into the sanitary care, embalming, and cosmetizing of the deceased; from the open casket viewing to the funeral service; and then to cemetery or crematory - an hour cannot depict all facets of funeral service, but what was most important was the lives that were honored.

The Undertaking has done what Six Feet Under or Family Plots could not accomplish – to give a real look into a funeral home operation sans the Hollywood-esque. Even though Lynch and Sons is more indicative of a smaller-town, traditional funeral home that does not have to juggle the social diversities as much as a metropolitan funeral home does, loss is loss and grief is grief wherever you live. This documentary will serve as a catalyst to many conversations of one’s mortality and hopefully, find some clarity for their own wishes of the many options that are now available.

Why should the public watch this documentary?
Whether you study the topics of grief, death or funerals – this program should help satisfy your curiosity. If you have ever pondered questions, such as:

• Why plan your own funeral?
• Why have an open casket?
• Why have a funeral or a gathering?
• How do you cope with the death of a child?

Then this is an important program for you to watch. The answers are provided – not by the funeral service providers – but by those who once asked the same questions.

Why should funeral directors watch this documentary?
It is a reminder of why we do what we do and to be proud to be a funeral professional!

For the cynics and critics of funeral service - those of you who question our relevance – your comments are not important to us – it is the families that we have served and those who we have yet to serve, whose comments validate our existence.

Thank you to the producers of "The Undertaking" from Frontline and PBS for your efforts to document one of the most difficult times in families’ lives and how they used the customs of funeral service to help them during their journey of grief.

Thank you Undertaker Lynch and your family for representing your chosen profession with the utmost fidelity.

Most importantly, thank you to the Verrinos, the Kings, Ms. Beardsley, and Mr. Kelly for sharing your emotions and feelings at a very difficult time – the funeral profession and the public at large will benefit from your honesty and courage for many years to come.

...Robin Heppell, CFSP, Funeral Director