Meet Your Funeral Service Expert: Carl Taylor
Meet Your Funeral Service Expert: Carl Taylor
Carl Taylor, Funeral Service Manager, Funeral Director and Civil Funeral Celebrant at Champ Funeral Services driven by compassion, care and dissatisfaction with the status quo.
What made you want to become a funeral director?
It was while attending the funeral of my late grandparent as a young teenager that I developed a keen interest in the industry as I thought the service for her was very dull and uninspiring and I was left feeling empty, I knew that I could to make a difference to what others experienced when experiencing death and funerals.
Describe an average working day for you at Champ Funeral Services:
Average! have never had an average day since I joined the funeral profession twenty years ago! We as people are unique and so are our funerals. The only repetitive thing I do at work is arrive in the morning.
What’s the working environment like at champ’s, and how would you describe your coworkers?
Our working environment is quite special, we really are like our own little family. We work together so closely that we have to be able to rely on and fully trust each other in everything that we do. The work we do requires 100% team effort, and without that, the cogs would stop turning.
I would describe my coworkers and my self as characters in a musical – the lead would be nothing without the chorus!
What’s your favourite thing about being a funeral director?
The families that I get to work with and help, at a time when they need it most. Most people think that funeral directing is a strange job role wanting to work with the dead, but if you think about it, the majority of our work is with the living. The families that we care for at their time of need.
What’s your advice to someone who is trying to cope with grief?
My advice would be to accept the way that you are feeling, don’t try to hide it. Every single feeling you have is normal. Find a good listener to talk to if you need to unload, and never compare your grief to anyone else and don’t listen to others when they try and tell you how you should be feeling.
What’s the last book you’ve read, and has it helped you at work?
Of course, it was ‘How To Grieve Like A Champ’ by Lianna Champ. This a must have self-help guide to understanding grief. Honestly – I don’t really read books, I know I should, but I really do not have time!
What is your personal motto?
What is the alternative? You just have to get on with it!
What superpower would you like to have?
I would like to be able to remove the pain that I have to see people endure in my work, especially when it comes to the loss of a child.
If you were to tell one person, ‘thank you for what you did, you made me who am I am today’, who would that be?
There are so many people that have played an important role in my life, it is really hard to choose:
- My grandma, she was always there for me when I was growing up, she was the one that I could turn to if I needed any advice and she has made me who I am today. She would always give me the advice that I needed, and she would support me in everything I did and always without judging. Thank you!
- My wife (best friend and soulmate) Sarah backs me in everything I do, Sarah always believes in me, even when I doubt myself. She puts up with me no matter what I do, she is my rock. And of course, she irons my shirts for work!! Thank you!
- Lianna Champ, Lianna has pushed me to my limits over the years, making me do things I thought I would never do and she has given me the platforms I have needed to become who and what I am today, with my career. Thank you!
What is the most rewarding thing about jour job?
When at the end of looking after a family through their loss they turn around and say ‘thank you’. Also at the end of each day knowing that I have done the best I can for the people I have been working for.
What is your favourite way to unwind after a day/week at work?
Well, this depends on the week I have been through! Sometimes I love to just chill on the sofa with the wife, a beer and a box set, other times I love to go out to bars for a few drinks then a nice meal, and sometimes I like to re-live my youth with a night out with the lads downtown for a blowout!!
Meet Your Funeral Service Expert: Carl Taylor
