By The death care profession is more than just dealing with dead bodies. We want to make you aware of the different career options in death care.
In this instalment of our ongoing series, Careers in Death Care: A Day in the Life, we speak to the incredible Michelle Quattrocchi [they/them], who has worked as both a funeral director and cremation technician. Mx. Quattrochi currently works in Oregon as a cremation tech, where they are focused on building a death care community that is safe for all people. Having seen the lack of care afforded to TGNC and queer members of their community in Oregon, Michelle is focused on creating a safe space for these marginalized communities.
Careers in Death Care: A Day in the Life Series
♦ Careers in Death Care – Your Career Options
♦ A Day in the Life of an Aquamation Tech
♦ A Day in the Life of a Cremation Technician
♦ A Day in the Life of a Gravestone Conservator
♦ A Day in the Life of a Death Doula
♦ A Day in the Life of an Embalmer
♦ A Day in the Life of a Forensic Artist
♦ A Day in the Life of a Funeral Director
♦ A Day in the Life of a Funeral Celebrant
♦ A Day in the Life of a Green Cemetery Director
♦ A Day in the Life of a Hospice Nurse
♦ A Day in the Life of a Hospice Physician
♦ A Day in the Life of a Pathologist
Careers in Death Care: A Day in the Life of a Cremation Technician
Image via Georg Lippitsch
Tell us about yourself and why you became a cremation tech.
Michelle Quattrocchi
I actually never planned on working in this field. In college, I originally studied Early Childhood Education. Right before I was supposed to do the year where you go into a classroom with a teacher and young students, I stopped, ended up moving to philly, and going back to school. At some point, my aunt, who is queer (I loved her so much), died. The funeral directors were insensitive and overwhelmed by the family dynamic and the amount of people that came to the ceremony.
Then, one day, standing in the shower, a light bulb turned on and I thought, “I can do it better.” So I went through school and worked as a funeral director for 5 years in Oregon. The funeral home also ran a crematory, though I only worked as a funeral director up until the pandemic.
The other end of grief is tender and special…but people became aggressive. I understood the difficulty of how costly and confusing the end-of-life process can be when it’s flung at you out of nowhere, but at the same time, seeing how the situation took over people’s ability to understand how to appropriately control their emotions led me to wanting to help, in a more isolated way. That’s when I started to move away from working with families, and now, I have found myself at home working in cremation.
What’s interesting about why I fell in love with cremation is, I used to follow dad around growing up. Do everything he did. And now, suddenly, I’m thrust into this role, and I’m responsible for the maintenance of this machine, removing parts. I also really enjoy doing paperwork, taking care of families. Death care is a specific caretaker role, with wishes needing to be met. There are days when compartmentalization is hard. Many people in this industry will tell you that.
What inspired you to become a Cremation tech?
You could say it came from the lack of cultural awareness the funeral home had for my aunt. I was motivated by seeing it go the wrong way.
What is the biggest misconception about cremation/being a cremation tech?
How often do people even think about us? During the pandemic, the Governor of Oregon didn’t mention death care when the vaccinations came out, or when congratulating “essential workers”. Our position isn’t recognized as a job until they [people in need] have to.
People don’t consider the death industry. I also don’t think people see cremators as more than people with a simple job. We’re working with human bodies, we know that – how could I be heartless?
Run us through a typical day as a Cremation tech.
Image via Wikicommons
You start by checking in on the decedents, and going through the paperwork, ensuring everything is legal and consistent. You need to check state documents, the “verbal doctor confirmation,” and that the next of kin who signs it is actually the next of kin. You then make sure that they were informed that cremation is an irreversible form of disposition, etc. Then we start the cremation process by placing the decedent into the retort. While we’re waiting, you check on the next person, organize your schedule, confirm when any remains might need to be at a service.
The schedule is a complex process. You have to start with the heaviest person early, since everything is cool from lack of use, and decrease in size and in heat as you go through your day. In Oregon, it is legal to reposition. That means being able to pause the process of cremation to enter the chamber and re-adjust if necessary (if medical pieces begin to reveal themselves, etc). So, we do that whenever necessary. You also have to make sure the cremation rate isn’t too fast, or it could cause a fire and/or air pollution.
After cremation, we remove the remains and pull them into a bin. Where I work it is required that we vacuum the chamber to ensure we’re collecting as much of the remains as possible. To do that, I put on heat-resistant gloves, all of my PPE, and stand in front of a 1,000 degree chamber – it gets hot! You then process the remains after they cool by removing medical implants (which occasionally can be done with the help of a magnet to collect metal pieces), and crowns from teeth. The bane of the existence of a cremator are those tiny metal hospital gown buttons.
The final processor transforms the decedent into ashes. Every time you touch the decedent it’s logged. And then, you do it all over again. Where I used to work, I would do 6+ cremations alone in a 12-hour shift. Where I am now, I do 10-hour shifts and do 2-3 cremations.
What was one of the hardest days you encountered as a Cremation tech?
Image via Brian Talbot
This one is a story from a time when I was a funeral director, but it’s related. I was at the crematory with a family who had lost their 6-month-old. It was heart wrenching to watch the family see the tiny baby put into a huge cremation chamber. “That’s my baby that they took from me.” Watching them fall to their knees. I’m a parent. When you have to work with babies and children, it feels unnatural. I have to tell myself, “I cannot hold this dead baby for my whole shift”. It can be hard. That became complicated to cut off for myself especially during the early pandemic era when anyone could barely catch a break.
What was one of the most memorable days you’ve had as a Cremation tech?
I’m a huge advocate for bringing death back to the community. I love witness cremation, and asking questions like, “do you want to put the body in the chamber? Do you want to press the button to start it?”
With one family, he did the whole entire process for his father, alongside me. He then told me stories about his father. I thanked him for being so open, and he was grateful it was an option he didn’t even know he had.
How can someone interested in becoming a cremation tech start the process?
It’s really just applying, getting your foot in the door through jobs like working as a removal technician, and getting in where you can. A lot of the time they’ll train you after they hire you, so you don’t really need to prep in any way there. But you can, if you want to.
You can be certified by going through the Cremation Association of North America, but your online certification isn’t applicable in all states. If you are certified by training on the job, your certification is valid anywhere in America.
Once you’re certified, renewal is about every five or so years. Whether or not cemeteries or direct cremation is a better work environment really comes down to the environments themselves, which is usually more of an issue with the living, than with the dead.
What type of education or training do you need to become a Cremation tech?
In Oregon you just need training. You get trained after you’re hired.
Editors Note: be sure to check with your state or provincial government or funeral regulatory body to determine what is required for certification.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as a cremation tech, or interested in becoming one?
Have good boundaries, and advocate for yourself. Don’t allow yourself to get swept up by abuse and exploitation. It’s a field people get excited to work in and say “yes” to everything. The shortage of funeral directors is due to burnout and the unsustainable system. We need advocates who can fight back, but still be tender when necessary.
Careers in Death Care: A Day in the Life Series
♦ Careers in Death Care – Your Career Options
♦ A Day in the Life of an Aquamation Tech
♦ A Day in the Life of a Cremation technician
♦ A Day in the Life of a Gravestone Conservator
♦ A Day in the Life of a Death Doula
♦ A Day in the Life of an Embalmer
♦ A Day in the Life of a Forensic Artist
♦ A Day in the Life of a Funeral Director
♦ A Day in the Life of a Funeral Celebrant
♦ A Day in the Life of a Green Cemetery Director
♦ A Day in the Life of a Hospice Nurse
♦ A Day in the Life of a Hospice Physician
♦ A Day in the Life of a Pathologist
Do you currently work in the end-of-life industry? Would you like to be featured in a future Careers in Death Care: A Day in the Life article? Please contact us with your job title and tell us about your experience in the industry!
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