![]() ![]() So Caleb is both the heir to a somber family business and a child of the Internet. ![]() He’s done a local TED talk and appeared on national news shows like 20/20. The blog - called Confessions of a Funeral Director - has gotten Caleb some attention. He has two sisters, but he’s the only one working full-time in the family business.ĬW: I’m also a blogger, and I write about my experiences in the crossroads of death and life. Or my dad comes in and checks.Ĭaleb is 33. So Caleb shuttles those bodies to the local crematorium.īut the delicate work of embalming - the removal of bodily fluids before a viewing or burial - Caleb usually doesn’t do that alone.ĬW: It’s rare that I’ll embalm a body without being proctored by my grandfather likes to look over my shoulder and make sure I’m doing everything right. The caskets range from around $800 for a coffin made of particle board up to solid cherry for 6,000 dollars.ĪS: How many of these will you sell in a year?ĬW: Oh, we’ll probably sell about one or two a year.Ībout a third of their services are cremations. He helps customers plan their funerals, too. I’m more the behind the scenes person.Ī lot happens behind the scenes in a family funeral home.ĬW: Picking up the deceased in the middle of the night.Ĭaleb also mans the phones, or responds to a 24-hour answering service.ĬW: If it’s a death call they’ll call us directly, and then we’ll call the family right back. This is something I can’t do-people don’t feel that comfortable with me. But for my grandfather, people are very willing-so he’ll come up behind maybe the widow, and pull them in around their waist and give them a hug. For me, when I go up and I touch somebody, it can be weird. Or more willingness for you to be tactile with them. The other nice thing about being older is that people have more freedom. In my grandfather’s case, he’s burying a lot of his friends and family. Caleb’s grandfather is 83 - and running this funeral downstairs.ĬW: The funny thing is, is in the funeral industry, you reach your prime state when you’re older, because you know the people that you’re serving. The family made cabinets before the Civil War.which led to making coffins.and the rest is history. It’s hymns.Ĭaleb’s family has been doing this for six generations in Parkesburg, going back to his great-great-GREAT-grandfather. It’s an instrumental we bought from Walmart. The connection is, my dad knew him from church.ĪS: Is the music something that’s being played live, or is it a recording.ĬW: That’d be nice-sometimes it is live, this is a recording. Just below us, at the foot of the front stairs, a crowd is beginning to gather in the foyer.ĬW: He’s a younger gentleman who died of cancer. When you are around death, you talk about these things, and it’s not morbid. As we make our way to the second floor, I notice the place has the feel of an old home.because it is.ĬW: My grandfather was born in this very room and that chair is where he takes his nap and he often says he will probably die in that chair. The building sits at a corner of main street in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania.a community of just over 3,600 people. I have never entered a funeral home through the back door.so first thing, I asked Caleb to show me around.ĬW: My mom might be at the top of these steps. So, sneak on upstairs, and we’ll go from there.Ĭaleb Wilde leads me into the Wilde Funeral Home through the back… This is Death, Sex & Money.the show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.and need to talk about more.ĬW: At the top of the steps we’ll be right in the funeral home itself. Listen for that update at the end, but first, here's my original conversation with Caleb Wilde. He's in a very different place than he was when we met about a year ago. I called up Caleb, and he told me about what's happened in his life since we talked. ![]() Natalie: I'm just wondering how he's doing, and if he's even in the business anymore. We asked you which past guests you've been wondering about, and Natalie from Chicago asked for Caleb. So this week, we're bringing you an update on Caleb Wilde, the sixth-generation funeral director from Pennsylvania. The Death, Sex & Money team is in New Orleans this week, doing some interviews for an upcoming episode.and eating a lot of good food. ![]()
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