Any gory details?

I can’t say. People always want to know exactly what it is that I do, until it’s their loved one getting treated. Then you’d wish you could forget everything you knew. That’s why we don’t appreciate shows like Six Feet Under making light of the process. We have to keep what we do to ourselves, even when we’re doing an excellent job of it. But of course as soon as we mess up, it’s all over the papers.

A lot of people can’t fathom hanging out alone with a dead body. What goes through your mind when you’re working?

It’s like any other job. After you’ve been in the business for this long, you stop thinking about it and just do it. Most of the time I’m thinking about things I’ve done that day, things I’ve got to do later—you know, just like at any other job. You’re thinking, What time am I gonna get off this evening? Am I gonna make it to, you know, the drugstore before I go home? What am I gonna eat? That’s how it is in this business, too.

Has it given you a different perspective on death?

I appreciate life that much more because I know how quickly someone can go. I want to grow old and watch my children grow up. It’s my job, but I’m still a human being. I have feelings too.

Isn’t there something a little scary about what you do, though?

Nope. Anything that’s scared me I could have found working at the post office. I’m scary just like everybody else.