Page 46 - Walton Living

A MATTER OF TRUST

By Robbie Schwartz

race Posey finds it easy to be a woman in a male-dom- eventually decided to enter the medical field and was accepted
inated profession. Her love of her profession makes it to Gordon College. Grace was on track to become a nurse
Geasy to brush aside the comparisons to Morticia Ad- but soon discovered a simple truth: she hated nursing school.
ams or the looks she gets when telling people her profession. She turned to her mother, explaining that she was miserable
That’s because being a funeral director and embalmer is and didn’t know what she wanted to do with the rest of her
something that Grace has wanted to do since she was in the life. With maternal love, Grace’s mother reminded her of the
fourth grade. passion she had in her youth for wanting to become a funeral
“You get very strange looks from teachers when they ask director and embalmer.
what you want to be when you grew up and your answer is “I’m very sure no one has ever withdrawn themselves as fast
‘funeral director’ after all the other kids said doctor or teacher. as I did from college and the next thing I knew, I was enrolling
But it all started from two things,” the Fayetteville native said. myself into Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service,” Grace
“First, when my father was growing up, his parents were very said.
close friends with the family who owned the local funeral To obtain her dream job, Grace had to graduate from
home. He claims that he and his siblings would play hide and mortuary college, pass both national and state exams, serve
seek with the owners children in the casket selection room. 18 months as an apprentice with a funeral home and meet a
He would tell me that story all the time as a kid and it just variety of requirements during that time working. It was when
fascinated me. seeking an apprenticeship that Grace came to realize there are
“Second, I love reading and when I was in fourth grade, I some hurdles to overcome being a female in a male-dominat-
read a book on the Egyptians and of course the book talked ed profession.
about the mummification process. I became so intrigued by “It seemed like the odds were stacked against me,” she said.
the whole process of mummification that I ran with the book “I didn’t have any prior funeral home experience outside of
to my mother to show her. She calmly explained to me that mortuary college. I was in competition with my other class-
mummification was no longer a thing, but there was still a mates from college trying to start their apprenticeship and I
profession that was similar. That’s when I decided to become was a young woman of 21. But with a lot of networking help
a funeral director.” from local veteran funeral directors, I was able to land an ap-
Like many dreams people have in their youth, Grace’s faded prenticeship with A.S. Turner in Decatur. I officially became
with time. The granddaughter of three doctors and a nurse a ‘rarity.’”