Meet the Warrington friends living out their dreams jobs - as funeral embalmers

Melissa Topping and Rachel Haslem are both embalmers and say it has been their life long dreams.

Both women were told funeral care was not the right career path for young women entering the workforce.

Now they work together at Co-op funeralcare on Bewsey Road in Warrington.

Both Melissa and Rachel have trouble thinking of a time when this career was not on their radar as the ideal job.

In school, Melissa, 36, recounts being an all-around good student with a passion for the arts, who was constantly encouraged by career advisers and teachers to become an artist.

Instead, she had always been drawn to the idea of caring for people, and after having experienced the loss of her father at 10, Melissa knew she wanted to be able to help others in her community deal with grief.

Embalmer Melissa Topping at the Bewsey Road site

“My parents were very open about what happens when someone dies and being there with my dad during his last few days helped me cope with the loss better than I would have, had it all been kept a secret from me” Melissa said. “I will always be thankful to my mother for letting me see my father once he had been embalmed, and letting me have that last moment with him, as it helped me process what was going on. I wanted to be able to offer this type of closure to other families as well.”

On the other hand, Rachel’s mother wanted all of her children in uniform. Her older sister became a nurse while her older brother joined the RAF, meaning the expectation was that she, too, would follow in their footsteps. Instead, she found herself pursuing a career in conservation biology.

“I’d told my parents early on that I wanted to be an embalmer, but they didn’t think that was an appropriate career path for me, so I was trying to find something that would give me purpose and satisfaction. I listened to my parents for a while, had a market stall trying to find my calling, but then I decided to go against their wishes and became involved with the local Co-op Funeralcare”, Rachel, 50, said.

Both Melissa and Rachel turned to funeral care early on in their professional careers. After spending time working as a carer, looking after individuals at home as well as acting as a nurse in hospices, Melissa ultimately decided, at the age of 26, to follow her dreams in funeral care.

“I knew a friend of a friend who worked as an embalmer, so I’d asked if I could observe an embalming, just to make sure it was 100 per cent my calling. After that first session I observed, I immediately enrolled on the British Institute of Embalming qualification course” Melissa recalled. Rachel, too, had abandoned her market stall and joined Co-op at 30, first starting out as a funeral service operative before discovering her true passion for embalming.

It was around 2014 that Rachel and Melissa finally met - at the time, Melissa was halfway through her qualifications, when Co-op decided to bring her in as part of the team just as Rachel was working on finishing her embalming qualification too. The duo connected instantly and, after completing their training together, they continued working together to this day.

When asked about what made them choose embalming over any other career path, both seem to be at a loss for words about how much the job truly means to them.

Melissa said: “Embalming is the perfect mix between science, art and caring. We get to learn about the uniqueness of every person and reconstruct their personality through their physical appearance in order to make the final goodbye that much easier for their families.”

Embalmer Rachel Haslam

Rachel added: “It’s simply the best job you could possibly have. It’s not an easy job, because you get to see all sorts of manifestations of grief, but the fact that you can help a family see their loved one seem peacefully asleep during their last farewell, no other job can do that for people.”

When asked about their advice for those contemplating a career in embalming, Rachel said: “Follow your dreams and don’t let anyone deter you from your goals.” In addition, Melissa highlighted the importance of reaching out to local funeral homes and asking to observe embalmings, in order to determine whether the level of care and attention to detail is something you’d be able to offer each family, every day, no matter what.

“You know you would have done your job successfully when you get to recreate someone’s story by carrying out a really thorough embalming, helping the family remember their loved one as they were in life. You need to have that motivation to care for not just the family, but the deceased as an individual with a history and personality too.”

To find out more about careers with Co-op Funeralcare visit coop.co.uk/funeralcare/advice/what-is-embalming