RUSSELL COUNTY, Ala. (WRBL) —
“You never know when it’s going to be someone’s last opportunity to say, I love you.”
– ARTHUR SUMBRY, JR., RUSSELL COUNTY CORONER.
Arthur “Pee Wee” Sumbry Junior’s family has been in the funeral service industry since the early 1920s. He’s been around death all of his life. He learned at an early age about compassion in bereavement.
As the Russell County Coroner, empathy comes easy for Sumbry. He prays before rolling to a scene. He asks God that he says the right thing, does the right thing, and offends no one. When he knocks on doors to make a death notification, he does so from the position of someone who has suffered significant losses of his own.
“It’s not easy,” Sumbry said. “It doesn’t get easier for anyone else. In fact, I was, I was telling everybody once upon a time, I said, you know, being the coroner, I’ve dealt with three deaths in my family, my mother, a father and my sister. So I’m not numb to it. And the day that I become numb to it, I promise you I’ll stop doing it because you have to show compassion.”…