Whenever Melinda Hagerman works a funeral, she keeps a sharp eye on every detail during the visitation or service. If she finds a flower on the floor, she slips it into her pocket. She’s been doing it since she was a little girl growing up in the small town of Salem, Mo.
“That was my first job at my family’s funeral home,” she says. “If I found a flower behind the casket, I would crawl back there because I was the only one small enough to reach it.”
Hagerman has spent most of her professional career as a funeral director, helping families navigate the process of saying goodbye to loved ones during the toughest days of their life…