Not an average part-time college-student job

If you meet Brianna Cline, you will notice that she is a joyful person. You can hear it in her laughter.

Cline is a sophomore at Drury studying biology and chemistry, along with Spanish and global studies.

In her spare time, she likes to hang out with friends and get involved with orchestra (she plays the violin). But she also spends part of her time at a funeral home, especially on the weekends.

Cline works part-time as an associate at Greenlawn Funeral Home East. She has worked there for two and a half years - more time than she ever imagined spending in a funeral home.

The opportunity to work there was unexpected when she was first hired during her senior year of high school.

"My grandpa first started working at Greenlawn North when I first started high school. When my cousin passed away when I was in middle school we had her service there," Cline says. "And I thought, ‘How in the world can you work there? That's disgusting and creepy and I could never work at a funeral home.'"

However, she was eventually offered a cleaning job at the funeral home through a family member, and her perspective changed.

During the next six months, Cline took on more responsibilities at the funeral home.

She is now in charge of greeting families at visitations, preparing memory DVDs for families and making sure guests are comfortable.

Cline says every day she works there is unpredictable. When it comes time for visitations, it is important for Cline to make sure families feel supported.

"We just ask them if everything's okay. Because grieving is a really personal thing, usually, for me at least, I try not to invade that. It's a personal process that has to happen, so usually you just comfort them and let them know that they can take as much time as they need," Brianna says.

Not only did her perspective change about the funeral home business, but working there reminds Cline to live life to the fullest, even if it sounds cheesy.

"It really makes you think. Death can happen to whomever. You realize that no one is really exempt from it. And it's really cruel - the types of things that happen and you never know when it's going to happen," Cline says. "It just shows you that you have to be ready at any time. Since working here, I've actually gotten my own life insurance policy, so I would recommend that for other students as well."

When Brianna meets new people, she receives many curious questions and comments regarding the funeral home.

"I get a lot of people that say, ‘Oh, that's so morbid' or ‘Do you see the dead bodies?'" Cline laughs. "I get that a lot. And everybody thinks we have a basement. Everybody always asks about the basement, but there is no basement."

Nonetheless, Cline enjoys working at Greenlawn.

"It's really not as depressing as everybody thinks," she says.

Cline works around death, but to her, it's a fact of life and she accepts it.