Angelus News | October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 36

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The entrance building at All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary in Long Beach. ‘Everyone has a mission’ Why burying the dead is no ‘regular job’ for these cemetery employees With its white stucco exterior, red tile roof, and expansive green lawns behind it, the entrance building of All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary in Long Beach might easily be mistaken for a golf course clubhouse. After all, a golf cart was grounds supervisor David Morales’ mode of transportation for taking a ride around the cemetery’s 47 acres on a recent September morning. “There’s a sacredness about working here,” observed Morales. “It’s like an honor and ministry. I feel like I’m serving my community, serving the families. It’s not like a regular job — 100 percent.” Helping families bury a relative is part of the 48-year-old’s job description. He tries not to stick out while standing in the back during graveside services. But his work clothes, a blue shirt with his name stitched on the front and darker pants, usually give him away. When it’s over, he or another worker climbs up on a yellow backhoe to cover the casket with dirt unearthed earlier and then packs it back down. When he steps down from the vehicle, he sometimes gets a chance to console BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS David Morales is the grounds supervisor at All Souls, which covers 47 acres. a lingering member of the family. “It’s not like digging a hole, right?” Morales said as he steered the golf cart with one hand while motioning with the other. “No, to me it’s very important to be respectful. I try to encourage my coworkers to be the same, because we’re seeing a family going through the death of their mom or dad, son or daughter. I want to give R.W. DELLINGER VICTOR ALEMÁN 16 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019
the family 100 percent when they do the interment.” Having to regularly confront the reality of death for a living has given the 48-year-old a special perspective on life. “I mean, when God calls you, you’ve done your mission here on earth,” he said. “It can be for 80 years, 18 years or six months. But everyone has a mission. I’m here to tell the families, ‘You can go in peace. Your family member, he’s resting in peace, in the right place, the right way.’ ” He waved to the driver of a backhoe coming back from scooping out a grave. Later, on the far side of the grassy grounds with the visitor, the golf cart stopped to check out private family plots. A row of them have cinder-block walls on three sides with a wrought-iron gate in front. Morales, whose own family belongs to St. Philip Neri Church in Lynwood, said he feels the same way about respecting grieving families when he’s cutting the grass, keeping up the gardens, or trimming flat-lying markers. But the main task he does is digging graves, 4 feet down for a single interment, 7 1/2 for a double. The standard width is 40 inches for both, however, because with a two-body internment, one is stacked on the other. Depending on the soil, it usually takes a team 30 to 45 minutes to dig a grave. “You see life different,” the grounds supervisor mused later, after the ride. “That’s why I don’t change my job for nothing. Every day it’s different — different cases, different cultures. You see how the families are going through these bad moments, so you try to do the best job you can because it’s a ministry. “Because my work is connected to my faith,” he added. “It’s very important for me and my family.” to really help people? The thought led her to enroll in a local community college mortuary science program. “Once I got on the path, I knew where I belonged,” she recalled. As the embalmer and director of All Souls Mortuary “care center,” the place where bodies are brought and prepared, Sault also sees her role as a ministry. “I feel strongly about that, and that’s how I run the care center. I believe it’s giving them to God in the best light that you can,” she said. “Everything from birth to death is transition to eternity. So everything being handled and honored is imperative for a decedent.” Struggling to find the right words, she continued, “Everything about them — the life they lived — I mean, it’s way bigger than I am. It really is.” Specifically, Sault’s job entails embalming bodies for burial, a role that required a two-year internship before she could get an embalmer’s license. The first year was at a small mortuary in Covina. She met with families as an arrangement counselor, acted as a funeral director and did many other jobs in the field. Sault said she loved them all, but it was during her second intern year at All Souls that she settled on the area she wanted to specialize in. “It’s a very fragile balance in embalming,” Sault pointed out. “Every decedent is different. And high levels of medications can affect the embalming process. Also different types of chemotherapy. And if they had liver failure or jaundice, it’s difficult to embalm. With more chemicals in the body, they can have different consequences with reactions during the process.” At times, the four embalmers on staff at All Souls also have to act as detectives. They often don’t know the exact cause of death or the medications and medical procedures associated with the deceased persons leading up to their deaths. “But with experience, you can tell what a person died of just by looking at him, generally,” Sault said. “Not all cases. But we always have to determine what type of chemicals we’re going to use. So we’re always judging the possible cause of death so we can formulate our chemicals. “After a while,” she added, “you get really good at assessing.” Kristi Sault worked for a law firm and a bank, but didn’t feel like she was helping others in any significant way. Eventually, she realized that helping people during the hardest time of their lives — dealing with the death of a loved one — was one sure way to change that. What better place for her Kristi Sault supervises the care center at All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary. VICTOR ALEMÁN October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17
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Angelus News | October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 36

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