ST. GEORGE — Beyond city council meetings and mayoral duties, what do elected officials do when not engaged in the business of the cities and towns they represent? On the St. George City Council are those involved in health care, real estate, development and various entrepreneurial pursuits. For one council member, he calls people in his line of work event planners – and that event is planning someone’s “final going away party.”
“This career is a little different,” long-serving Councilman Jimmie Hughes said after sitting down to speak with St. George News about his work as a mortician.
Hughes has been a mortician, also referred to as a funeral director, for 11 years and runs Hughes Mortuary on 700 South down not far from Harmons Grocery. Prior to becoming a mortician, Hughes worked in real estate.
Elected to the St. George City Council in 2011, Hughes would joke later on that he combined selling mortgages and being a politician and became a mortician.
Beyond sitting on the council and being a mortician, Hughes and his family also operate a ranch on the Arizona Strip.
How did it start?
“It was a moment of weakness,” Hughes joked while describing getting into the mortuary business. “I always had some desire to try it at some point.”
He spoke about it with others over the years but didn’t think he’d be able to break into the job due to mortuaries tending to be family businesses that pass down from parent to child. However, that changed one day when he mentioned his interest to certain individuals, and “the opportunity came out of the blue.”
“Literally, in two weeks, I was in the business,” he said. “It’s been 11 years now, and it’s been an incredible experience.”
The job has had its ups and downs with some funeral preparations being harder than others over the years. All the while, Hughes said the job “is all about service” and it’s why he keeps at it.
You get to help individuals and families at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives and hopefully help ease some of the pain of the loss of a loved one, he said.
“It’s a very rewarding career,” Hughes said. “I don’t think anyone does this for the money. There are much easier ways to make a living.”
Good days and bad days
Like any other job, there are both good days and bad days. The most draining days involve children, Hughes said.
“Children are always hard,” he said, and while he may be able to focus on the job at the time, that changes once everything’s done. “You never really get over it.”
Other difficult experiences include seeing a parent die and leave young children behind and then witnessing those same children say goodbye at the funeral. Hughes shared a memory of a 9-year-old boy who told his deceased father that he would be the “man of the family now” and take on his father’s responsibilities.
“I have never seen anything as heart-wrenching as that,” he said.
Hushes said his wife can tell when he’s had a bad day at work when he comes home. He’ll often call the family together for some activity and want to spend time with them in general.
On the other hand, being a mortician has provided Hughes with some incredible moments when handling funerals for elderly individuals and their families who were prepared for the end. These turn out to be happier occasions despite the fact someone has passed on.
“Sometimes it’s a celebration and you can learn a lot from the life stories of those people,” he said.
Grant said these times grant him and his staff the opportunity to see the life and legacy the deceased have built over their lives, which also serves as a reminder and inspiration for the multitude of directions a life can take.
A crowning achievement for Hughes is when the family of those he tended to approach him after a funeral and thank him for his work, he said. Sometimes he runs across those same people five or six years later and they thank him again.
How does being a mortician impact being a council member?
“I think they influence each other,” he said. “They’re both service oriented.”
In the past, individuals who were considered morticians, undertakers or the like, tended to be duel-purpose and have a public job in addition to their regular work, Hughes said.
It wasn’t uncommon for a cabinet maker to also be the one who built the caskets, or a mortician to also serve as an ambulance provider because they had a vehicle already outfitted to carry someone in the back. Though the latter example was a little odd, Hughes joked that he wondered if such a practice was considered a conflict of interest or not.
“I think my service on the City Council goes hand-in-hand with my service here at the mortuary,” he said.
A downside of being on the council – which any business owner serving in public office can face – is the potential of losing someone’s business because they had an item before the council get voted down, Hughes said.
Despite this possibility, it didn’t appear to be something Hughes was too concerned about.
Sobering lessons
When morticians pick up a body, they can sometimes see the apparent cause of death and how widespread it is among the people they serve.
“It’s the real pandemic,” Hughes said. “People don’t realize how prevalent suicide is. So I hope we can do more in society to get ahead of that one.”
Once a month, local mortuaries are on a four or five-day rotation with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office when it comes to retrieving the bodies of those who died by various means be it natural, illness, accidental, crime or self-inflicted. There hasn’t been a rotation Hughes has been on that hasn’t dealt with at least one case of suicide, if not more.
“That’s the one thing I was very surprised at when I got into this business,” he said, adding that suicides can involve anyone, from teenagers to someone in their 80s.
“There’s so much to live for,” Hughes said. “Somehow we’ve got to wake up about this.”
Despite the sobering aspect of his work, there are two lessons Hughes said he is reminded of each day as a funeral director:
- Life is fragile.
- You should spend every moment you can with your loved ones because you never know when it may be your last.
“You get reminded that every moment is precious,” Hughes said.
Resources
- If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
- The Dixie State Health and Counseling Center is located at 1037 E. 100 South. To make an appointment, call 435-652-7755.
- Southern Utah University Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) | 435-865-8621.
- Southwest Behavioral Health emergency number: 435-634-5600.
- SafeUT is an app that allows people to report when someone is in a crisis, as well as bullying and violence.
- Additional resources for Southern Utah can be found at Reach4HopeUtah.org.
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