When Amy Sagar was 16 and sitting in a food technology class, she decided she wanted to work with death.
It wasn’t as much a dark fascination, nor was totally morbid, either. It was something entirely different.
“I was sitting in class and I was watching a documentary about the anatomy of the human body and educational autopsies. It was the first time I had ever seen the human body portrayed as an ordinary thing. You usually see it in movies or coming back alive. It’s never portrayed normally,” Amy tells Mamamia.
And so, the then teenager knew exactly what she was going to do with her life. She was going to work as a funeral director and a mortician, and she was going to start working there in her school holidays.
“Everyone at school was naturally very curious, a lot of kids thought it was really weird and a lot of teachers probably didn’t take me seriously. But it was my career advisor who got me the job in the end,” she says.
Before she knew it, she was 17, working full time in a funeral parlour and working her way to receiving a Certificate IV in embalming.
“I was working full-time by the time I was 17,” Amy said. “There was first talk of me arranging funerals by 17, and I knew I could do it, but I wondered if people would take me seriously. Because of that, there was a big build up about when I would actually meet with families, and it took a long time for my life experience to match up with them.”
Looking back, Amy describes her inexperience beautifully.
“At that age, I couldn’t love anyone enough to marry them, so how would I know what it’s then like to lose that love?”
Fast-forward nine years and Amy is an embalmer and a funeral director with nearly a decade-worth of experience in her industry. While most her age are leaving uni and beginning to enter the job market, Amy’s well-versed in every facet of her job: from the intricate detail of embalming to the emotional stamina one needs when navigating death every day.
If it sounds like a heavy subject to be talking about, then imagine actually living it. Amy’s life is defined by death. But the fact we all find loss of life so hard to talk about is exactly why she does what she does.

Top Comments
I wanted to be a mortician from the ages of about 13 to 16. My neighbour was a funeral director and owned his own company and I used to watch the herse come to his house occasionally. I changed my mind when I was 16 but i still think it's a great career for someone who is in it for the right reasons like Amy.
I think it's great. She found a career that she is passionate about, the job satisfaction and respect is very evident. A lot of people don't get that in life. Death is a certainty and never easy but having someone who is respectful of your loved ones in this difficult time of mourning gives such peace of mind. I take my hat off to you Amy.