117
Ellen
Chris Mallot
I am in my final quarter of Funeral Service Education at
LWIT. My journey to LWIT has been a long, diverse one. I
wasn't absolutely certain of what program I wanted to enter
until I saw that Funeral Services was available, and I knew in
that instant that this was what I wanted.
Reading through the required curriculum, I began to worry
when I saw "Restorative Art" on the list. I have never had any
artistic ability and as a result, figured I would not do well. The
purpose of this training is to be able to recreate features of the
deceased that may have been damaged as a cause of death. We
want to be able to make a presentable viewing that will help
grieving families to adjust to their loss, the importance of this
cannot be understated. As the class began, I quickly
acknowledged to our instructor, Lauren Budrow, that I likely
won't do well because of the lack of artistic ability, as did some
other students. She reassured the class that we will all do
much better than we were anticipating.
Through several weeks of study, we were all given a plastic
base and 2 pounds of restorative art wax to build the features
of a selected person. I was impressed by the work of my
classmates, and was striving to make mine comparably well.
Through constructive feedback and encouragement from
Lauren and other students, I was able to produce a much
better end product than I could have ever imagined. The whole
class was able to produce some incredibly impressive results
with all of their submissions. I feel confident in the abilities of
not only my classmates, but also myself now.