But she could never single out any one person as being more special than the rest.
"Everybody is treated with the same care, respect and dignity.
"It doesn’t matter if they’re a 13-week gestation baby or a 105-year-old - everyone is treated the same."
The Hope and Sons embalmer, from Dunedin, was recently awarded the 2023 InvoCare "Cares" Award in Excellence - a recognition of workers in the funeral services industry who go above and beyond.
InvoCare is an Australian funeral conglomerate that owns Hope and Sons.
After being selected to represent New Zealand from a pool of quarterly nominations, Ms Homan edged out four other finalists - all from Australian funeral homes - to win the overall award for her category.
She was recognised for her exceptional embalming of a stillborn baby, and the "incredibly challenging" task of taking hand and foot prints from the infant.
While this seemed like a small gesture to help families along their journey of grief, such prints were a physical reminder people could keep of their child, Ms Homan said.
"It’s the last thing, and sometimes one of the few things, that a family can actually have of their child.
"We look after a lot of families that have had multiple miscarriages and it’s been a really long, hard journey for them, and might be their last chance as well.
"Every child is a child to their family, it doesn’t matter how far along they are, they still grieve for them."
Ms Homan said no-one ever looked great once they died.
The work embalmers did, in the period between receiving the deceased and when a family came to see them, made a huge difference to restoring their loved one’s natural appearance.
While it was nice to be recognised overseas, Ms Homan said the work was not something she did for the recognition.
"Seeing that change is very personally rewarding.
"It’s just what we do - we don’t do it for the recognition of doing it, or the thanks."
Hope and Sons funeral director and manager Andrew Maffey said stillborn babies were a difficult situation that were not often talked about nor recognised as far as funeral services went.
He said the family of the infant had approached Hope and Sons with no expectations of what could be done, but Ms Homan had paid exceptional care and attention to their request.
"Katie certainly is exceptional at caring for those little ones and going the extra mile with the dignity and respect and it’s appreciated by families.
"To see [the family’s] reaction and how blown away they were by the care that came to it with this wee one was pretty cool."
