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Former flight attendant says she is happy to return to a funeral home career.
When she was 18, Sonia Paterson knew she wanted to be an embalmer.
She acknowledges that it is not an obvious career option for a young person, but from the time she was first introduced to the concept at a careers expo in Timaru's Caroline Bay Hall, she was intrigued.
Raised on a farm outside Timaru and educated at Timaru Girl's High School, she worked at Zinnia's fashion store when she left school because she was too young to start the embalmer's course.
She had been interested in becoming an embalmer because the work was specialised.
‘‘It calls for someone who is very caring. There's the medical side and the presentation side - the hair and makeup, making the people look beautiful,'' Ms Paterson said.
‘‘There were a lot of older funeral directors who said I couldn't [do it] because I was a girl, probably because of the heavy lifting.''
Although formal qualifications are not required in the job, she has the distinction of being the first qualified embalmer in South Canterbury.
‘‘You can do the work without having formal qualifications,'' she explained.
The Award in Embalming is issued by Welltech in Wellington, an educational institution similar to a polytechnic for specialists like dental technicians and personal trainers. It is a requirement that you have a position in a funeral home in order to do the embalmer's course.
‘‘I really pushed my way into my first job in a funeral home,'' she said. ‘‘I worked during my holidays from Zinnia's and on weekends. You've got to prove you've got what it takes.''
She gained her qualifications in 1996 and came back to Timaru, where she worked in a funeral parlour for three years.
Still too young to be a funeral director, she took a job with Emirates Airlines as a flight attendant and spent the next 10 years travelling the world in remarkable luxury, mixing with people from many different cultures.
The airline flew to 85 destinations throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
While she was living in Dubai, she met and married an American navy bomb disposal expert. She left the airline and they lived in the state of Virginia.
He did two tours of duty in Iraq, but she said the marriage did not survive the dreadful worry he might be killed - that and living in a part of the United States where everyone she knew carried guns and the women carried small mace canisters attached to their keyrings as well.
‘‘We are so lucky here,'' she said.
Ms Paterson returned to Timaru on January 1 this year and talked to Marie and Paul Lockyer at Aoraki Funeral Home, who offered her a job as an embalmer. ‘‘They have really encouraged me to be a funeral director,'' she said.
She thrived on the variety in her work. ‘‘When you're arranging funerals you're working with council for the plots, working with clergy and celebrants, doctors and the family. You're going in as an adviser when people need you most. It's like a calling - it's very rewarding.''