One of the biggest problems facing funeral service today is the fact that nobody knows exactly what a funeral director is. Are they akin to waiters, with a responsibility to deliver exactly what a family asks but never dare suggest something healthier? Or are they leaders, duty-bound to guide a family toward the decisions that will serve them best? Do they exist only for the deceased, to quietly handle the body and its disposition? Or is the surviving family’s health and well-being something with which they should concern themselves? Are they counselors with a role of providing compassionate guidance? Or salespeople with numbers to hit? Should they be empathetic to reflect the family’s state of mind? Or stoic, true to the fact that they have done this a thousand times?