A woman became a funeral director to overcome her fear of dying and says death has taught her to stop comparing herself to others. Melissa Schmidt, 34, used to get “tunnel vision” at the idea of dying ...

Melissa Schmidt handles body removal, embalming, preparation and casketing in her role as a funeral director on Long Island Zoey Lyttle is a Writer-Reporter on the Society & Culture team at PEOPLE.

A funeral director has shared her shock when a woman walked through the funeral home doors, asking to collect cremated remains—thirteen years after the person had died. Melissa Schmidt, from Long ...

Following the traumatic death of her neighbor when she was 16, Melissa Schmidt felt she had ‘a calling’ to be in the business of death. After high school, she enrolled in mortuary school where she ...