"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it." - Unknown
Doing well in the job that you are into is one thing, but accomplishing what you really want to is entirely something different. And this is what the Undertaker (Funeral Director) of Singapore did! 26-year-old Kelly Lim surpassed all the superstitions and entered into beginning with a meaningful career.
Kelly left her Sales and Trading job with an IT company to handle her 70-year-old family business which is running by the name of Hiap Hin Tian Kee Undertaker. She might have earned a fortune with her regular job, but now she is helping families to ease their stress to manage the rituals of a deceased loved one.
Funerals are more for the families and friends of the deceased who get together to mourn for the one they have loved. She is exactly working for this very purpose. She is working to ease the grief of the living ones and effortlessly put forward the funeral arrangements. Yes, Kelly Lim is a funeral undertaker! It takes empathy and compassion to be imbibed in you, so you can deal with such a profession with utmost sensitivity and also maintain the professionalism to keep moving forward. And she truly understands the difference. Her services offer cremation, burial, embalmment along with providing emotional support to those in grief.
You never would want to actually know if your loved one passed unwillingly or in a non-peaceful way. However, at least their last rituals can be perfectly organized and paid proper attention to. Despite all the challenges, Kelly is making all the efforts to constantly keep evolving herself and her business. There are constraints of language, education, the generation gap along with several other differences that at times pose adversities. But, that is the advantage of doing what you love - challenges and hurdles do not stop you and you are always on the lookout for solutions whenever trapped. You always give your best to such situations as you love what you do.
Kelly is into something where you cannot get a degree and learn the techniques. Each and everything needs to be grasped while being on the job. You just need to keep your eyes, ears, mind, and heart open. 26-year-old Kim gives out a really inspiring advice - never limit yourself to the things you think you cannot do! Keep learning and keep moving forward. And it is even rightly said by Arnold Schwarzenegger that the women who break down the barriers constructed by society are the ones who ignore all other limits. They become unstoppable!
Kelly is the one who absolutely injected life into the line of family businesses in Singapore, especially in a male-dominated trade. For some, she is doing really well but for a few others, they consider her job and her individuality as a taboo. She has the right message for each one us and it is something that even her profession has taught her - The more you are going to think about your death, the more you are going to lose the precious moments while you are alive. But the more you are going to focus on how great your life is, the more you will be able to genuinely enjoy it. And at the end, she is surely offering a service, but it is not about the type of coffin or the charges for the funeral, it is about how the family of the deceased is made to feel while bidding the last goodbye.
Being an undertaker, she learned the importance of empathy and patience. She explains how badly she used to fear death. But, once she came to terms with the fact that death is inevitable, she started to take each moment in life as a blessing.
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