Transcript
Speaker: So I would visit every funeral home, every morgue, hospitals, and take the donor, recover the eyes, sometimes full enucleations, which is the entire eye.
Speaker: Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
Speaker: Well, we are glamming it up today because I have the very, very beautiful Heather joining me from before the coffin.
Speaker: I have followed Heather for quite a while on Instagram.
Speaker: I'm not sure about on TikTok and all the others, but definitely on Instagram.
Speaker: So she's super fascinating.
Speaker: We're going to get into a great conversation here.
Speaker: She does all sorts of things and she's going to tell us all about it.
Speaker: But she's just definitely for somebody who's new to the business.
Speaker: I think a lot of people, a lot of non-funeral people follow her.
Speaker: And it's just she gives really interesting insights into the business.
Speaker: And also she visits some great haunted places.
Speaker: areas in the US which always has me fascinated and she's just glamorous to a T. I mean I really should just donate the Glam Reaper title to her because I really don't feel like it suits me.
Speaker: But anyway without further ado let's welcome Heather.
Speaker: Hi Heather.
Speaker: Hello thank you for that intro.
Speaker: A little bit wild a little bit all over the place but it's true you're like definitely the Glam Reaper.
Speaker: I think we're going to have to live up to the hype.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I'm loving this purple streak.
Speaker: This is very cool.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: It's a new addition.
Speaker: When you don't see the sun often and you're in the prep room, no one really cares about what all your hair is.
Speaker: Always a bonus.
Speaker: So tell us.
Speaker: So you're a mortician and where exactly are you in?
Speaker: You're in the US.
Speaker: We do have people from Ireland, England.
Speaker: Obviously, that's where I'm for.
Speaker: Well, I'm from Ireland.
Speaker: So we have people from all over the world that tune in.
Speaker: But you're in the United States.
Speaker: But whereabouts?
Speaker: We're just saying you've just moved.
Speaker: Yeah, so I was a mortician in Pittsburgh, and I just recently moved to Seattle.
Speaker: I spent a few years there, and now in a series of unfortunate events, I ended up in Michigan, but I am actually loving it now.
Speaker: Well, hey!
Speaker: what they're worth down very cool well i i've never been to pittsburgh or seattle not gonna lie pittsburgh not on my to-do list but seattle definitely is i believe the climate is very irish like as in a lot of rain and so i think i like climatized there really well but it's definitely um on a list to go to and one of my best friends is from michigan so tell us or if you want to share why you moved to those particular states or was there a story or you don't want to share that's okay too but
Speaker: I have a habit of sharing too much on the internet, so a lot of people know anyway is what happened to me.
Speaker: I actually knew another mortician.
Speaker: We were both in school around the same time.
Speaker: I knew him for about 10 years.
Speaker: I found myself in Seattle, and I found myself single in Seattle.
Speaker: Not sleepless in Seattle, but... Single in Seattle.
Speaker: I honestly watched that movie, but the single, that was probably first.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I'm going to go meet this guy that I always wanted to know and seems like they have a lot in common with me.
Speaker: They say don't meet your heroes for a reason.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: I see.
Speaker: Because I ended up in Michigan totally by myself.
Speaker: The first two weeks I came here, I shared my story with the Internet.
Speaker: I think it had almost a million views and I became a meme.
Speaker: So occasionally, still, my friends are tagging me in there.
Speaker: Like, instead of feeling like a randomized sim because you just broke up, whatever it says, they scratch out Michigan and they write like Oklahoma or here and people are just making it kind of making it to their their state.
Speaker: But it's funny.
Speaker: And I don't mind sharing with the Internet.
Speaker: Once everything's, you know, in the clear, I'm like, OK, we can joke about it now.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you met in Seattle, you moved to Michigan together, and Slid Up is the general... The general... No, we were long distance.
Speaker: Oh!
Speaker: Doing a little flying back and forth thing.
Speaker: I never really knew a lot about him.
Speaker: I actually never did a story time about this, so...
Speaker: Here's the thing.
Speaker: I can tell you right now because I know who some of my listeners are.
Speaker: They're going to be here for this tea because which is so funny because it's spill the tea apparently.
Speaker: But I always used to say we'll spill spill the beans in Ireland.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Apparently it's tea now.
Speaker: Anyway, so the tea.
Speaker: OK, well, we'll spill the tea.
Speaker: So because I'm single and in the business and I think it's a very interesting space to be single in.
Speaker: And so and I know a lot of people who follow me, especially there's a lot of female morticians in Ireland.
Speaker: I only met a load of them when I was home there last month.
Speaker: So if you want to share, you're more than welcome.
Speaker: Yeah, it was just it was just a crazy one of those crazy things, a long distance like internet talk forever.
Speaker: He lived in Michigan.
Speaker: And when I lived in Pittsburgh and when I worked at the mortuary school, when I went to the mortuary school, everything, we just like always kind of talked and stayed in contact.
Speaker: We were friends.
Speaker: We were like, you know, one day we're going to be together.
Speaker: This kind of like spooky, romantic thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I came here and we'll call him John Doan.
Speaker: Because on brand old John only told me what he wanted me to know for the past 10.
Speaker: So like I come there and I have all my things.
Speaker: And the first week it's kind of like surprise.
Speaker: I'm a total slob.
Speaker: This trash can is like filled to the brim of these like really dark beers.
Speaker: And I'm like, John, I talk to you every day.
Speaker: When were you drinking all these beers?
Speaker: It was just a...
Speaker: shocker all my friends were warning me they were like don't do it um don't go and i'm like you know i wouldn't have done half the things i did my life or my career had i not gone just one dude did it so yeah we're spontaneous out here and well what was uh hello irish living in new york i i moved here on my own i'm setting up a funeral bye
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it was just a disaster scenario.
Speaker: And it was kind of a catfish, I guess.
Speaker: That's like that.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like I'm not cool.
Speaker: I never know what any of these things are anymore, but kind of like that.
Speaker: So you had this idea of who this person was and then it was not.
Speaker: And they were totally not.
Speaker: So, yeah, it was just it was pretty crazy.
Speaker: I decided to stay.
Speaker: I got another job.
Speaker: I was doing eye recovery.
Speaker: So I was doing eye removal, cornea removal for transplants for surgeries.
Speaker: So I would visit every funeral home, every morgue, hospitals, and take the donor, recover the eyes, sometimes full of nucleations, which is the entire eye, snip the optic nerve.
Speaker: We put it into a case.
Speaker: And I would be transporting these organs by myself all over Washington and then all over Michigan.
Speaker: Yeah, I just, I always have some type of random death job that has kind of sweeped me off my feet.
Speaker: No matter where I go, even if I had some type of disaster scenario again, I'm always going to have a... Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now, to close the John Doe case, so do you see him ever?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So you're... I mean, these states are... Yeah, we're still in the same state.
Speaker: A part of the T, the biggest part, I just keep forgetting.
Speaker: I think I'm trauma blocking...
Speaker: It was the only reason he didn't have social media.
Speaker: And I wasn't tagging him or anything else like that.
Speaker: He was canceled before I even came here.
Speaker: He was like totally canceled.
Speaker: And I was asking Miss John Doe, oh, I want to like see the area.
Speaker: Like show me local bars.
Speaker: I'm like kind of like a food travel thing.
Speaker: Let's go look at some locations.
Speaker: Yeah, but I was kind of like, well, I've seen the area.
Speaker: Like I've seen it all.
Speaker: Like I don't need to go to do that.
Speaker: No, you didn't just see the area.
Speaker: you were cancelled from it.
Speaker: You can't show your face.
Speaker: Oh my.
Speaker: So it was just so crazy.
Speaker: And how would I know that from another?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, and that's, that is the scary thing though, about online dating and the apps and all of, all of the stuff.
Speaker: And it's friendship.
Speaker: It's not necessarily always romance, but like you can be putting your best foot forward.
Speaker: I mean, sometimes I laugh at how people are just like, oh my God, Jen, your life looks this or it looks that.
Speaker: And I'm like,
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Literally 90% of the time I'm my hair is scraped up.
Speaker: I'm in my sweats.
Speaker: Like I'm stressing about doing X, Y, and Z. You know, even like the fabulous memorials I do.
Speaker: Like sometimes we're setting up for a client to walk in and be like, oh, oh, yeah, because I'm at the prep stage where I'm running around like a headless chicken.
Speaker: And then I get changed and somehow make the hair look OK and for guest arrival, you know, but so yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's wild.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Well, I'm sorry that happened to you.
Speaker: Not that I have anything to do with it, but I'm sad that that even happened.
Speaker: But you landed in Michigan.
Speaker: And so now I'm, okay, we've closed the case of John Doe.
Speaker: Now I'm fascinated with this transplant thing.
Speaker: Somebody's passed away because I'm actually an organ donor, but I think I'm everything but my eyes, which is a lot of people, I know, because we're all a bit weird like that.
Speaker: You're an organ donor.
Speaker: Your eyes are 100% in there.
Speaker: with the overall donation process.
Speaker: If you're an organ donor, and this again depends on, there's all these different state laws, but it's even if you don't get a hold of the next to kin, we can go and take those tissues.
Speaker: Wow, so you can come in and take my eyeball.
Speaker: I will come there and, you know.
Speaker: Don't care.
Speaker: You're just taking them.
Speaker: Take care of the bike.
Speaker: It's just the very top.
Speaker: You don't need all of it.
Speaker: Your eyes are closed in the casket anyways.
Speaker: Nobody can do it.
Speaker: Yeah, you're like, girl, you don't need where you're going.
Speaker: You're fine.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No, it does correct blindness.
Speaker: Every one person corrects blindness in two people.
Speaker: And I have removed corneas from about a thousand donors at this point.
Speaker: I've been dispatched to so many places.
Speaker: And that's just corneas.
Speaker: I removed skin, nerves, bones, tissues.
Speaker: Costal cartilage, sternum, sternums, so many different things that we use for transplant just for tissues when I did organ recovery.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: I've worked with so many different things.
Speaker: So I actually know none of this and this is so fascinating.
Speaker: So the person is clinically dead, medically dead.
Speaker: And but but still, you know, still warm and that their tissues and organs can be taken.
Speaker: So you you and now have you trained as a mortician?
Speaker: Did you have to have extra other training or it's just or is that state by state?
Speaker: Because that's one of the things that I'm always talking about here on my podcast is being from Ireland.
Speaker: The most ironic thing about America is it's called United States of America.
Speaker: And I'm like, there's nothing united about you guys.
Speaker: Like every state has an entirely set of different set of rules.
Speaker: So if you can tell me, yeah, like what extra training you got or to be taking people's eyeballs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So most places, most states in Seattle where I was where I started doing my recovery, they honestly look for people with science degrees.
Speaker: That's the usual must.
Speaker: Sometimes people don't even know that the job exists.
Speaker: It's hard to fill positions.
Speaker: They're bringing in EMTs.
Speaker: Basically, if you can stomach it and you've worked with the dead before, you can possibly get this job.
Speaker: But it's usually morticians or people in the medical field that know about it and are good at it.
Speaker: Yeah, because you can't be just taking, you know, you can't be just, I mean, they wouldn't let me in.
Speaker: I mean, I'm not a licensed funeral director or anything, but, you know, they couldn't just have any Tom, Dick or Harry taking an eyeball or heart out, obviously, to transport it, but...
Speaker: Sorry, I'm kind of making light of it just because it's like rubbing people's eyeballs left and right.
Speaker: No, well, yeah, it is pretty crazy.
Speaker: But the tissue, it's so minuscule and so thin.
Speaker: But it, you know, we can't correct original form born with blindness, but we can...
Speaker: can correct some corneal damage.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: So a thousand transplants you've helped with.
Speaker: That's just for corneas.
Speaker: And so there's a thousand people most likely walking around with eyesight thanks to your work really.
Speaker: Ew.
Speaker: Because per donor, wow, two.
Speaker: Usually they'll need two corneas.
Speaker: We've received thank you notes in a way that you do when you're a mortician.
Speaker: And then they'll usually forward it to who did the recovery because they usually do like overall blank this company or thank you.
Speaker: pretty cool you must sleep well at the ice knowing that no i do it's amazing especially if i'm ever feeling down i kind of feel like i'm a part of this greater yeah well because even if i'm yeah not a lot of morticians or funeral directors deal with you know while they deal with living people it's you you know it's usually like they're they're not part of a recovery or or sort of an illness getting turned around that's i mean that's amazing
Speaker: It's crazy what you could do with your degree in the literary field, especially because people think and like the students and they don't really they don't really tell us we could do other things with it.
Speaker: They don't.
Speaker: Didn't really promote that when I was in mortuary school.
Speaker: So when I was at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science and when I was co-instructing the facial reconstruction class alongside the dean, the students would ask me what I do.
Speaker: And I said, you know, I got to do organ recovery right now.
Speaker: And there's just so many different things that you could do with your degree.
Speaker: And I don't understand why they don't necessarily tell them or it feels like they don't want to tell them.
Speaker: And I'm like, hey,
Speaker: you would think that it would bring people in more because they want to be able to do a bunch of different things.
Speaker: You could be a deputy coroner.
Speaker: You could work in autopsies.
Speaker: You could do organ and tissue recovery.
Speaker: You could just do, be a mortician.
Speaker: But, uh,
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know if that maybe would inspire them to try out different training courses.
Speaker: But for me, I was always like, hey, you can do this, this and this.
Speaker: I definitely.
Speaker: Keep a career.
Speaker: I definitely think so.
Speaker: I mean, I've gotten into arguments, very light arguments, discussions really with some people where because I would have liked to have licensed as a funeral director.
Speaker: I just embalming and sort of the physical start stuff is not really for me.
Speaker: But the arrangements with families and stuff like I do think there is it attracts the industry attract different type of people.
Speaker: There's people, people and those people are more into the physical and the science part of it.
Speaker: And I think having in certain states and having it being all in one course that allows you to be licensed.
Speaker: I think there should be different licenses.
Speaker: But to know, like, I never knew that that no clue that that was something that was possible.
Speaker: And not to be, again, a bit ignorant.
Speaker: And I hope I'm not the only person who's ignorant working in the space.
Speaker: But to even I guess I never even thought that anybody other than a doctor or a surgeon would do something.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: And I guess that's a little bit Hollywood.
Speaker: You know, the medical shows I've seen, you know, it's usually the drama and stuff.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's wild.
Speaker: And so is that what you're doing currently?
Speaker: So I actually just started a new position as an anatomic aide.
Speaker: So I'm doing...
Speaker: autopsies it's just me one other person um at a hospital it is our office and yeah we're doing autopsies so i get to learn the brain saw which i've never used and i get to see actually the brain removal a lot of other things like that when i used to get cases and i would have to just clamp the internal carotids
Speaker: I never actually saw it done or I've never worked from the hospital.
Speaker: There's other things you could do after putting in a certain amount of time in a hospital.
Speaker: They're like, oh, well, you know, you can have this accreditation and things like that.
Speaker: And it's like, OK, well, I need that to you.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But that's what I I feel like that's what that's what you need in general.
Speaker: But I do think the funeral space or death space needs that needs more people who are eager to learn different things and share that knowledge that across the board.
Speaker: I have somebody who only reached age to me very recently who was looking for somebody who was in the autopsy world.
Speaker: So I'm going to connect you with him straight away after this because I was like, oh, God, it was the first time I kind of was like, wait, do I?
Speaker: Who do I know?
Speaker: What's the, you know?
Speaker: And you're thinking through your little black buckles of people in the death space.
Speaker: That's super interesting.
Speaker: Now, do you think, Heather, you're going to stay in Michigan?
Speaker: Do you think this was in some way the universe working in mysterious ways?
Speaker: So I did meet someone else here.
Speaker: It is happy.
Speaker: I'm so lucky.
Speaker: He kind of said, you know, it's like you picked me up along your way to your next adventure.
Speaker: We plan to leave here together.
Speaker: He spent his entire life here and it's kind of like I like stopped here in an accident, found him.
Speaker: I'm taking him with me.
Speaker: So we definitely want to go somewhere else.
Speaker: And I definitely...
Speaker: Love the mortuary community.
Speaker: I love being a part of it.
Speaker: And I would like to return.
Speaker: So I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe I will go back to being a mortician.
Speaker: Maybe I'll be a coroner in another state.
Speaker: But I love just learning.
Speaker: Like, I want to know everything.
Speaker: I don't want to just get the body and be like, hey, well, why did they do this?
Speaker: I want to be like, oh, I know because I did that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I could.
Speaker: Yeah, just it's really it's nice to have a total understanding of everything.
Speaker: And there's there is there's so many different facets to it.
Speaker: You know, like even when I was at home in Ireland there, I got chatting to a girl who they do the post cleanup when somebody dies in a hole.
Speaker: They're called in to sort of clean up the home and whether it's of natural causes or self-inflicted cause or whatever it might be.
Speaker: But.
Speaker: you know so many people don't even think of that that that exists and that that's a job there are just so many facets to this space I think because because it's it's usually about loss it's about you know we're sad because our loved ones are it's
Speaker: gone it but there's so much to it and that's one of the things I really wanted to do with this podcast because even for me when I entered the space like 15 years ago I'm still learning to this day like just chatting with you there's just so many things to learn it's just amazing it really really is well hopefully you come to New York at some point and we can meet in person
Speaker: Do you do you go to I know I've never met you in person, but do you go to like the annual conventions or are you not into sort of like the NFA's and the ICCFA's that are, you know, happening or how do you feel about all those sort of, you know.
Speaker: I was just I actually heard that one of the restorative art heads from pens and that's another tea was stolen.
Speaker: They were putting out a bounty for one of these heads.
Speaker: The heads cost a lot of money.
Speaker: They were made by a special effects artist Will Ritter.
Speaker: Will Ritter is awesome.
Speaker: He was actually my teacher at
Speaker: special effects school where i went for prosthetic appliance for film when i turned 18 so i was creating kind of special effects on the living and stuff and that's where i met him um when they commissioned him to make the busts and the heads for the kids to practice on i was like oh my gosh i love will he's awesome he's a great teacher he's a spectacular sculpture artist and um
Speaker: Yeah, someone stole one of the heads at one of the NFDA meetings.
Speaker: I do not know if they had recovered it or like who it was or how badly somebody wanted it after making me making all those viral videos of them.
Speaker: And it's kind of crazy because it's like, well, what are you going to do with it?
Speaker: You can't make a video of it to go viral because you stole it.
Speaker: And it's a one of the kind, like, copyrighted thing that they made the headsos for their students.
Speaker: So that's crazy for me.
Speaker: I couldn't believe hearing that.
Speaker: What's with a big handbag do you have to have to, like, sneak that in?
Speaker: God's also it's a big yeah these aren't just regular yeah so that it's just so crazy to me um my best friend funeral law lady oh yeah she always wants me to come out to a convention and I would love to go to one with her I just think it would be a lot of fun
Speaker: And yeah, I should go to conventions.
Speaker: I love funeral, funeral, like sweat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, there's a lot of your hearse.
Speaker: My favorite are always the hearse squishies.
Speaker: The like stress.
Speaker: They're like a stress ball, but they're in the shape of a hearse.
Speaker: They're always great.
Speaker: Now tell us about your online presence.
Speaker: So I follow you on Instagram.
Speaker: I'm not sure about TikTok, honestly, because I'm never really on TikTok.
Speaker: And I've had the youth of today tell me I need to make it a maybe 2024 will be the year I finally do TikTok a little bit more.
Speaker: But so how, what's that like for you?
Speaker: Do you feel pressure to have to content out?
Speaker: Does it feel like a job to you?
Speaker: Did it kind of happen organically?
Speaker: Give us a bit of the tea on that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So at first, I mean, it was fun.
Speaker: I was just, I was my personal page.
Speaker: I kind of used like as a joke and I was just posting silly things.
Speaker: My, the people that I filmed with at the time, like love making videos and we just filmed things together and they were silly.
Speaker: I started to make some serious videos just to talk about myself and yeah.
Speaker: that it like broke the mortuary internet.
Speaker: A lot of the really young kids out there didn't know that being a mortician part of mortuary school or mortuary school even existed.
Speaker: And then I became a more professional page.
Speaker: And, you know, when I was working with the school, they're like, oh, like you can make videos with us and it'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker: And I was like, of course, I would love that.
Speaker: So I had sides.
Speaker: I had so much fun going to that school.
Speaker: So, yeah, I was...
Speaker: First, it was for fun.
Speaker: And then it was turning into a bit of a job.
Speaker: And then I made other things.
Speaker: that turned into a joke.
Speaker: I was sent some clothes by a clothing company that wanted me to make a video on them.
Speaker: And I did, I did that one.
Speaker: And then a trend comes along and I did the like the hip swing trend in the outfit.
Speaker: Well, that totally blew up and I didn't mean it for it to.
Speaker: So be careful when you put on the internet because you never know what's going to go viral.
Speaker: And at some point I just became the internet's monkey for a little bit.
Speaker: They were like, do the hip swing here, do it here, do it here.
Speaker: And I was like, okay.
Speaker: So I just kind of rode the wave.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: I just had so much fun doing it that it didn't feel like work.
Speaker: And I could post like the internet was interested in all the things I did.
Speaker: I went to Salem.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I posted walk through the town, fire off video.
Speaker: People wanted to see the spooky places I was going to.
Speaker: And I was no longer categorized just some mortuary, which I never totally wanted to be.
Speaker: a mortuary count.
Speaker: I just graduated at the time when I started making videos and I didn't want people to think I knew it all.
Speaker: Especially the way the embalming Facebook pages go.
Speaker: I did not want to seem like I knew everything about the mortuary field.
Speaker: So
Speaker: I tried to pull back on that and just kind of like sprinkle it into my videos and be like, you know, I'm proud of it.
Speaker: This is what I do.
Speaker: Helped grow a mortuary class, let alone college, and became really viral on the internet for some of that.
Speaker: But it wasn't a part.
Speaker: It was just a small part of, you know, the process.
Speaker: Well, I mean, I do feel like it's interesting because most and I would I would absolutely say you're an influencer.
Speaker: Like most people who become influencers start in this really natural way.
Speaker: And it's just happens that, you know, a video or several go viral.
Speaker: And it's, you know, it's to no necessary like objective or goal that that was the case for you.
Speaker: And so it always frustrates me when I see people attack.
Speaker: Well, I can't stand people who are just keyboard warriors and attack people negatively anyway.
Speaker: And if you've got bad opinions, keep them to yourself.
Speaker: If you've got happy, grand, share and share like.
Speaker: I mean, there's enough badness in the world.
Speaker: Or just like write it all down in a pen and paper and keep it to yourself.
Speaker: Like if you want to just like Heather is whatever, just keep it to yourself.
Speaker: Heather doesn't need to know about it.
Speaker: But it's so important.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And it's just the way people tear down.
Speaker: And equally, while I absolutely understand people from the funeral profession being like, oh, but there's these death influencers or funeral influencers and they're spreading fake news or they're saying this or they're saying that.
Speaker: I'm like, you know, as you said, like, and it's one of the things I say as well.
Speaker: It's, you know, none of us know everything.
Speaker: Not one of us in this entire universe know every single thing.
Speaker: We're all learning.
Speaker: We're all humans.
Speaker: We're all subject to imperfections.
Speaker: And there's nothing wrong with passing information on.
Speaker: Now, if you pass fake information on, you know, either retract it, take it down, whatever, that's fine.
Speaker: But I just feel like, you know, attacking people for sharing their views, sharing their ideas and stuff.
Speaker: I just think it's like, I get it.
Speaker: You think you're better than her or you don't think you're better than her.
Speaker: Or, you know, but you never had the balls or whatever it is to to put something out there.
Speaker: And like so many people follow you that I guarantee you are going to mortician school because of you and because of you putting it out there that they feel comfortable with doing it and that they can ask you questions.
Speaker: I just feel like there's just so much judgment in the world and not enough encouragement to just rest me nothing.
Speaker: And as you said, like you're human and you want to share those other human aspects.
Speaker: Like I love personally love like the Salem and the like, I think I've kept or I've saved several of your posts as like Jen's to do list, like must do when when when a day off happens, would love to go to Salem or, you know, would love to go to like there's a house.
Speaker: There's a famous house.
Speaker: It's not far from New York here.
Speaker: And it's a beautiful, pretty house.
Speaker: And they have a Christmas and a Halloween, you know, and I can't remember the name of the house.
Speaker: Hence why I saved it because I'm a useless memory.
Speaker: But like I got them from you, you know, and I wouldn't have otherwise.
Speaker: So it's great to see all that.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Have you ever, did you ever get to go?
Speaker: So I haven't, I actually haven't and I really wanted to.
Speaker: You're so close.
Speaker: So stupid.
Speaker: No, I really wanted to.
Speaker: This Halloween was the one time, the time I was going to do it and I just never did.
Speaker: And so I've, I'm in New York and I've said to everybody, so even though this won't be released for a while, this is, it's November that we're doing this, but
Speaker: I'm in New York now until the new year.
Speaker: So maybe I might do a little grab a car and do a few road trips.
Speaker: But I know it's so close.
Speaker: I'm visiting some friends in Connecticut for New Year's and we are going to, I've never been, I think I'm saying it correctly.
Speaker: Poughkeepsie?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Poughkeepsie, yes.
Speaker: I love that you're asking me, an Irish person and a celebrant, the amount of times I have to grab a family and be like, sorry, how do we pronounce this again?
Speaker: Gatham-na-sush-what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you're asking probably the wrong person, but I'm pretty sure, 99% sure it's Poughkeepsie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I've never been to Poughkeepsie, New York.
Speaker: I heard of the famous Poughkeepsie tapes.
Speaker: Wait, what are they?
Speaker: Oh, you're going to have to go for that.
Speaker: They're horrifying.
Speaker: You know.
Speaker: It's not a true story.
Speaker: Oh, is it like movies and ghosts and stuff?
Speaker: No, it's just you'll see.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: No, but I don't want to go to bed now and have nightmares.
Speaker: I have wild dreams.
Speaker: Like last week, I...
Speaker: I was staying at my friend's house and I woke up and I said, oh my God, you will not believe the weirdest dream I had.
Speaker: I said, you know, those movies like those movies with I think it's Jared Butler, where he's like saving the president.
Speaker: They're like White House Down or something.
Speaker: I was like, I was Jared Butler.
Speaker: I was saving president of the United States.
Speaker: But it was Barack Obama.
Speaker: I don't know why.
Speaker: I'm really proud of you.
Speaker: You did the right thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I saved Barack Obama.
Speaker: but like and did it well apparently my friend was there too i don't know what she was doing but so if this is a crazy maybe i'll watch it in the morning i don't know if i should watch it tonight before i go to bed because if i have yeah if it's some exorcist stuff i don't know but there is um i do know poughkeepsie is is famous for something spooky um so maybe i do know what it is i just don't know it is poughkeepsie tape oh god no
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm scared just thinking about it because I did go see the exorcist steps.
Speaker: Wait, where are they?
Speaker: They're in Philadelphia, is it?
Speaker: No, D.C.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We see.
Speaker: I believe so.
Speaker: I haven't seen those myself.
Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker: I went to see those.
Speaker: I did go see those.
Speaker: That was many years ago, though.
Speaker: But I would love to, like, who was I talking to?
Speaker: Oh, God, it's terrible to find you.
Speaker: And I know people have introduced me where they forget my name and they just introduced me as the Glam Reaper.
Speaker: So, like, you get known as your handle.
Speaker: But the gorgeous girl, oh, my God, what is her name?
Speaker: Oh, totally brain farting on her name.
Speaker: Anyway, she was doing recipes off people's grave and
Speaker: Oh, I like her.
Speaker: She's lovely and she's the sweetest girl.
Speaker: Atlas Obscura ripped her off and I was going to say, you know, I usually like to use Atlas Obscura to find things that I didn't know existed myself.
Speaker: Or, you know, just to share with other people.
Speaker: They say, how do you find it?
Speaker: It's like, oh, it's super easy to find weird places.
Speaker: Go on Atlas Obscura and just look them up in your ear.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But they did like a thing like this article about them.
Speaker: And I was like, hey, yeah, my friend films the videos.
Speaker: So you didn't mention her and you made it all about yourselves.
Speaker: But yeah, I was bummed to see Atlas do that.
Speaker: Not cool.
Speaker: Yeah, because she is super, super lovely.
Speaker: And I said to her, I was like, oh, my God, I think you should go back to each of the great meet the fact like bring the families.
Speaker: you know tell them about like what you did and try and connect because I mean there's so many of those TV type shows where you know it's just reconnecting with with your ancestors and stuff like that and then but like I would love to just take a year off to like visit all the spooky places in the US it'd be fascinating and like bring a TV crew because I just think it'd be just so fascinating and I also think I'd be hilarious like
Speaker: going to these places I have the heebie jeebies about anything but yes I love to be like I love I love that history so it's like I'm terrified but you know I'm like that idiot that's like terrified of heights but will still jump out of a plane you know it's fun when you're scared easily for things like that so yeah
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: I actually had this great idea for a TV show that I think because I think the cemeteries, cemeteries in Ireland are amazing because they're so much older.
Speaker: But I do think cemeteries over here have such history as well.
Speaker: And it's such a huge country.
Speaker: So like I love that she was doing all the cookies.
Speaker: But I would love to explore like the history of some of the people in the graveyards because there's so many interesting people buried and we have no clue about them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How's that?
Speaker: But anyway, we digress.
Speaker: And listen, I could probably chat to you all night, but I've clearly got to go and Google Pukipsy Tapes, as does everybody.
Speaker: Heather, it was an absolute pleasure to have you on.
Speaker: I'm sure we'll have you on again.
Speaker: I'd love to, like, we're going to have to get all the girls together because I've interviewed so many fabulous girls on this podcast that I feel like we need to get a gang together and just have maybe a general podcast or something.
Speaker: But good luck in Michigan.
Speaker: I hope to see you in New York soon.
Speaker: And wherever you go next, we'll be following.
Speaker: So you're at before the coffin.
Speaker: I also love that it's coffin.
Speaker: So in Ireland, even though even caskets, we would refer them to them as coffins.
Speaker: And it's just because even though I know the different shapes, it's just what we call it.
Speaker: My followers told me that.
Speaker: And I thought the coolest fact of all time, if it's all coffins, I'm
Speaker: Like, yep, there we go.
Speaker: And we even have a pub right beside a cemetery.
Speaker: It's called the Brave Diggers pub.
Speaker: You'll have to come to Ireland.
Speaker: Maybe that's what we need to do.
Speaker: I need to organize a tour for all the girls, mortician girls to come to Ireland.
Speaker: Well, listen, good luck in if you move again.
Speaker: And we're very happy that it's a happy ending.
Speaker: Fec John Doe.
Speaker: We don't care about him anymore.
Speaker: Case, we don't like him.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Fec off.
Speaker: Move along next.
Speaker: And thank you so much for being on the Glam Reaper podcast.
Speaker: And we'll have everybody reach out.
Speaker: We'll put all your links in, whether you're listening on podcast or on YouTube.
Speaker: We'll have all the links and you can connect with Heather directly.
Speaker: Have a glamorous Thanksgiving.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And you too.
Speaker: Cheers.
