26: Mike Kuhn

Funeral Director, Kuhn

Michael is the 3rd generation Funeral Director at Kuhn’s Funeral Home. He is married with three children. He and his wife, who also works at the funeral home, worked through the shutdown and though the entire pandemic.

Michael’s mother and father both contracted COVID. His dad was hospitalized and five months later was still suffering a long recovery. Fortunately, none of their staff members contracted the virus.

Michael says this was the busiest time ever in the life of the nearly 100-year-old business. After the initial fear and anxiety was worked through, the staff worked tirelessly, sometimes putting in a 70 hour week. On the land adjacent to the funeral home, a refrigerated building unit had to be constructed. But even that wasn’t enough. An additional portable, trailer-like unit was purchased as well, all to house the overflow of bodies until they could be dealt with. It was mainly during the second wave of the virus that was their busiest time (Dec. 2020, through Feb. 2021.)

Keeping up morale to help the staff get over the initial panic and varying degrees of anxiety was one of the many hurdles to overcome. Along with managing, scheduling and actually handling a greater work load than ever. He said, “our crew was great at getting things done.”

Some clients were quite upset that they could not have the funeral services they hoped for (due to the CDC suggested restrictions). Keeping these types of clients happy was a new challenge. As clients normally are very appreciative of their service and now some were actually angry. 

Fortunately, most families were tremendously grateful and realized that the staff was actually endangering their own lives and those of their families by continuing to work under these conditions. 

Michael hopes this time has caused us all to pause, reflect and perhaps realize that perhaps all the hustle and bustle of previous days may not be quite worth it.