Meet Hollie James who is Britain’s most glamorous funeral director aged just 24.
She got into the unlikely career after flopping at school.
Hollie says people are often surprised that she is working in the industry.
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But she has recently set up her own company and is thought to be the youngest independent funeral director in the country.
She started her career as an apprentice at her local crematorium in Bath, Somerset when she was 18.
But Hollie, of Radstock, near Bath, Somerset has got used to people saying she doesn’t look like a funeral director.
She said: “I didn’t get the grades that I wanted when I did my GCSEs so I was looking for an apprenticeship when I left school.
“I was offered one by the council and it all went from there.
“I was at Bath Crematorium for a couple of years and was then approached by a funeral directing company which I went to when I was 18.
“I remember taking my first funeral and I was so nervous I was having heart palpitations.
“You don’t get a second go at funerals – it has to be perfect the first time.
“I would be pacing up and down in the office – it’s because I care.
“It’s become second nature now to me and I can deal with the nerves and responsibility.”
But she said that some people are surprised when they see her as reported by What’s The Jam.
“A lot of people have said to me, ‘You don’t look like a funeral director’ or, ‘You’re not what I was expecting’.
“It is quite tricky sometimes,” she said.
“Clients have the strangest and loveliest reactions.
“They’re usually slightly taken back to begin with because I am a young woman and I am not usually what people expect.
“I then always get asked why I wanted to get into this.
“And the truthful answer is I did fall into this job.
“I lost my mum to suicide when I was 15.
“My GCSE results weren’t what I had hoped for due to this and I looked for an apprenticeship in lieu of my A Levels and ended up at Haycombe Crematorium.
“Working there a year after my mum’s funeral was strange.
“The company I went on to work for actually had arranged and managed her funeral on behalf of my grandparents.
“But going into this industry having been through so much bereavement myself at such a young age has given me the experience and empathy to really want to do the same for others.
“I am really passionate about my job and want to break stigmas for women in the industry and break taboos around death in general.”
She said the industry was changing now.
“Colleagues say it is refreshing to see someone like me involved,” she said.
“It’s a privilege to support people at their time of need and we get to meet so many different people.
“No day is the same.
“We always say, metaphorically we hold people’s hands through the journey.
“There’s so much taboo around death and people need to have conversations about death and I hope to help change that.”
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