“When I was in high school, I decided that I just felt led, like this is what I was supposed to do. I found the mortuary program at U of A here in Hope and went and did it. I just felt like it was my calling,” she said. She graduated from Spring Hill High in 2014 and attained her UAHT degree in Funeral Sciences in 2020.
“We had had several loved ones passed away when I was a child, and it guided me towards wanting to take care of people in their worst time.”
Though her early choice of a profession in the funeral industry surprised her mother, Reed’s efforts to pursue it must have also been impressive: “One of our counselors at the school, they did a career fair, and actually presented the funeral service program … I immediately went down there [to see her mother who works at Spring Hill High] and told her that's what I was going to do. Of course, she thought I was crazy, but I immediately went in there and told her I was going to do the funeral service program. And they got me in. I came down here and I watched, when I was still in high school, how they did services,” Reed explained.
Reed’s official title now is Funeral Director/Embalmer since she is licensed in both fields in Arkansas and in Texas. Before coming to Brazzel Oakcrest, she gained years of experience at Herndon Fuqua Funeral Home.
She said she considered going into nursing at first, but in the end opted for her present vocation. “I've just always had a caring heart, but I couldn't do nursing. I couldn't do that part of it, and I've always been interested in more of the deceased side of it. It takes an art to do the embalming, and I just enjoy taking care of people.”
Presiding over the funeral is a duty she is suited to but she also assists as survivors are making choices about how things should proceed. “I lead the services, take care of the families. I make the arrangements with them, guide them through the service, reviewing everything. I kind of take the lead on all of that, too.”
She also counts herself lucky to do her work in her hometown. “I've always been here. I graduated from Spring Hill. Never left. This is home. That's the main thing. I get to serve the community that I grew up in.”
But she is also proud to be working for Brazzel Oakcrest now as well, saying what drew her there was “just how they take care of their people.” She said, “They really go above and beyond, and I wanted to come down here and learn.”
At home, Reed has two daughters, one of which is quite busy in these days of county and soon district fairs and livestock shows. “My oldest shows cattle,” she said. The family also gets out to Spring Hill sporting events, most recently taking in a volleyball game.
She and her girls are also a frequent presence at the Hempstead Hall shows. Reed said they were knocked over by a recent performance by East Nash Grass and were also put in stitches by the venue’s recent Comedy Night. Marty Stewart and His Fabulous Superlatives was also a favorite.
Asked what keeps Reed here in a time when so many young adults would rather leave their hometowns for the urban experience, she said, “It’s family-oriented. Everybody's like family. In Spring Hill I know everybody, and it's all family, and you don't really meet a stranger, and it's just comfortable, and I wanted to raise my kids in a community that took care of each other.”
That Reed has chosen a profession of taking care definitely makes sense.
